SEDIBENG – He is the brains behind many popular advertisements playing on TV, including the most loved Chicken Licken’s Michael Knight / Michael Nyathi ad.
Born and bred in the Vaal, Tshepo Tumahole is one of the shining stars doing the most in the corporate world.
From getting an internship program in the advertising fraternity, to now being a giant household name and a multi-award winner, the young man told his story of how he ended up being the ‘IT’ boy.
Tumahole is a brand SA Young Creative of the Year 2020 recipient and a multi-award-winning copywriter.
He has numerous projects that he worked on under his belt including the Chicken Licken advert featuring USA Actor David Hasselhoff.
He currently serves under the Loeries Youth Committee and he is the Creative Group Head at Joe Public
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, Tumahole shared his journey on how he joined the advertising fraternity.
“As a young man who grew up in Sebokeng, Advertising wasn’t a go-to career. What I knew was that I wanted to be in the marketing industry and then a bursary opportunity at the AAA School of Advertising arose and I entered it. Took my chance, back then I didn’t even know what copywriting is, but I knew I wanted to be in that industry. I took my chances, wrote a couple of scripts and here I am,” he said.
Explaining what drew him to advertising, Tumahole said he always loved watching commercials.
“Working with brands is what I always loved. I’ve always loved watching commercials on TV. Being part of brands and knowing how they do things has always fascinated me,” he added.
Explaining his role in the Michael ‘Kid’ Nyathi advert, Tumahole said together with his art director [also Tshepo Mokgobose], were given a brief to conceptualize a new product at Chicken Licken.
“We wanted to create an Ad that South Africans will talk about. With Nostalgia playing a big role in commercial spaces, we then went back and brought back the love between Michael and Kid, then started creating a character called Michael Nyathi. For me this was my biggest Ad because everyone was sharing it on all the social media platforms,” he said.
