By Jane Mlambo| The Zimbabwe Association of Accredited Practitioners in Advertising (ZAAPA) has reprimanded fast growing fast food outlet Mambos Chicken over its sexualised advertising content.
This follows a controversial Mambos Chicken advert which read, “Kana Akutengera Mambo’s Ngaapinde Hake amana” which ZAAPA loosely translated to mean that buying chicken for your woman should get you sex.
In a letter to Mambo’s Chicken, ZAAPA President Barry Manandi urged the outlet to desist from sexual slant in their advertising saying the particular advert bordered on violation of women.
“We have noted with concern, that in recent times your business has been exclusively using sexualised content to promote your products. While it is your prerogative to create the brand you desire, the introduction of lewd and course innuendo has come to the Association’s attention and members of the public have raised concerns around this.
“Your latest piece of work has been of most concern, as not only does it centre on your chosen sexual slant but further, insinuates the violation of women, using your chicken. The inference is around your suggestion as a brand, that at the purchase of Mambos Chicken for a woman, sex must be the immediate reward. in a society that has made it a policy to promote, elevate and empower girls and women, this is not only against Government policy but flies in the face of womanhood,” said Manandi.
He further noted that Mambo’s use of sexual slant had the potential to tear the moral fabric instead of their desired goal of promoting great tasting chicken.
“We now implore you, your marketing team and those handling your brand, from a creative perspective to assess whether your desire is to promote great tasting chicken, or to tear the moral fabric of the nation through advertising work that borders on the pornographic.
“We would like to urge you and marketing team to stop this practice forthwith, and use wit and satire to promote your brand , rather than this base, crass innuendo you have been using,” added Manandi.
Media scholar and feminist Delta Ndou credited Mambo’s Chicken for its application of newsjacking to build its brand but was quick to castigate the fact that the company only choses salacious and sexually explicit type of content which she said was wrong.
“The problem is that Mambo’s Chicken seems to more frequently jack news that is of a salacious and sexually explicit nature,” said Ndou.
“The brand profits from endorsing patriarchal values, particularly the notion that the sexual gratification of men matters more than female consent,” added Ndou.