Knowledge that Transforms

While a certain amount of legal process and even jargon is necessary to protect the rights of the parties (including the marketer!), there are areas where this criticism is arguably valid. One of these areas is perhaps the decisions of the Final Appeal Committee (FAC). It was and is desirable that the decisions of this committee be respected and be of a quality comparable with other decision-making bodies. For this reason, a retired judge is the preferred chair for the FAC, and the current incumbent, Mervyn King, fulfils this requirement. Of course, with a retired judge, one has to up the level of argument, and it is seldom that a matter is argued by anything less than senior counsel. The result, while very interesting and meaningful to the lawyers, is sometimes confusing to marketers. Which presents a problem as it is these decisions that are binding on the ASA's other committees.

Large retailers in South Africa seem to be stuck in a time warp when it comes to their online presence. Retailers in the rest of the world have somehow burst through the dot com bubble to emerge with powerful and effective online marketing and retail platforms, as opposed to simply bursting with the bubble as so many South African retailers have done.

Recent years have seen considerable growth in various types of outdoor advertising aimed at the black market, from taxi branding to use of giant power station cooling towers. But the consensus seems to be that radio is still tops in this arena.