Durban - A Durban-based spillage cleaning company came under fire for a “poorly executed” advert “in bad taste” taking aim at King Goodwill Zwelithini and the recent xenophobic attacks.
Drizit Environmental was severely criticised on Wednesday on social media after its advert appeared in The Times newspaper.
But the company is unperturbed, insisting that “no harm was intended or meant”.
The advert depicts the monarch beaming, with words “If only he’d called Drizit to clean up this mess!” above his head.
Drizit has been involved in major cleaning-up operations, including a massive drug bust in Kloof last year and chemical factory fire scenes.
The king took a lot of flack for his speech in Pongola last month when he called for the deportation of foreigners. He has denied that he made the call.
On Twitter, some labelled the advert “an insult... to Zulus”. Another pointed out that it was belittling to the victims of xenophobia.
(@SureKamhunga) said: “This advert from Drizit Environmental is so wrong given what happened. Creative licence must be sensitive.”
Drizit’s managing director, Greg Parton, defended the advert.
“It was not in a defamatory way. Clearly, it’s just about promoting my company’s ‘clean up the mess’, and it’s just a play on words really - the xenophobic attacks, the play on words around that. That’s what my company does - it cleans up spillage… Nothing more than that was meant.”
He said if the content on the advert translated as an attack on King Goodwill Zwelithini, “then it was clearly misinterpreted”.
“It’s just a tongue-in-cheek - a play on words, and nothing more than that,” he said.
The advert was produced by Durban-based Headline Advertising Solutions.
A royal family spokesman, Prince Thulani Zulu, said he had not seen the advertisement and would have to consult the royal house and the king to discuss it.
* Walter Pike, the advertising and social media strategist at PiKE, said as a strategy it was not a bad idea for companies to take advantage topical issues. But to take advantage of the callous attacks was “not at all clever”.
“In this specific case though, I don’t think it was wise given the circumstances that prevail in SA at the moment.
“The position or the situation with the king… I don’t think it will reflect well with the brand and I don’t think the response will be good.”
However, the company would get “considerable exposure”.
He said that companies such as Nandos took a similar approach, but they dealt with issues with wit and a lot of satire and irony.
“In this case, I don’t think that it has been handled in the same manner… I think the execution is a little in bad taste,” he said.
The Mercury