Spectacular Ghanaian Ads from the 1800s!

Ghana is built on the back of great storytelling. This truth is obscured by descriptives like hospitable, morally conservative, religiously tolerant and culturally rich, but a forensic audit will trace everything back to the ability of a people to tell compelling stories. When our ancestors sought to create a moral framework and achieve behavioral change, they used taboos. Taboos are little more than gripping stories of untellable misfortune that befalls a person who flouts a societal norm.

That one day in the week it was forbidden to go fishing on was to give the sea a much needed breathing space. Not throwing brooms for fear they will come and throw you about in your sleep was teaching common sense. Not whistling at night or else you’ll attract snakes was curbing noise pollution; snakes are deaf. Not going out the first few nights after a king’s death lest you’re beheaded is to instill reverence for the crown which they felt was requisite for effective government. If you think about it, there must have been a brilliant strategy-copywriting team behind all this!

Then there were folktales which were the NETFLIX of the age; stories so riveting people sat around fires to listen late into the night. These stories were woven with morals and lessons. They were the most effective instruments of behavioral change. Through them, people saw the need to be respectful to elders, to be kind, to do what is right, to not be greedy, etc. Every behavioral trait to avoid or aspire to had a bunch of stories to send the message across.

It is storytelling that allowed us to pass tradition on from one generation to the next. Different tribes know their historical roots because they were told stories about them. We are rich in culture (not so much these days) because they were instilled through stories of our history. Each story was a block-buster. These days, we don’t even remember the plot of great movies or ads after a while, so you should applaud the craft required to tell stories that outlived generations.

Against this backdrop, Ghanaian ads should have been the best! Reason is that now more than ever, storytelling is the crux of consumer engagement. It doesn’t matter if it’s a promo or thematic campaign, you need a compelling story to transport your message. Brands need compelling authentic stories that resonate with a target if they will ever attain a lovemark status. What is called ‘branded content’ is little more than naturally embedding a brand (message) in a great story people want to hear and be a part of.

With the lifetimes of content people have to choose from on their timeline, the ability to tell thumb-stopping stories has never been more important. This is when your rich track-record in storytelling should have come in handy. That’s why it’s such a shame to see tortuous reels of gimmicky ads dominating media spend. Ads built on the assumption that the average Ghanaian cannot decode a conceptual ad. Ads built on the assumption that, humor is the only worthy vehicle to communicate by.

We force documentary details into a 30 second radio ad.

We don’t take the time to embed the message in the story, we tell a joke, then spew out promo details, or skip the joke altogether and spew our promo details in what we hope is seen as a funny way. We don’t deploy truly integrated communication; so even a media like billboard, which is meant to reinforce a message, is loaded with flyer details. We force documentary details into a 30 second radio ad. It all does no justice to our storytelling history.

That’s why even now, we hold ads from the 90s in high repute, like this one here; It combines elements which tickle us in ways that make us forgiving of any execution issues.

Internationally, storytelling has become even more important. One of my favorite campaigns was a story about a rang'tan (Orangutan!) According to lbbonline, Rang-tan has become a humble heroine in the battle against dirty palm oil for Greenpeace. Her story has become one of the most watched adverts of all time, with over 80m online views, leading to a massive upsurge in awareness of dirty palm oil production - encouraging Wilmar, which produces 40% of the world’s palm oil, to tighten checks on sustainable production from its suppliers.

Airing a global ad or blindly copying the structure of a global ad also wont work. We need to go back to the basics of our way of telling stories. We need to probe and identify what made stories (aka campaigns) of yesteryears timeless and figure out how to apply them in a modern context. The Brand owner who will be flexible and brave enough to allow this will ‘pioneer’ a new age in Ghanaian advertising.

Originally posted on www.benanyan.com