Johannesburg - The Advertising Regulatory Body on Tuesday ordered popular fast food outlet Chicken Licken to pull its 'Big John' advert after a complaint against it was upheld.
The commercial shows a young man,called John Mjohnana, leaving his village in a boat in 1650 aiming to satisfy his hunger for adventure.
He then encounters numerous obstacles before arriving in Holland in 1651 where finds two white gentlemen looking at a map, seemingly in preparation for an upcoming voyage.
He greets them in what is well known asˑTsotsi taal and tells them that he likes the place before suggesting that it should be called Europe.
Sandile Cele laid a complaint with the body, saying the advert made "a mockery of the struggles of the African people against the colonisation by Europeans in general and
the persecutions
suffered at the hands of the Dutch in particular".
The fast food outlet denied that this was the case, saying that the commercial was premised on the need to uplift the South African spirit.
"Its
tongue-in-cheek
sense
of
humour
is
a
tone
that
consumers have come to expect,
but its communication, underlying purpose is to create a
sense of pride and patriotism amongst South Africans," the company said.
The regulatory body in a statement confirmed that, after considering the facts before it, decided to ban the advert for contravening the provisions of Section 1 of Section II of the Code.
"The directorate acknowledges that [while] there are scenes that are not real... it also recognises that turning the usual colonisation story
around might be perceived as having a certain element of humour, and that the commercial
has certainly been crafted with the intention
of being humorous.
"The
reality
though
is
that
colonisation of
Africa
and
her
people
was
traumatic.
While
the
commercial
seeks
to
turn
the
colonisation
story
on
its
head
with Big
John travelling
to
Europe,it
is
well-known
that many Africans
were in
fact
forced
to
travel
to
Europe in
the
course of the
colonisation of Africa. They
did not leave their countries and village wilfully;
they
starved
to
death
during
those
trips to
Europe;
and
arrived
there
under
harsh
and
inhumane conditions.
The body added that: "Atrocities suffered by Africans under colonisation
are well documented
and
the
legacy
thereof
continues
to
exist
to
date.
This
experience
can
never
be
rewritten
differently and cannot
be trivialised in any manner."
Chicken Licken has since been ordered to remove the ad and not use it again in future.