A Campaign in 11 Languages

A National First in South Africa

This was South Africa’s very first campaign where everything was translated into eleven official languages! It was 1994, and our newly minted democracy had respect for minority groups built into its constitution. It was quite a challenge finding translators for some of the languages, and dissent was rife amongst them as to who was translating correctly, since several of the languages had never been formalised in writing. There were some wild claims as to what other translators were actually saying due to rivalry between different cultural groups. Some of the translators claimed that others had said: “blow you nose in your paraffin bottle” instead of “place it safely on a high shelf”: “stir your cap on” instead of “twist the cap on”: “throw your paraffin bottle on the floor” instead of “put your paraffin bottle on a flat surface.”

Next Generation Paraffin Safety Campaign

The Shell campaign was so successful that the rest of the oil industry felt they should become involved, since paraffin is unbranded and is also produced and distributed in bulk by BP, Engen, Caltex and Total Oils (SA). Shell could very well have been making claims for paraffin actually supplied by BP, for instance. It was therefore decided to donate 1c per litre of all paraffin sold for domestic use to a dedicated NGO called the Paraffin Safety Association of SA (PASASA). This currently amounts to over R20 million per annum, though it was forecast that this amount would gdecrease as Eskom, the national energy rpovider, would elctrify more areas of the country. Unfortunately this was not the case, and only 19% of S. African's have access to elctricity. Of those, many cannot afford the initial outlay for electric appliances, so they still use paraffin.

At its inception I was appointed to manage the promotional resources for the campaign - including conceptualising, designing and producing an extraordinary variety of resources that shared common principles in that they performed multiple functions and benefited everyone in a variety of ways. I developed an original, interactive approach that had never been used before to my knowledge, in that firstly the care givers (hospitals, clinics, schools, etc) that assist the communities who were to be the “target market” for these campaigns were consulted from the start, and secondly they were included in their development and execution. These commissions therefore benefitted the recipients in multiple ways. A win-win-win formula!

Campaign Elements

* child-proof closures manufactured to fit all commonly used bottles in SA
* 10 million closures produced and distributed over a period of five years
* instructions on how to use child proof closures - since they were the first to be introduced in SA
* labels to accompany the safety caps that had very clear, graphic cartoons so that they could be understood no matter the language or level of literacy
* danger stickers to go on juice, cool drink and milk bottles that were being used to store paraffin
* wall charts that were workshopped with doctors and health care professionals countrywide on the dangers of fires and poisoning, with instructions on how to use the caps and what to do in the event of a poisoning. (You would be amazed at how the medical profession argue amongst themselves as to the right treatment. It took over a year to get consensus! I wonder how many people die because the medical staff give the wrong treatment)
* t-shirts with safety messages
* school book labels and calendars
* hand puppets made out of recycled cans, distributed with scripts in the vernacular for teachers to enact with kids. 10,000 sets were made by a Ladies’ Project in Kyelitsha
* animated videos showing what to do in the event of a fire or a poisoning - these received free air time!
* competitions and radio spots for relevant radio stations and TV programme, with scripts for presenters
* TV documentaries featuring real people dressed to look like cartoons - a cheaper option than animation.

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