Dassies and the Water

Warning: If you are from Johannesburg: stop reading this right now, just stop. Everything you ever hated about Capetonians is about to come true. You will leave this thinking of us as dumb hippies. Stop reading. I’m about to talk about the sea and the ocean. It’s happening. Look away now.

This TV advert for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) is more of an ode to Cape Town than an advert with its panoramic scenes of the characters and landscapes of the Mother City. The grey sea in the early morning, the mountain behind mist, the surfers and the fishermen all captured perfectly. It makes your heart balloon with pride when you see the city like that. The poem by John Masefield read in a wise, husky voice with a slow banging drum all encapsulate the sound of the ocean. And the tagline “because you love being out there we’re always there”, yoh! That tagline! Whoa. They got it.

Work like this is what makes me understand why I love advertising. Why I am not the spawn of commercialism and enthusiastic voice-overs. Ogilvy aren’t scaring the pants off me, they’re protecting me and making me slightly more aware. They’re also giving me a very fun game I now like to play called “guess the beach”, seriously, if you’re from Cape Town watch this advert and try not to play it. So far I have Dalebrook, St James, Kalk Bay Harbour and Boulders.

You often find that some of the best work in agencies is made probono. What tends to happen is that the advertising agency gives the brief to the younger people in the agency and they, desperate for some great portfolio work and with a fresh perspective and naivety hard to find in old hands, create something spectacular like this. And that’s where the magic lies in this advert, the fantastically edited shots of the sea, the gentle personality shots. It flows so well that it stinks of hard work.

Some real credit needs to be given to this voice over artist; you can almost smell the old tobacco and feel his strong arms over your shoulders when you hear him read. It makes me crave old leather and dusty books. When he reads the opening line “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky” I got shivers. Ogilvy have managed to take that little feeling we keep in our fingertips and eyelashes, that tiny tingle that makes us love the freezing cold water and crunchy sand and they’ve physically manifested it. It takes a big group of people with a deep love of this city to make an advert like this.

They haven’t focused on a human truth or insight as much as an understanding of Capetonians. They’ve shown that they understand the raw emotion and bond, which is why they will protect us and that is what makes this advert so magical.

I think I can safely speak for everyone and say I am very excited for Ogilvy Cape Town to have work back on our TV screens and off our laptops for a while. While their nontraditional stuff is exciting, nothing can make you feel quite like a good old’ fashioned video.