Green… the new Black?

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Headlines and Opinions

We’ve gone green crazy… everyone and everything is green or claiming to be green … from companies to brands to products and services… green’s the way to go. More than a colour, it’s morphed into a headspace, movement, trend and a global imperative. Being green is no longer associated with tree huggers, hippies, and green warriors – it’s mainstreamed and every Tom, Dick and Mary has embraced the term green.

Cleaning products clothes, food, cars, furniture – every aspect of society has been influenced by the environmental lobby. With earth’s resources being rapidly depleted, the global movement for sustainable development has created a number of imperatives related to being “green”.

As you can imagine, there is a great deal at stake. Cutting one’s carbon footprint can be a costly exercise and for many companies, its means cutting profits but most companies also realise that to keep a competitive edge, they have to be green … hence the proliferation of green products, green policy, green ideology etc etc etc

It all sounds like its working out really well – right? Wrong!

Key to the notion of going green is greenwashing … derived from the phrase “white washing” …which means to gloss over the truth, tomislead consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

Ah the fibs companies tell – from outright lying to omission of facts, to artful rearrangement of data to mislead, misrepresent and pull the wool over the eyes of consumers!



It’s open, ongoing warfare…on the left are the environmentalists and to the right are governments and big business. The war is fought through the media via elaborate often spectacular campaigns. Each side employs a plethora of marketing devices bombarding the public with messages related to their cause. No expense is spared with the best creative minds attempting to sway public perceptions, steal our hearts and win our minds.

The stakes are sky high….apart from the planet’s health, the green economy is huge as consumers demand more green products and environmentally responsible corporate citizens. And Global Business has responded speedily. Between 2007 and 2009, the in-store availability of so-called ‘green’ products increased between 40% and 176%.

Hurrah, we are going to save the planet!

Once again – wrong.



The same study found that at least 98% of products surveyed were committing at least one Sin of Greenwashing compiled by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing.

98%… that’s frightening. Will the doomsday scenario prevail? Ultimately only we can decide – by embracing our responsibility, making green choices, and “outing” those that “green wash”!

To download a copy of the 2009 Seven Sins of Greenwashing Report, or to view some handy tools, go to: www.sinsofgreenwashing.org.

I know what you bought last summer

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Brandon Faber

You just can’t resist, can you? Sitting there, mesmerized, transfixed, and somehow powerless to just say “no”.

Clutching your credit card with sweaty palms, eyes glazed like the finest of Durban dock dwellers, you reach for your phone.”Must buy now,” you rock back and forth on your couch as you repeat the mantra of the Saturday Glomail Shopper. “Hmmm, weekend specials… must have new plastic thing that slices stuff (and is easy to clean).”

I am convinced that the power behind Glomail’s indoctrination lies in the bushy eyebrows of the 80’s (News presenter-suit-wearing) show host guy. “It’s my promise, to you!” he says whilst rudely pointing at the herd of credit shopping cattle – with both hands, nogals.

If you record one of these Glomail “weekend special” bonanza broadcasts, and you play it backwards, I bet you will hear the sound of sinister giggling and chants, pleading for the souls of those whom we dare not speak of:

The witless Armies of American Express, the Vacuous Visa throng, the Melancholic masses from MasterCard. They are the true force behind the rise and rise of bushy-eye-brow-man and his crusade to decimate the disposable income of the (very) average shopper.

Their homes, chock-a-block with fads, crazes, gym pills that magically “peel away the pounds” as you continue to eat like a professional darts player. Cupboards hide four varieties of floor whizz sweeper things, each with an extra cleaning pad, cleverly obtained through the financially savvy decision to “buy now”.
Why is it that we have warning signs on alcohol and cigarettes, and force casinos to declare that winners know when to stop, but there is no disclaimer, no warning, no assistance for the intellectually challenged citizens who just cannot say “no” to Captain eye-brow and his crew?

There should be a national outcry and demands of proof for the claims made when flogging magic beans, stairways to heaven and other “must have” goodies. But there’s none. Our silence deafening as we condone the exploitation of the masses, defenseless against the supernatural power of the man with the thousand yard stare.



“Damn those eyes!” they yell in fits of rage as yet another delivery van arrives with their latest purchase. “I can’t even remember buying anything. . . Damn those eyes!”

In messed heaps they sit, quietly surrounded by their plethora of worthless worldly possessions. They need our help, they need our guidance, they need this nation to stand up and with one voice declare that we shall tolerate no more.

They need us to be strong, to bravely fight their fight, to rise above the daze of that man’s gaze and release our mortal brothers and sisters from his iron grip.

Down with swirly green duster thingies! Down “power pack” gizmos that “flatten abs in ten minutes a day”! Down with Made in China plastic pedicure paraphernalia. . . down with bad suits, bad hair, bad scripts, bad lighting and the relentless pointing of fingers at cattle-class consumers!

The uprising starts today. . .

“It’s my promise, to you.”

Read more about the author: Brandon Faber

Industry Profile – Tholoana Qhobela

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Personality Profiles

Name: Tholoana Qhobela
Company: The Jupiter Drawing Room Johannesburg
Title: Executive Business Strategist

What do you enjoy most about your portfolio?
Seeing a strategy come to fruition in exactly the way we planned

Where did you go for the summer holidays?
Stay right here in Jozi. It’s the best time of year to enjoy the city.

Describe your home environment briefly.
Quiet, private, hidden. My sanctuary.

Are you more of a TV/Radio or DVD person? Favourites?
All three. I have a few TV programs I follow. The radio is always on and DVDs are biased to current affairs / social affairs documentaries and for leisure, I am a sucker for BBC drama

My Favourite DVD’s / movies ….
My favorite DVD is Control Room, a documentary about the media management of the Iraq war and my all time favorite movie is The Godfather Trilogy

We live in a brand conscious society. How do you feel about that? Are you a labels or off-the-peg person?
I am ambivalent about us being a brand conscious society: my career depends on it, but the sociologist in me sometimes finds it hard to do what we got to do!
On a personal note, I am hyper aware of how brands are created so I tend to be off the peg. In fact, the more popular the label, the more likely I am to by pass it! Money does not buy taste.

What’s your Sunday morning read?
The Weekender, The Citizen, The Sunday Times, The Mail and Guardian

Which are your favourite magazines or must-buy mags of the month?
I am still looking for a magazine that is relevant to my lifestyle and life stage

Favourite on-line site?
Huffingtonpost.com

Your South African hero/oine?
The mamas (and papas!) that are unnamed that go to work for little reward, sometimes bringing up other people’s children, but invest everything in their kids so they don’t have to live the same life as they have.

Best dining out venue?
Anywhere that I can still smoke

No 1-industry peeve?
Forgetting that some of the good old media is what the majority of the country consumes – we seem to think that it isn’t all that good no more and the ‘sexy’ new media is the only way

Best all time local destination?
My family home in the highlands of Lesotho

Green Architect: Luyanda Mpahlwa

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Personality Profiles

Designing the future

Luyanda Mpahlwa has travelled a great deal since his birth in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. His personal and professional journey has confronted ideologies, crossed continents and spanned diverse creative visions of people within spaces. Regarded as “inspirational” by his peers, his architectural ideas reflect a clarity of vision that meld economic imperatives with social transformation and a desire to contribute to the development of South Africa in his chosen field. All the work that he has been involved in demonstrates a strong commitment to ensuring that the architectural projects reflect the country’s diversity of cultural experience in the processes, materials and designs.

Luyanda Mpahlwa is the founder member of mma’s Cape Town Studio, an architectural company identified with innovative and home-grown design solutions. This softly spoken man’s overt gentleness belies a strength of character that has resulted in a career loaded with accolades. After a 12year partnership at mma, Luyanda is now in the process of launching a new Architectural brand: Luyanda Mpahlwa DesignSpaceAfrica (Pty) Ltd – to be celebrated later in the year.

So what motivated the decision for a young Black man from Mthatha to study architecture at a time when just owning a home for most African people was an impossible dream?

“Apartheid was oppressive but also created opportunities at the same time! I was fortunate to be guided by my parents who encouraged me to pursue engineering courses at University level. My father was of the view that therein lay the key skills to drive the economy of the country, and my mother remembered that I liked drawing houses on my slate as a child! Since Architecture and Engineering were not allowed for Black students under Apartheid, that actually encouraged me to study exactly that and I sought all the permission required from Government at the time, to achieve that! I do not regret the decision and the guidance I received.”

In the late 70’s, Luyanda studied architecture at the University of Natal and Natal Technikon before being imprisoned for 5 years for anti-apartheid political activities in 1981. After his release from Robben Island in 1986, he went into exile to Germany and completed his M.Sc/Dipl.-Ing. in architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. For the next 14 years, Germany was home, where he witnessed the fall of the Berlin wall and the relocation of its capital from Bonn. In 2000, Luyanda returned to SA because he “had always cherished the idea of returning home from exile, and contributing towards the rebuilding of the country living under the democracy I had sacrificed my youth for. I also felt a sense of personal achievement to see the peace and the progress the country was making post the 1994 elections. At that time, I had made sure I was back home, in Mthatha and felt part of the historic moment.”

Since then he has worked on a series of projects that have allowed him to translate his notions of creating spaces for people that affirmed their cultures, traditions and creativity. Luyanda was the co-initiator of the South African Embassy project in Berlin, the first time that a major architectural commission was given to a Black company by the new South African government. This building was awarded the Award of Excellence by the South African Institute of Architects in 2003.

Whether designing a school, an embassy or urban spaces, his design ethos is people-centred. In a landscape of pseudo-European Tuscan Villas and Provencal design, the buildings and projects he has been involved stand out and reflect a South African –ness that is not a tacked-on crudity, but an essential and central aspect of the overall design. He describes his design ethos as wanting to “elevate African inspired design at all levels.”

Last year he received a Curry Stone Design Award from the University of Kentucky USA for the Design Indaba’s 10 x 10 low cost housing project where 10 local and international architects were paired with 10 families to build experimental homes on the government subsidy budget of R 50,000 in the township of Freedom Park, Mitchells Plein Cape Town. The project was also finalist in the prestigious 2009 INDEX Awards in Copehagen.

Did you know these Green facts?

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Did you Know

 
 
 
 
• If you took all the aluminium cans recycled since 1972 — an estimated 1,099 billion — and laid them end to end in a giant can-chain, they’d stretch all the way to the moon and back 174 times.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 • The Shoreham nuclear power plant in East Shoreham, New York cost $6 billion to build and was closed in 1989 without generating a single watt of electricity!

 
 
 

 • If you chopped down a 15-year-old tree and used it to make paper grocery bags, you’d wind up with about 700. That’s roughly the number of bags your local supermarket goes through in an hour.

 
 
 

 • The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world’s people generate 40% of the world’s waste.

 
 
 

 • A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose — and even longer if it’s in the landfill.

And the winner of the MacBook Pro is…

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Thank-you to everyone who entered the Informer competition! There was a fantastic response to both the main questions and the bonus tasks. Times LIVE readers really are more informed!


The lucky winners of our Push Print / Times LIVE Grand Prizes are:

Grand Prize

MacBook Pro + 100 000 impression ad package (worth R35 000) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Barret Whiteford, FNB

 

2nd Prize

50 000 impression ad package (worth R17 500) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Eugene Botes, The Agency

 

3rd Prize

25 000 impression ad package (worth R8 750) on Times LIVE

Congratulations: Edu van Rijswijk, Aegis Media

 

Daily Prize Winners:

Zukile Dotwana – BlackBerry Curve
Nico Olwagen – iPod Touch
Robin Clark – Lenovo Netbook



Click here for the full list of winners including the daily spot prizes

Be more informed with Times LIVE, South Africa’s liveliest news and information website.
www.timeslive.co.za and http://m.timeslive.co.za from your phone.

For more information on advertising opportunities on Times LIVE, get in touch: info@wesellwebads.com

Greening South Africa

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

South Africa is a nation of vociferous highly politicized protestors – one of the better legacies of apartheid! Everyone has an opinion about everything which bodes well for a democracy. We write letters, take to the streets, call radio stations, most importantly – we talk!

And we are starting to talk green.

But as a developing country, we also have a number of major societal problems related to primary health care, housing, education, job creation and so we may be forgiven if we were not paying too much attention to environmental practice for sustainable development.

And yet we are.

New age environmental policies, a strong NGO lobby and advocacy sector, an informed media, as well as world-class research agencies all combine their efforts to protect this amazingly beautiful country and its natural resources. In line with world trends, this year saw the tabling of the draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill 2009, an income tax incentive proposal for any business that takes part in a UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. If approved, it could prove as effective as the 2003 imposition of a levy on plastic shopping bags.

With the establishment of agencies such as Indalo Yethu, DEAT’s independent trust and Southern Africa’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative, aggressive public awareness campaigns have been launched to educate South Africans about incorporating eco-friendly practices into their day to day lives.

Coupled with big business initiatives, we are gradually becoming a more environmentally aware citizenry. CFL bulbs, solar heating, tree planting, recycling waste, energy efficient appliances, hybrid cars, wind farms… are all part of our daily lexicon.

Major companies including retailers like Pick and Pay and Woolworths, packaging companies like NAMPAK and banks like Nedbank are contributing to an integrated approach to sustainable development by embracing its ethos in how they do business.



Companies are beginning to offer consumers healthy green alternatives in the form of organic foods, cleaning products and services. Even smaller businesses understand the imperative. Fashion, furniture, lifestyle and architectural designers have embraced the green movement. Utilising sustainable materials like bamboo, eco-friendly building designs that minimise the need for artificial heating and light, recycling material for décor and art are rapidly becoming a mindset blueprint.

Unfortunately most green alternatives tend to be more expensive and therein lay the challenges.

Poverty is a reality and until a greener lifestyle is also a cheaper one, a developing country like SA will have to focus its efforts on the big environmental wins.

It could begin by sorting out the contradictions between policy and practice since financing Eskom’s capacity expansion programme, 99% of which is coal-based violates our stated policy to curb emissions by 2020.

Ironically state-owned Eskom is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the continent making SA the continent’s No 1 offender!

But all journeys begin somewhere and ours has started.

Hot Stuff Gadgets – October

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Hot Stuff Gadget Review

Every month the editors of Stuff magazine choose the latest pretty, shiny gadgets for you.

Apple iPod Nano 5G
Camcorder-cum-ipod
from R2 000 / www.apple.co.za

“Who wants a camera on a mobile phone?” everybody cried the first time they caught sight of a snapper-sporting blower back in the early noughties. Less than a decade later and a camera-less mobile is about as welcome as a Blu-ray player at an HD DVD fan club meeting. How times change. So who needs a Flip-style video camera on their MP3 player? Who needs a bigger 5.5cm screen, built-in speaker and a voice recorder? Who needs an FM radio (with live pausing) and a pedometer? Nobody. But in six months you might wonder how you ever managed without them.
The iPod Nano 5G doesn’t feel much different from its predecessor, but there are a lot more goodies packed inside. The tiny video camera is no match for the likes of a Vado HD, as it only grabs VGA footage, but the joy of the convergence is convenience. The lens itself is slightly awkwardly placed for portrait shots, but landscape shooting makes the most of the new bigger screen anyway. Plug the Nano 5G into your Mac or PC and you can sling your videos on to YouTube with one click. Nice.

Samsung Pixon12 12 of the best R7 500 / www.zastore.co.za The quest to cram more megapixels into mobiles has the whiff of an old-fashioned arms race. However, this is one cold war that’s rapidly hotting up. Since Sony Ericsson announced the 12MP Satio, Samsung has fired back with the Pixon12. It also packs a dozen megapixels, coupling them with a 3.1in (7.6cm) AMOLED touchscreen, a 28mm lens and a xenon flash. Video comes in a threatening 720×480, 30fps format. But, there’s no use having an evil payload of images and videos if you can’t deliver them: Samsung’s Share Pix along with Wi-Fi and HSDPA see to that, firing them straight to the likes of Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket.

Ferrari 458 Italia The successor to a legend Rtba (due mid 2010) / www.ferrari.co.za True legends know when to call it a day. They have a built-in doomsday clock that ticks down until it’s time to jack it in and let the new breed step up to the plate. It’s a talent the wheezing dad-rock peddlers of the Rolling Stones lack, but Ferrari has in spades. This is the 458 Italia, the successor to its legendary F430. Those curves, those massive brakes – and that engine… It’s a 4.5-litre V8 that produces 562bhp, will scream its way up to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds and not stop pushing until way over 320km/h.

Nikon S1000pj World’s first Pico-packing cam R5 700 / www.nikon.co.za Is there anything more torturous than other people’s holiday snaps? Who wants to sit through endless shots of Uncle Gerry with his top off eating a Cornetto in Knysna? You will, if they’re being shown to you on a 12MP Nikon S1000pj – the first compact camera to come with a built-in pico projector. Hit the button and it’ll beam the snaps and hi-def videos held within onto a wall at a size of up to 40in. Great, unless all you’ve got to look at is Gerry.

The Beatles: Rock Band Rock on R590 / www.thebeatlesrockband.com We have been waiting for The Beatles to move into the 21st century for a while now and The Beatles: Rock Band brings them there with a vengeance. Expect a massive revival in interest in the greatest band ever from children whose parents weren’t alive when the Fab Four were together. Downloadable content means that you can add to the selection of tunes that ship with the game. If you don’t have a guitar and drums already the Limited Edition ships with some cool Beatles-themed kit. You also need to invest in some extra microphones to harmonise properly.

Batman’s other phone Nokia X6 Rtba / www.nokia.co.za Nokia’s first touchscreen phone appeared in the last Batman flick as a crime-busting accessory, but failed to live up to expectations. The X6 is a damn decent second attempt at a top-end multimedia phone to rival, dare we say it, the iPhone. If you’re going to lay claim to the multimedia crown, you’ve got to have the brawn to back it up. The X6 has boosted its built-in storage capacity to a generous 32GB, and has the all-important 3.5mm jack for your own headphones. It Comes With Music, so you can download music directly via HSDPA or Wi-Fi, has a 5MP camera and a 16:9, widescreen format 7.6 cm screen.

 
For more information on Stuff, including upcoming features and advertising rates, click here.

Photos – The Times and Sowetan Retail Awards 2009

Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by admin in Galleries

The Times | Sowetan Retail Awards 2009
8 October 2009
Northgate Ice Rink

The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 by admin in Avusa Media News

Click here to view photos from this event

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Retailers narrowly beat their competitors to win South Africa’s top shopping outlet spot at The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards, which in its second year has broadened its scope to go beyond Gauteng and become a national survey. The hotly-contested awards, which proved that the retail environment is highly competitive with small differences in ratings, took place on October 8 and were fittingly staged in a retail wonderland at Northgate Ice Rink.

The survey, that provides retailers and retail advertisers with valuable insights into where South Africans love to shop ‘til they drop, saw quite a shake-up of winners in the different categories. This was due to new category spilts and changes, extended coverage of the study and an innovative research study conducted by TNS Research Surveys to ensure more niche outlets were included, which is in line with the new emphasis worldwide that specialist stores also form an integral part of the consumers’ shopping experience.

For new categories, the Grand Prix Award was the most coveted and was based on the scores of all the retail brands measured, regardless of category. This was easily won by KFC, which also dominated the fast food chicken category. Edgars came in second place and Shoprite in the third position.

Another big award on the night was for the Overall Retail Experience Award that took the four key retail attributes of quality, range, service and value into account. Pick ‘n Pay was crowned the winner by virtue of exceptional scores for quality, range and service while Shoprite took the second spot for a much-better-than-average score for good value. Checkers was third and Woolworths fourth for their image of offering very good quality.

In the new categories retailers that won the hearts and minds of South African shoppers included Tops at Spar for retail liquor chain, Shoprite in the supermarket and hypermarket category, Trade Centre as the top wholesaler, Spur easily won the fast food burger category and family sit-down restaurant while Mugg and Bean is the best place to grab a cup of coffee.

Specialist and niche outlets was a focus for the 2009 Retail Awards and one of the most desirable awards was for best exclusive brand store, which was won by Levi’s followed by La Coste and Uzzi.

As everyone knows a girl can never have too many shoes, so one of the major shifts on the night in the existing categories included Nine West and Green Cross pushing out Shoe City and Bata for the top three shoes stores with Spitz grabbing the top spot.

South Africans are still gaga for The Baby Company at Ackermans, the winner again this year for specialist baby and child stores category but have chosen new entrants, Reggies and Toys R Us over previous winners, Edgars and Baby City. Another exciting development saw Maponya Mall steal third position for leading shopping centre over last year’s two East Rand contenders.

Favourite outlets that are once again dominant winners include Edgars, Woolworths and Truworths in clothing with specialist sport and outdoor retailers Total Sports, Sport Scene and Nike winners again and Game, Hi-Fi Corporation and Makro the top shops for electronics and gadgets.

One of the luckiest winners on the night was Neil Van Schalkwyk from The Media Shop who won a lavish shopping spree at a shopping centre of their choice valued at R50 000.



Herewith the full results of The Times and Sowetan 2009 Retail Awards: