Woolies 0 – Frankie’s 1

Last Wednesday, Woolworths announced its intention to withdraw its complete range of "good old fashioned soft drinks" from its shelves countrywide, after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found against it in favour of Frankie's Real Olde Fashioned Softdrinks. It did so not because it had to, according to CEO Ian Moir, but because "customer sentiment is against us." Gee, I wonder why?

By Norman McFarlane Read Article

We’ll get the devil we know

There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics, somebody (I don’t recall who) once said. Chatting to a marketing consultant (who we shall refer to as Mr Marketing) the other night, who conducts survey work for the ANC government, a couple of surprising statistics emerged.

By Norman McFarlane Read Article

It’s not the porn, it’s the principle

Way back in the Dark Ages of apartheid, we had in this country a strange concoction of Calvinistic Mother Grundy’s called the Censor’s Board. Satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys lampooned them unmercifully in most of his outrageous stage shows, and for good reason. This murky band of self-righteous busybodies, so narrow-minded they could probably look through a keyhole with both eyes at the same time, were appointed by the government of the day, to be the moral guardians of the nation.

By Norman McFarlane Read Article

Tick tock … the Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock was advanced by one minute this month. The time now stands at five minutes to midnight. A year ago, it was put back one minute, to six minutes to midnight. Conceptualised in  1947 during the Cold War by the board of directors of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, the metaphorical clock depicts how close civilisation is to oblivion.

By Norman McFarlane Read Article