Orchids and Onions: SA tourism gives a feel-good reminder about this wonderful country

Perhaps because I have been living vicariously through my kids – one of whom has been out from Amsterdam and using his euros to good effect doing the safari thing – that the new SA Tourism ad resonated with me.

It was a reminder that, to paraphrase Desiderata, with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, South Africa is still a beautiful country. It’s a beauty we who live here don’t often appreciate, at each other’s throats most of the time as we are.

Occasionally, we’ll be reminded of it – as I was some years ago when I met Kenya tourism marketers who were gushing about how their country offered mountains, bush and beaches.

“Oh, you mean, like South Africa?” I responded, somewhat churlishly. Much as my offspring are doing (daughter arrives soon from Cardiff), the SA Tourism ad shows a depressing London scene, dark and rainy.

And a clearly depressed and gloomy person wanting to get away from it all. Her moods seems to lighten almost immediately as she alights from her taxi in Cape Town, with the magnificent Table Mountain as a backdrop. From there it’s an intoxicating whirl as only South Africa can do.

She hits the bush, marvelling at elephants playing, then grabs a luxurious massage and a bush boma dinner and performance of throbbing drums.

Then, there’s everything from adventuring in a high-powered dune buggy, to surfing, to riding horses along the beach at sunrise. And there’s our history, spine-tinglingly shown with the moving statue of Madiba at the Nelson Mandela Capture site outside Howick.

All along, she meets South Africans who welcome her with broad smiles and open arms (none of them work for the licensing department or home affairs, clearly).

The message is: We’re back and we’re open for business. And nobody, but we mean nobody, offers you the breadth of experiences we can. It’s all about being given a re-energisation, the spark to “Live Again” as the campaign tagline suggests.

The last line, though, is an evocative piece of copywriting: Come as you are. Leave as you’ll never be again. It sums us up: We don’t stand on ceremony in this country. We don’t have airs and graces. We accept you as you are.

But once you have been here, you’ll never be the same again. It’s a piece of communication which, although it is seemingly aimed at the overseas market, still works for local people.

But, it goes further than merely prodding South Africans to get out and see our fantastic country, it’s a feel-good reminder about what a wonderful place this is… something to remember when you’re about to lose your temper with someone, or something.

Orchids to SA Tourism and to its agency, Joe Public. I never thought I would see such an outpouring of support from people from all walks of life in South Africa for Ukraine.

Granted, there are many people doing the opposite and yelling the praises of Vladimir Putin but on social media at least, it seems that the Ukrainians are winning the propaganda battle from South African hearts and minds.

Apart from Nando’s, though, few brands have been prepared to risk alienating customers by taking side. However, that was not a consideration for NoMu, the local food and lifestyle brand (as it calls itself).

They produce wonderful products and have mounted a highly effective social media marketing campaign which, apart from the creative time it takes to come up with the quirky and amusing posts, costs next to nothing. Their gesture of solidarity to the people of Ukraine was simple.

It showed a hand blocking some of their delicious hot chocolate being poured into a Russian cup. Simple. No war. NoMu. So it gets an Orchid from me.

ALSO READ: SA tourism gets shot in the arm