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Always 1 Idiot
Ever noticed how the one empty vessel shouting, ‘Racism!’ is usually one of the most racist people?
So naturally whilst writing my review on the NYE Miller Mansion Party, I was searching the web for a few graphics or pictures… To my complete disgust I came across this: http://whatkind.tv/rasicm/miller-is-the-new-awb/
I’m still trying to figure out why I’m so surprised when I’m faced with complete stupidity and ignorance like this! All this proves is that any moron can write a blog, posting unwarranted, unjustifiable and VERY uninformed crap.
Now if ANY of you have ever been in a marketing position, had to brainstorm a marketing session, promoted any type of product, or simply watched television ads, then you will know that there is something called ‘Target Marketing’ when reaching out to an audience.
Unfortunately, bad news ALWAYS travels quicker than good, so this mindset has started dribbling down onto the social networking sites.
If you don’t understand ‘Target Marketing’, let me try and explain it as simply as I can.
Let’s look at something as simple as shampoo… most of the time you will see a woman with long, flowing, and healthy, shiny hair in the ad. You usually don’t see a male? In fact I can only think of one where they used a guy with long hair, and that was a Herbal Essence where they took the piss out of bikers…
Let’s look at cleaning products… I don’t see any men cleaning the kitchen counters or floors in those ads? Dettol – a mother cleaning her child’s wounds. Sports related gaming is targeted at men in shopping malls, (might I add to this, whilst looking for images for people playing Fifa on Xbox, I found images of chicks that were promoting in small outfits – sex sells?) where as a beauty product stand would naturally try and draw woman in, etc… these are all targeted at a specific audience.
Think about when you’ve been at an event – be it musical, or a club, or a carnival, you might be asked to fill in a database form. This usually asks you your age, what music you listen to, what hobbies you have, what alcohol you drink, what is your taste in food, what movies you watch, and so on… This is all processed and entered into a database.
Unsurprisingly, if you ticked that you drink, let’s say, MILLERS and your music taste is, let’s say, R&B/Hip Hop, then you categorized into a genre – no matter what the colour of your skin is – so ten to one, you will be invited to a MILLERS party, where they would quite possibly have a R&B/Hip Hop DJ or group playing… it’s not rocket science!
So YES, the Miller Mansions had different themed evenings according to genre preferences, but there was at no stage people put into race categories!
In all honesty I could not see myself jamming to the likes of Soweto duo H2O, Spex, Lebo Mashile, Skwatta Kamp or any other type of SA music that resembles those tunes, because it’s not – WAIT FOR IT – my kind of music taste!
I asked and fished amongst some of the brand managers and marketing campaign leaders to see if there was at all truth to the accusations. I now have it on VERY GOOD authority that these claims are total RUBBISH!
And frankly I can safely say – seeing as I attended one of these so-called racist evenings – that there was a complete mix of races, genders, age and tastes at the occasion! From people dressed in cocktail dress, to people in shorts & flip-flops!
One thing was certain, we were all into the same kind of music and food choices… wow imagine that! That Millers could put a party together to satisfy 90% of the clientele… (SUPER sarcastic voice coming in here) HOWEVER DID THEY MANAGE THAT?
Guess my only question is: How did such a muppet even make the invite list to begin with? Maybe next time we should request an IQ test be attached to the survey forms?
37 Comments
Nicely said Raven!
Lol, awesome article Raven
And yes, there is always 1 (or a group of them) that have to call “racism!!!” yet they are the one’s making all the racist remarks… But this bill doesn’t stop at normal people level, look at some of our “politicians” 
This was my response to that article (not MyCityByNight’s, the other one), although I’m sure that they wont allow it to be posted up on the site:
I would love to know who wrote this. This is the most uninformed article I have ever read in my life. And based on “4 or 5 people” who provided the jist of you’re theory.
These parties, as with any party, are demographically orientated. The music lineups per day were in accordance with each group. Your days for each of the groups are totally wrong – and so again paying testimony to the fact that you are seriously misinformed.
I have no connection to Millers, or the events team, but I know the basics of marketing – enough to know that the fundamental rule of any marketing project is…. Demographics is key.
Clearly you have missed this boat. Pity.
If you knew enough about the other events or about each ‘race’ – you wouldn’t go name calling and involve Cape Flats as a point of reference. Any person knows that black, or ‘Main Market’ people appreciate music that most others dont understand. So put Liquid Deep on a line up for any other group and it wouldnt be nearly as appreciated. Likewise for Goldfish.
If you’re going to run a blog – at least provide clever content. There re two many bloggers in the world, keep ahead with something thought provoking, please.
@ Seriously? Well said. You right, will most likely not be approved on their site. If the response from on the review from whAtkiNd!? (them) is anything to go by, then most certainly not. http://www.mycitybynight.co.za/review-nye-miller-mansion-style/
Hahaha!
I doubt they will be posting that on their site…
But yes, I cannot stand when people just blurt out some ridiculous comments without taking into consideration the actual point…
Thanks for the comment @Seriously
I think they might
great article. Sorry but I am one person that loves taking the mickey out of a muppet. and this time I can clearly say that person who wrote the AWB article is a muppet!
Nice one @Liesldb
oh my word…
Seems like the battle is on
No battle Valdette. Not our style and we don’t go there. Just nice to clear the air about certain things.
I have one reply… BLAP!
The party was segregated by race and not musical taste.
No idea why you are trying to defend it.
Do you have proof of this? A internal memo from Millers perhaps? A WikiLeak article?
Can someone please get hold of SAB Miller and find out?? Too lazy to do it myself. I honestly doubt that the party invites were sent according to race!
@John Clarke- wikileak ftw
I was there. It was racially segregated.
Is it not racist to say only black people listen to kwaito and only white people listen to pop?
So I must throw away my Mosdef album and go buy Maroon 5 now?
Since you were there, as you say you were, do you have proof? Photos perhaps? So that we all, as a community, can see this segregation that you mention, and take it further from there
Strangely enough, it is only whatkind.tv that has blogged or mentioned anything about this segregation, as undoubtedly someone else would have come forth and complained about it as well…
Awaiting your response with great expectation
Hence the reason I can also defend this point, because I was also there.
And I never said that only black people listen to Kwaito… I said that I’m glad that I was not asked to attend an evening where I’d be forced to listen to that music taste since it’s not my type of music… if you’re going to attack, please make sure it’s on a validated point.
I did speak to two different people at SAB…
They said that the evenings were split into different venues that they might have recruited people at different events – which makes sense… if you ACTUALLY think about it…
And the reason that we are defending this point, to your question, is because it’s not fair to run around flinging the race card just because you don’t understand anything from a marketing point of view!
I recall spending most of my minutes at the Miller Mansion being hugged and being photographed with a very friendly – yes I’m going to say it BLACK guy – and his friends… in fact I’m in a LOT of there photo’s, and I have a great one of him and his gf posing for one of mine… I just didn’t post it, because, I do not have their permission to post it…
oops spelling mistake – I mean ‘their’
Hope you don’t plan on fixing all your spelling mistakes – there are a LOT of them.
But on the actual content here, I find it disturbing that you are comfortable reinforcing stereotypes as a result of your appreciation of marketing. These things are not innate – they come from learned behaviour. Whether gender or race related they are pretty much unacceptable. People now fight the racial stereotyping in commercials as we are this revolutionised nation – thus many brands now have a number of commercials, with different races portraying equal roles in each one. It is probably better for me to draw up an example for you…
You are comfortable with women being shown cleaning houses as, according to you (although I may be paraphrasing) cleaning products appeal to women. This is problematic in ways I will not bother to go into now, but perhaps give some thought to any feminist values you may hold. Now imagine that we allowed ourselves to only have black women shown cleaning in commercials – because, historically in this country, black women have been employed as domestic workers. This would be outrageous – because it is stereotyping black women and not allowing them to be anything other than what they have been due to the social disadvantages of previous social systems. Portraying women as cleaners (whether black or otherwise) reinforces a stereotype and thus condones the idea of women being forced into such a role. This type of marketing does noone any favours. And you should not defend it. Unless you want this country to remain backward, racist and patriarchal. But I guess that is your choice.
Thank you so much for your input Helen.
Please do note that seeing that I am writing on a blog page, not on a newspaper article or in a magazine, I do not intend on checking or changing the spelling within… that’s the joy of a blog article.
Please also note that I am in no way condoning racism at all. I think it is a phrase and concept that is used way too easily in this country, and also used as a defense for many issues.
I am however defending the way marketing is done – whether this company could’ve done it in a more subtle way, is another story.
Any PR plan or marketing strategy in the early stages, is put together around target market – whether this is age, gender, lifestyle or income, it’s the blatant truth.
There’s no point in throwing out an idea to the general population and praying that you hit one or two of the people that you actually intended on getting to.
It’s the same as attending a presentation, where in only 5min of an entire 3hr one, is meant just for you.
Once again, maybe it could’ve been done in a more constructive way, rather than in this manner that caused such outrage.
So you are basically saying that, because people want to make money, they can embrace an evil that is of benefit only to themselves and not to society, basically because “everybody else is doing it”. But then you seem to concur that the method was shitty – so basically, accusing Miller’s of using race to segregate people (or, in marketing code “markets”) is completely fair and warranted. If the latter is your opinion, you should delete the blog post with an apology – but I don’t think you convictions on this are that strong?!?
Also perhaps I am reading too deeply into the euphemism of “…maybe it could have been done in a more constructive way”.
I’m not about to fling myself full force into this argument about SAB Miller in particular – just marketing as a whole. Please, all of you with your marketing degrees (that includes me): there is no science to marketing. There is no BSC Marketing course available. Marketers cannot guarentee that what they are doing with their clients’ money is in fact working. Marketing is in fact a lot like religion. You put a lot of money into a theory that you hope works and when it does we say “thank God” and it’s used as a case study in some god-awful text book. Therefore, can we please stop defending this ‘holy grail’ of an industry that often, especially in South Africa, is very poorly researched and as a result massive assumptions are made based on large groups of people. Lots of money is being made, most of your jobs rely on it – so it’s only understandable that you will defend the right to label ‘demographics’ so freely (because Kotler and Keller said so) but please don’t think that it’s OK to do so.
AMEN! There is no science…
But let’s for instance say that you are paying to be at a venue to watch a certain artist – is it not because you like this artist and that type of vibe? Hence if you are ‘recruited’ at such a venue, then logical thing to do would to be invite you to similar events…
The reason I wrote this article, is because – as much as people want to protest the point – there will always someone who will shout that it’s all vindictive and racist…
If you look at most of the marketing campaigns etc, they are all focused around who they believe their users are!
Also please know, I’m in no way defending anything other than the right to not have stupidity plastered all over the web…
I was at an event myself that was FAR from racially focused…
I believe that maybe a little bit of thinking should’ve been put into an article that blatantly attacked that specific company…
I don’t see anyone shouting and screaming because Chicken Licken is directed at the black market? Or OMO?
People need to get over using APARTHEID or SEGREGATION as a platform – build a bridge… that’s all I’m saying…
Anyway, I’m getting very bored of arguing a moo point…
Apparently we are all slaves to marketing. Altria, who holds almost 30% of SABMiller’s shares, has a somewhat dubious past (marketing and other), having been responsible for phenomena such as “The Malboro Man”. If anyone really cares about making responsible choices then do some proper research and read the following articles:
http://www.answers.com/topic/altria-group-inc
http://hir.harvard.edu/blog/khadija-sharife/sabmiller-flying-dutchman
http://www.politicalaccountability.net/index.php?ht=a/GetDocumentAction/i/1902
The fact that the majority of you are highly unlikely to even read one of these in full saddens me but does not surprise me, marketing sluts that you all are. There is a lot more out there if anyone cares to stop telling tongue in cheek bloggers (such as NiceOne) to “do proper research” and actually bother to go and do it yourselves.
NIce one Patti, that really should end the banter, but I’m having soooo much fun…
Nice reverse psychology there Patti…
I will definitely look into those links, and genuinely investigate this, although I’m totally baffled.
Is it because he got invited to this one event that he has this outcry?
Because I’ve worked for other liquor companies, and I hate to have this glass shattering moment revealed, but majority of companies have the same tactic! In fact not just liquor… Why would you invite a calibre of people to an event that do not meet your criteria?
Sad that this particular one was so violently attacked!
I think it’s small minded and very tasteless to write a ‘bad review’ based on experience if you cannot do it with a little bit of tact?
I truly hope that your seemingly wise words have fallen upon the very same page that brought on this debate? – if you even bothered reading this ‘tongue in cheek’ (which I rather like to call full on BS – but this is MY opinion) article…
I am ashamed to admit that I did indeed attend one of the Miller events. You will find that the articles referred to in my comment are more about corporate responsibility, transparency and false/irresponsible marketing and the evils thereof particular to brands held by Phillip Morris/Altria (i.e. SABMiller). Corporations who do not take responsibility for their shoddy ethics effectively invite humourous attacks like that by Niceone and serious attacks like those by ActionAid. I would recommend not just blindly swallowing the marketing bullshit that Miller puts out, but rather investigating a brand before deciding it is “cool” because they have successfully fooled you with some false image of what they represent (based on their so-called “target market”).
For the record I was originally put off the Miller brand by the commercials showing a fully dressed blonde model dancing with a tag-line of “At least the beer is pure”. The idea behind this is misogynistic and wholly offensive.
Also I did read the whAtkiNd!? blog and noticed that you “love[d] it” when someone called the male bloggers “girls”. I find this perplexing coming from any self-respecting female.
Assumption is a VERY dangerous thing… The fact that you decided to take my ‘love it’ to specifically be referring to the ‘girls’ comment? That shows characteristics of small-mindedness! It also shows that you have NO other points to argue on other than trying to see if I will react to such comments.
For a moment there I actually had a tinge of respect for your response… Now I’m left feeling that you are a friend or counter part of those bloggers… Skipping over every other comment that has been made in an effort to win a mudslinging competition! – and now making it into a personal attack on my femininity & self respect… Something I hugely do NOT appreciate.(Also showing that you are not a regular reader of our site, else that comment never would’ve been posted on your response)
Why don’t we attack ‘First for Woman’ next for portraying all men as wreckless jackasses? I mean you guys are on SUCH a roll! Or Ice-cream companies such as Magnum for solely directing their advertising at woman?
The point sadly remains, that this company is not the only one that is to blame for this type of marketing, and my point is that if there was an opinion to voice on this topic, then maybe it could’ve been done in a much less childish manner?
It was done with once again NO tact, showing no respect for the site that it’s written for, or for that matter any of the readers – if there are any!
And admitting that you attended a Miller event shows that their marketing campaign must be working?
I attended a Miller event in support of a friend of mine who was involved and asked me to go.
I said I was perplexed by your comment, thanks for explaining it so well(!?!)
I spend a lot of time attacking brands for their marketing Liesl, you don’t know me, so you wouldn’t know that about me.
In terms of individual attacks though, the whatkind blog has been attacked here but I do not see other blogs deserving of attack (eg someone like, SApigs) under the same scrutiny. So I am not sure what you want to do about that with respect to your belief in treating every evil equally?
I have to say though that I am not in this for the war, and my comment to you, Liesl, was more female to female advice to think about what you are saying before you say it. But unfortunately it is all you read in either of my comments.
And yes, marketing does work, it is often evil, but it does work. Hence the danger of it. Seeing as you promised to read those articles I really think you should do yourself a favour and do so. You might be surprised at SABMiller’s reactions to apartheid among other things, although I grant that most multinationals are similarly unethical.
I have read all the comments but I would like to point out that my stress was on company accountability and not NiceOne’s blog.
You are the only one who loses out if you do not consider anything I have said other than my apparent “attack” on you. In which case I wouldn’t have made it as I think people like you could really benefit from opening your mind to the workings of the real world rather than believing the manipulations thereof so that a few companies can make more money than they know what to do with.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you are very intelligent, hence the reason I will make a point of reading those links.
I can however state this for the record:
I have been involved in promotions for 8yrs, I worked for a liquor company (and no it was not SAB) – where terms such as ‘Black Diamonds’ was used often and also ran my own company… You need to target a certain audience with your marketing and advertising. That’s the way it goes… There are certain users that will not be interested in giving your product a second chance, and then there’s the core that you want to draw in…
My comment, was left there to say that I enjoyed the response as a whole to the attack comment…
Thank you for your advice, I can assure you, that a lot of what I write is looked into or researched before just putting it out there.
As for general campaigns, maybe all companies should stop their advertising? As I’m sure you know & realise, that you need to focus your money and energy where it’s most beneficial.
I’m positive there are many skeletons in the closet on this subject, and much more can be said for hundreds of other key companies…
As it stands though, the event I was at, was not race committed… And it was the same CT Mansion mentioned in the other blog…
Thank you for your comments however, and for shedding a spurt of light on what seems to be the never ending demon to the way companies choose to run their ‘ships’…
I do hope that this is not one of the only reasons that you have come to read the site, and that we can expect to see you voicing your opinion on many of the other topics?
Apologies if I haven’t answered all your questions with satisfaction,
I’m replying from my reliable BB, but the screen is a lot smaller than a computer..
I know how marketing works. But thanks for trying to explain it to me. I read the cases on the Advertising Standards Association’s website when I can, to see how these things are monitored, although it is impossible for them to objectively analyse such subjective content.
Enjoy the links. By the way, there has been a well-known boycott on SABMiller for a fair amount of time. This boycott was based on climate change denialism, tax evasion, smoking-cancer link denialism among other things. It really isn’t just me. And it really didn’t start with NiceOne’s blog.
Thank you for giving me a platform for publicising these issues though. Whether my efforts are in vain or not is not in my control.
Not al all :d
And you are more than welcome to always leave your comment… What fun would the world be if there was no controversy? (But within reason of course)
I will read into those links, I just actually have a job other than spilling my thoughts on blogs – please do not take that as an insult…
So as soon as I am in front of a computer and have some time I will read over them.
And FYI – we appreciate thoughts and opinions especially if they are well-sourced and not just a ‘rage against the machine’ outburst, coupled with a distasteful level of profanity
I promise you, most of our other stuff is a lot more light hearted and fun!
I would say that GoldFish and Goodluck fit into the same music genre. So, if it is all about target marketing, why did they play on different nights in Cape Town? Surely they appeal to the same market?!?
GoodLuck were a last minute insert & booking… They weren’t suppose to be playing the evening that they did
Please tell me which nights had which markets. I am finding this fascinating. And who played at them if you could. I heard Goodluck played on two nights. Were they last minute for NYE? I wasn’t there but you said in the review that they played NYE.
Truly I’m stumped?
Marketing..? Whatkind.tv got some exceptional coverage because of one blog post… and it was free! I don’t drink Millers (and no party – black or white will make me), but wow – I’m sure they are loving this banter. Just saying