Guinness Stout is known for its thick, rich black colour. With a new campaign, #Made of Black, Guinness seems to be promoting the black colour and its brand. ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI critiques what the television advert portrays
The hardest cause to fight, is correcting the stereotype about being ‘black.’ While ‘black’ is simply the colour of coal, its status as it relates to the complexion of a specie of the human race has suffered abuses from others.
Described as the darkest color, its absence or complete absorption of light, has made it vulnerable to different interpretations, as against white which is seen as the symbol of holiness,peace, tranquility and every-other-good-thing.
Unlike white, anything associated with black often attracts negative perception. This perhaps is why some races perceive black people as inferior, abnormal, weak, criminals and not inspiring among others. From sports, entertainment, other human endeavours, issues of racisim against the black colour have assumed global attention.
Very little is known among the people who abuse blacks, that black was one of the first colours used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. In the 14th century, it began to be worn by royalty, the clergy, judges and government officials in much of Europe. It became the colour worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century.
As a result of growing influence and impact of the black people in the world today,there is a renewed belief that black is not about colour, but that it is about attitude. That is reflected in a new campaign by Guinness in its recent global campaign #Made of Black.
The ad campaign runs at over two minutes long and features a range of African performers and artists. It is set to a soundtrack of Kanye West’s Black Skinhead. The spot launched on MTV Base, as part of a four-hour takeover by Guinness on the channel, featuring guest appearances by musicians including Fuse ODG and Phynot.
The Ad has sparked debates on whether black is a colour, or an attitude with the aim of inspiring the youth to achieve greatness and overcome limitations.
The new Ad campaign – Made of Black- was launched across key markets in Africa with a takeover of MTV Base. The co-produced Guinness/MTV Base show, was broadcast simultaneously on 12 satellite and terrestrial channels across Africa.
This kick-started an extensive through-the-line campaign (a marketing campaign that combines both expensive activities like national TV adverts (‘above the line’) and less/inexpensive activities, like direct mail executions (‘below the line’) which is rolling out across Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon to promote key conversations around ‘’what is BLACK’’ in a new positioning for Guinness on this continent.
With the latest campaign, #Made of Black, created by ISOBAR SSA, a global digital agency, in collaboration with a UK Ad agency which is the third largest agency network in the world-AMV BBDO, there is a new message set to reposition the back race.
Described as simple, yet undertaking a serious task, with the instruction to re-position Guinness in the African market, the Group Planning Director, Isobar, SSA, Michael Zylstra, said: “Africa is about creativity, we do and see things from a different perspective. It’s about working together to harness creativity that speaks to all.
“For us, it was more than just producing incredible work, it was about starting and then sustaining key dialogue on our continent about what being BLACK means. It was about embracing the unique cultures of Africa and tailoring approaches to those individualised markets, whilst also introducing the concept as part of our languages, our culture and harnessing the true African creative spirit.
He went further: “Black is not a colour – it’s an attitude. It was not about launching a hashtag and a website that has an interactive platform. The campaign celebrates ‘Black’. Black is not a colour. Black is an attitude. It’s a mind-set; it’s a way of life. Black represents the best of Africa. It features real people with real talent from Lagos, Accra and Cape Town to Nairobi, Gaborone and Johannesburg. People who are made of Black are people who are made of more”, says Zylstra.
He said within the first six hours of launching the campaign, the #madeofblack had sparked over 22 000 conversations. “We estimate that by the end of the launch’s six week phase, we will have achieved over a million conversations,” he stated.
The team at Isobar has built an incredible home for the campaign online, as well as producing over 20 video pieces which run both on TV and online. These stories are well worth a watch – interesting characters across Africa share what defines their “Made of Black”.
On the local adaptation of the campaign to suit various markets, the Managing Director/Chief Executive, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Seni Adetu, said the new #made of more campaign by Guinness will also ignite the Nigerian spirit and the choice of musical stars, Phyno, Olamide and Eva as the campaign Ambassador is to encourage everyone to positively show what they are made of and what makes them unique. He said Guinness is positioning black, not just as a colour, but an emblem of uniqueness for which Africans and indeed Nigerians are known for.
The Head, Consumer Planning And Research, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Ms. Tayo Salami, explains why the campaign was developed:“This campaign has been in development for almost two years and we have strived to create a campaign that we will reverberate with, and also shine a light on a movement that has been created by a new generation of Africans whose boldness cannot be contained. #Madeofblack is not about colour; Black is an attitude,” she said.
Although the ‘Made of Black’ tagline aims to assert Guinness’ uniqueness as a black beer, experts believe it would be confusing to audience from Europe and US.
“This can feel a little confusing to European fans of Guinness, who associate the stout firmly with Ireland. Yet in Africa, this link is not particularly strong,” an article on the Smithsonian.com indicated.
Audience perception of the Ad
Well, this ad – the video, especially – is very visually stimulating, for one. I believe it is exceptionally well done. It is fast paced, ties with the music, and gets the audience to pay attention to it. The visuals definitely catch your eyes and keep you entertained, as it features a wide-array of clips. Not to mention, the tagline #madeofblack certainly grabs someone’s attention before they even view the video.
This ad definitely takes a part of Guinness and makes it unique and relevant, which makes it catchy for the audience – a good play on the advertiser’s role. Although, I do think the connection is a little bit of a stretch, and is almost overdone, just for the sake of being relevant.
Partially, I am surprised they are able to get away with someone like this. It is just a bit “too relevant”, in light of Ferguson in the United States. However, this ad was done specifically for Africa, which obviously has a different culture.
Here in the United States, if something like this were to air, I think the response would be less-than warming. Although the ad is nowhere close to degrading or hostile, it definitely segregates “blacks” and makes them seem like a completely separate culture, even calling it an attitude. I definitely think that in the United States, it would receive a lot of negative attention.
Shayna
As an advertisement, I thought of it as trying too hard to reach an African audience, especially with the use of the song “Black Skinhead,” by Kanye West. The video seemed like it was using techniques, seen in many recent advertisements to grab the viewer’s attention; being very sporadic and colorful. This line of advertisement is comparable to ads demonstrated by athletic shoe advertisements like Nike and New Balance, using visual cues, like bright lights and colorful characters who are expressive.
Troy Cayon
ADWEEK View
“Made of Black” ties in with Guinness’ global “Made of More” campaign. That initiative has generated some memorable advertisement, including a short film from AMV BBDO about the Society of Elegant Persons of the Congo, better known as the Sapeurs. That campaign won seven Lions this year at Cannes.
“Made of Black” takes a multimedia approach that includes lots of video, social outreach by Fuse OGD and other stars, sharing their personal stories, along with hand-painted print ads by Dan Funderburgh and Steve Caldwell.
