Oude Meester and agency 140 BBDO have unveiled the new Oude Meester ‘Mastery in the Making’ campaign and the accompaning television commercial featuring international star, Idris Elba as the new face of Oude Meester Brandy.
The Matery in the Making Campaign focuses on the passing of knowledge from a Master to a Master in the Making with the TVC being just one element of the exciting roll out.
Featuring in the new advert alongside Elba is South African Master in the Making, Siyabonga Radebe. Siya is a South African actor, singer, writer, director and stand-up comedian best known for his role as Cassius in the SABC1 series ‘A Place Called Home’.
Following on from the huge succes of the Oude Meester campaign featuring Jamie Foxx, the brand wanted to bring the message home, as Oude Meester Brand Manager Genius Mnywabe elaborates, “using an international Master alongside a local, South African Master in the Making is a way of bringing the Oude Meester brand back to South Africa – something we’ve wanted to do since featuring international star Jamie Foxx in the last campaign released in 2011.”
He goes on to explain that “British-born Idris Elba was the ideal choice for the new campaign given his celebrated career and his commitment to inspriing others. Idris has had a meteoric rise to fame on an international stage and has endeared himself to South Africans by spending meaningful time in our country.”
The televsion advert shows Elba chatting casually to Radebe about mastery, the commitment involved, and the importance of the journey itself. As the full advert closes with a shot across the Johannesburg skyline, Elba speaks to Radebe in un-polished Xhosa, ‘Zithobe uze uqhubeke ngefundo,’ meaning ‘be humble, so you can keep on learning.’
He continues to speak making a small error in pronunciation, only to be corrected by the younger Radebe in a moment that captures the relationship perfectly. “We identified this moment specifically to communicate the message of humility to the audience and future Masters in the Making,” says Johnson. “To be a master, the crucial element is that you need to carry on learning to be better, and Elba and Radebe portray this perfectly.”
The advert will air across South African TV from April 3 2014 and was conceptualised by 140 BBDO Executive Creative Director Ivan Johnson, Mike Pearson and Alexis Beckett.
