It was a day much like any other. Jimmy Manyi, the abrasive
former Labour DG who’s now the Government’s spin doctor
(where he replaced the suave Themba Maseko, who was apparently
fired for having made a hash of the Nelson Mandela hospitalisation
thing, but has since been told that he can now be DG at Public
Works), announced that the Government has decided to drop the new
slogan that it planned to use as the centrepiece of Brand South
Africa’s new R140 million advertising campaign. This a mere
two months after the slogan was approved by the cabinet no less!
The luckless slogan: ‘More Than You
Imagine.’ Not to worry we were told, you (taxpayers)
only paid R470 000 for the creation of that literary gem (and they
say lawyers know how to charge). The slogan, which was to replace
the somewhat ageing ‘Alive With Possibilities’, was
dropped not because it was felt that it might become embarrassing
if South Africa does indeed move from being a ‘Scalpel and
Safari’
