Watch: Nando’s hits back at ABSA with cheeky African-Nasti advert [video]

Nando’s is well known for its tongue-in-cheek advertising campaigns which usually poke fun at politicians and current social affairs.

This time the grilled-chicken franchise has decided to call out ABSA on the bank’s overboard Africanicity marketing campaign.

Nando’s versus ABSA, Africa-Nasti

Consumers love a good public brand battle, especially when it plays out on social media. Count on Nando’s to pull no punches when questioning ABSA’s selling technique – the peri-peri chicken masters are marketing geniuses.

Nando’s knows very well that quirky controversy sells.

Watch: Nando’s hits back at ABSA with cheeky African-Nasti advert

ABSA recently redesigned its entire brand, complete with questionable new logo and slogan. Africanacity is the jingle attached to ABSA’s new image; it’s meant to be a celebration of African tenacity and ingenuity.

Ironically, the entire campaign is rumoured to have been outsourced to an American agency, and the wholesale rebrand has not been well received by the public.

With this in mind, Nando’s timed their punch line perfectly – questioning ABSA’s sincerity by poking fun at its over-the-top adverts, hinting at it being more African-Nasti than a genuine representation of the continent.

As reported by goodthingsguy, Doug Place, Chief Marketing Officer for Nando’s South Africa, commented on the most recent ad promoting their Half Chicken with any single side, which was released on Monday, 3 September 2018:

“Nando’s has always celebrated everything uniquely South African, both loveable and challenging! We love to fire-up conversations and believe that talking about the current hyperbolic portrayal of African-ness is one such growing conversation.

The diversity and beauty of Africa should be rightly celebrated however the portrayals in recent advertising are often bizarrely over the top and seemingly the same between brands and categories.”

In the advert, Nando’s points to the overuse of neon lights, hashtags, face-paint, smoke bombs and excessively dramatic themes as a false representation of Africa.

In the end, Place admits that brands sometimes take themselves too seriously, and that light-heartedness has always been a part of the Nando’s brand, saying:

“We love the aesthetic of African creativity, just take a look at any of our restaurants around the world to see how proud we are to showcase Southern African creative work. African-ness is layered, it doesn’t always have to look so derelict, so serious, so over the top, and all the same.”