GAUTENG: Alexandra township-born entrepreneur and Elements Advertising CEO Louis Seeco on Wednesday testified at the South African Human Rights Commission’s national investigative inquiry into racial discrimination in the advertising industry.
Seeco mentioned that he was touched by submissions made by young anti-racism activist and former Pretoria Girls’ High School pupil Zulaikha Patel, in relation to her experience with racism.
“It was heart-wrenching to watch a young person in the name of Zulaikha Patel speak so eloquently about racism and the advertising industry. I found out that she is 19 years old, born in 2003, which is approximately nine years after the birth of democracy in South Africa.
“She tackled the questions posed to her about racism in the advertising industry with the detail and the accuracy that was reminiscent of the submissions made by us on the issues of racism in 1999 and the racism in the advertising agency in 2001,” he said.
Seeco, in his opening remarks, said: “In 1998, I decided to open my own advertising agency because I could see that the understanding of the bigger consumer was lacking and I thought with my education and background, I will be able to create messaging and images that speak to the cultures and languages spoken in this country.”
He said it was his and his peers’ decision to open a meaningful path for their industry.
“There were many like me, young people at that time, very educated, who believed that they could play a meaningful role in the advertising industry to transform it,” he said.
But they did not go through with their plans because big companies in the industry would not let them do so.
“They made various attempts to form agencies instead of transforming the agencies they owned. In many cases they formed subsidiary agencies where they brought black partners into the partnership hoping that would create the impression that there is transformation,” he said.
According to him, he and his peers felt that images portrayed were offensive or stereotyped black African people.
He explained that Alexandra is surrounded by many big money-making companies but none of them contributed to uplifting their education.
He told the commission that racism is wrong and should not be tolerated.
Meanwhile, Marketing Association of South Africa CEO Brian Yuri also told the commission earlier on Wednesday that racism was wrong, and that he was saying that because of the experience he had had.
Furthermore, the executive director of the Freedom of Expression Institute, Samkelo Mokhine also shared the view that racism was wrong, and said that it was destroying the advertising industry.
Seeco and Mokhine shared with the commission that the SABC was suffering a heavy blow and lacked funds because it was not making money from adverts.
Political Bureau
