"The South African Advertising Industry is an oligopoly. We have four major European media corporations controlling most agencies represented on our shores: Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic Group and Publicis. Most of the multi-million rand accounts in our industry such as MTN, Vodacom, Cell C, Standard Bank, FNB, ABSA, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes Benz, VW, Unilever, Tiger Brands, Steers, Wimpy, KFC, McDonalds, Nestle, Liberty Life, Momentum, Pick ‘n Pay, Spar, Checkers, Clicks, etc, are all held by agencies owned by these four media groups. Omnicom owns TBWA, Network BBDO, Tequila and Interbrand. WPP owns Grey, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, JWT and Metropolitan Republic. Interpublic Group owns Draft FCB, McCann and Lowe Bull. Publicis owns Publicis Worldwide, Leo Burnett, Saatchi and Saatchi, and Starcom. Imagine being a local client and having Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam, JWT and Metropolitan Republic on your pitch list thinking you have different agencies represented only to discover it’s only just one big media giant.
If we had to use the TBWA model as a benchmark, we’d see a picture of exploitation begin to develop. Of the local TBWA business only 5% sits in an employee trust, 25% is owned by Shanduka Trust (Cyril Ramaphosa) and the rest of the 70% is owned by Omnicom. Most of the abovementioned agencies have the exact same structure and they keep winning pitch after pitch because according to the BBBEE Act, they are ‘empowered’. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that about 70% of these agencies’ profits leave our shores, furthering our status as an extractive economy. These European oligarchs are modern-day colonial masters and local agency heads are nothing but contemporary colonial administrators and Randlords.
this is an extract from The South African Advertising Industry - The Last Colonial Post
If we had to use the TBWA model as a benchmark, we’d see a picture of exploitation begin to develop. Of the local TBWA business only 5% sits in an employee trust, 25% is owned by Shanduka Trust (Cyril Ramaphosa) and the rest of the 70% is owned by Omnicom. Most of the abovementioned agencies have the exact same structure and they keep winning pitch after pitch because according to the BBBEE Act, they are ‘empowered’. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that about 70% of these agencies’ profits leave our shores, furthering our status as an extractive economy. These European oligarchs are modern-day colonial masters and local agency heads are nothing but contemporary colonial administrators and Randlords.
this is an extract from The South African Advertising Industry - The Last Colonial Post
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