HUMOUR AND AFRICAN LANGUAGES IN ADVERTISING

Tessa Dowling was asked by the Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing at the University of Cape Town and Professor Ian Glenn of the Department of English at the same university, to explore the role of humour in advertising, focusing on the opportunities and difficulties of using it in a multicultural South Africa. She presented her findings as part of a national roadshow called Amaknock-knock.

Here are some nuggets from her research...

• Amareverse - means a backside
• Drumsticks - are your legs
• An Oros - is a fat person
• A TY - is a Mercedes 4x4 (from the Tony Yengeni controversy ...)

Her research points to an extraordinary level of acceptance of other languages within a speaker's home tongue, and a fast introduction of topical events into everyday language.

And this is what the press had to say....

"Tessa Dowling is heading up Amaknock-knock, one of the freshest, most promising pieces of research around right now. Her investigation holds a key to the holy grail of a unified South African response to advertising."
Media Toolbox, 14/06/2001, written by Di Paice.

Since Tessa's doctoral thesis was on Xhosa humour (The Forms and Functions of Xhosa Humour), she thoroughly enjoyed researching this topic!