Its All Done with Mirrors – Some reflections on the evolution of the Media Industry in Mzansi
I have recently had a number of requests to make available my book of collected writings on the evolution of the media industry in Mzansi. So here it is.
My appointment as a trainee media planner almost 50 years ago was founded on the basis of a speech I gave, which had been attended by the legendary media man Frank “FK” Muller. “If you can speak that much crap in public and get away with it” he commented, “then you’ll probably do quite well in media”.
Enthused as I was by the advertising industry’s remarkable ability to discern such talent, recognition of which was lacking during my prior years as a schoolteacher, I duly arrived in Johannesburg. On my very first day, I asked what seemed the most sensible question for someone without any obvious qualification in advertising and media: other than the aforementioned ability to get away with talking crap of course.
“So what’s media planning all about? What’s the secret to creating great advertising campaigns?” I asked.
“It’s All Done with Mirrors” came the singular reply.
On the day I was more than a little disappointed by the brevity of this insight. As a schoolteacher I had been hoping for something a little more comprehensive, like a manual, but the wisdom of that observation began to dawn on me over the ensuing years. It’s not about being right or wrong. There is rarely, if ever, a “correct” answer in media. “It’s All Done with Mirrors”.
Change the angle of the mirror and you will get a different perspective. Hopefully a better perspective! Even if it means having to change your own perspective in order to get a better outcome for everyone: consumer, client and colleague alike.
With apologies to Charles Dickens, when I reflect on the media industry in the years since the 1992 referendum, I am not sure if it’s been “the best of times or the worst of times: the age of wisdom or the age of foolishness”. What I do know is that right now the media industry in South Africa seems to have lost perspective, or at least the desire to try and see things from somebody else’s perspective.
Watching the various industry bodies each trying to carve out their piece of flesh from an industry which is rapidly devolving from its once privileged position as the ultimate instrument of social and commercial change into a deep discounted procurement pacifier is lamentable. I’m reminded of The Economist reporting on the 2013 US Debt Crisis and noting that
“When you are brawling on the edge of a cliff, the big question is not, “Who is right?” It is, “What the hell are you doing on the edge of a cliff?”
This book aims to offer some insight into how we’ve got to the edge of a cliff.
With the wisdom of hindsight, some of words and phrases used in this selection of articles might be considered obsolete or even inappropriate in the context of a new South Africa, but I’ve left the writing largely untouched so that the reader can get a flavour of the language and terminology of the times as they were unfolding.
One thing I am sure of though, when I reflect on the media industry today, nobody will be writing a TV series about this generation and calling it “Mad Men”. No doubt many new episodes are being written, but I suspect that they are more likely to be featured in a new series of Silicon Valley where, as the HBO blurb puts it, “the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success.”
Unlike the world of “Mad Men” where the people least qualified to succeed are the most capable of, if not handling success, then at least promising it to others.
But perhaps, as FK Muller said all those years ago, that really is just a question of perspective.
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