It doesn't pay to cut corners...

Allow me to preface if I may the following comments with the statement that I am, in principle, a fan of Keroche Industries and it’s brands, in so far as I am a fan of any Kenyan business and/or brand that is taking on the ‘big boys’ with a certain measure of panache and success.

Allow me to further state that I have no idea what Keroche are thanking Kenyans for in this ad, it would appear to have passed me by… something which is not all that unusual (i am more than willing to be enlightened).

My issue with this advert relates to one of the key objective judgment criteria that apply to all adverts, namely ‘Believability’.

For the record, and with acknowledgement to McCann, the other key criteria are ‘Consistency’ (to the brand’s underlying position), ‘Relevance’ (to the audience), ‘Understandability’ (by the audience), ‘Memorability’ (by humanity) and ‘Sustainability’ (as an idea across media and over time).

Back to ‘Believability’. The key issue with this advert is that the lead visual, which dominates thoroughly, is completely unbelievable. This is a brand that claims to be ‘Truly Kenyan’ and yet it leads with a visual that could not be more ‘Untruly Kenyan’ if it starred a Korean. The problem with this is that it creates a dissonance within the minds of the audience: people are reading one thing but interpreting something else. This leads to cognitive confusion, which leads to turn-off, which leads to mission not accomplished.

The key culprit here would appear to be the ad agency. It is all well and good to present a concept to a client that you would love to be able to execute, but if you know for a fact that the budget does not exist to execute said concept, you should not be presenting it in the first place – to do so is professionally irresponsible (a somewhat novel concept in the world of advertising).

We are a bit guilty in this town of ignoring the reality of our situation – we want to build rocket ships very badly instead of trying to build bicycles very well…

There is also an element of guilt here on the client side. The cost of a full page ad indicates a willingness to spend, but why spend almost 600,000 shillings to fill a space with a piece of communication that is not going to earn you 600,000 shillings worth (or more) of ‘brownie points’.

A call therefore to arms to all Kenyan creatives. Let’s have fewer unrealistic master-plans and more realistic master-pieces…