Give Jan the red card
23 Mar 2009
Keo, in his weekly Business Day newspaper column, writes Vodacom’s Player 23 campaign is an insult to the cosmopolitan South African rugby supporter.
For 10 years South African rugby’s marketing team did everything to reflect that in a new South Africa there was a new South African rugby culture far removed from the brandy and coke potbellied types that stereotype the traditional white Afrikaans male’s bond with the game.
Zulu dancers were introduced as part of pre-match entertainment at Tests, playing quotas ensured black representation on the field and slowly blacks were enticed to experience an afternoon at the palace of what was once a white’s only affair.
There was an effort being made to change perception and to kill off stereotyping, but South African rugby could guarantee nothing outside of their control – and they don’t control who pays to go to a ground. They could not foresee Piet van Zyl, dressed in jeans and a Springbok jersey that couldn’t accommodate his barrel gut, casually wondering onto the field and assaulting Irish referee Dave McHugh when the Springboks played the All Blacks in Durban in 2002, and they could not be accountable for the actions of an unidentified individual who racially abuses another at a game.
All that South African rugby can control is that over which it has influence, and that is why the endorsement of Vodacom’s 2009 rugby campaign is baffling because all it has done is reinforce that the South African rugby fan is everything the organization has tried to convince us is no longer the case.
Vodacom, as the primary sponsor of rugby in South Africa, is celebrating the year of the fan. His name is Jan, he is player 23 in the team and he is a clone of the 1970s white Springbok rugby supporter – a walking caricature of what has always repulsed. Only they’ve given Jan a personality of being a jovial and hugely popular bloke, but perception is stronger than fact and the physical appearance of Jan and what he represents in the stands adds to the perception that rugby in South Africa is still a game supported only by grossly overweight brandy and coke potbellied types.
I have sympathy for the well-traveled and likeable modern Afrikaans-speaking South African who loves his language, loves his rugby and loves living in South Africa. This modern Afrikaner certainly doesn’t look or act like Jan and he must cringe every time he sees the advertisement.
In an evolving South African rugby audience market, Jan is in the minority at Stormers and Sharks matches, which says player 23 should be a celebration of something more than a pot-bellied Afrikaans speaking supporter. What of Gert, who is sophisticated, lean and intelligent? What of Sipho, who digs his rugby almost as much as he does soccer? What of Alice who never misses a game? What of Peter, who has always put the Springboks first on a Saturday afternoon?
Vodacom will defend their choice of Jan as good natured fun and SA Rugby will see nothing offensive in it, yet continue to wonder why the perception that their game caters only for conservative and racist whites.
The game in this country is more cosmopolitan in support than it has ever been and that is the pity of the advertisement because it reflects the past when there is so much of the current to be showcased when the British & Irish Lions visit in June.
This is not about being politically correct, but about accuracy in who supports the Springboks. There is more to South African rugby than Jan, but thanks to Jan it will take another 10 years to convince critics of South African rugby that there is life beyond the 23rd member of the team.
Things off the field have changed in our rugby and innovation would be celebrating this in the same way the Bulls and Sharks celebrated what hasn’t changed on the field, which is the ability of a good South African team to turn defence into the most lethal form of attack.
The Bulls and Sharks were brutal in defending their line against the Hurricanes and Force respectively, and the skill in maintaining defensive composure is equal to anything a team does when given the ball.
Rugby is a game played as much without the ball as with it, and at the weekend we saw two very good South African sides reinforce the stereotype that South African teams are more dangerous without the ball.
And, unlike Jan, that is a stereotype the cosmopolitan South African rugby fan should never find offensive.
1,374 Comments
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23 Mar 2009, 13:48 pm
#185 Pietman:
Where is your list, Schindler.
23 Mar 2009, 13:49 pm
#189 grootblousmile:
You need supreme intelligence to write an article about the front row!!
23 Mar 2009, 13:49 pm
#199 WP Till I Die Is ‘n Slaafse Seun:
Slaaf.
Hoeveel keer moet ek jou se.
Moenie uit die slaapkamer praat nie.
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
Keo, sounds to me as if you also have a problem with dutchmen playing rugby like your buddy Luke? Rugby may have become more open, cosmopolitan and multi-faced in South Africa (a good thing), but us rockspiders are still the soul of SA rugby and why should that be bad for the game?
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
#180 Dawn:
Hierso, lees ordentlik, want ek gaan dit nie weer popst nie!
People banned for racist remarks/foul language on keo since Oct 2006:
Western Cape
Mongrel
Molla
ET
provinceboytjie
fullback
Tulsa
Butthead
Harry the Beach Walker
Beachbum
KhoisanKing
Killikijaan
MacDaddy
DaOne
Oddball
Capeflatsboy
KingPaul
Pietman ( maar ek was onskuldig!)
Dawn
Katman
Hater (EC)
Gauteng
GBS
Supa
Stan
(Bulls, none from the lions)
OFS folanke
KZN None
Your comments?
Since most of those CT bloggers are from the South Subs?
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
Keo, can we open up a thread where only you and Tacitus can post comments? Kind of like a public debate. We can all watch. I think it will be one of the greatest bouts this site has ever seen…
And then the winner can fight the much controversial Skopskiet. You guys can un-ban him for a one off battle for the almighty “king of the Keo site bloggers” title.
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
#200 Dawn: ja jong. heading back towards the end of this year, though.
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
Agree with you 100% Keo, even if I do sometimes wonder/wander about your and your staff’s grammar/spelling. (” . . . casually wondering onto the field . . .”)
The fact that some (of whatever persuasion) don’t take offence/think it’s funny/think it’s not an issue/etc. isn’t relevant.
23 Mar 2009, 13:50 pm
What’s the Vodacom Cup?
23 Mar 2009, 13:51 pm
Bollocks Keo,
I am black and Namibian. Lived in SA for four years, cape town to be exact. There is something seriously wrong with the phsyche of the country and all its people (most keo bloggers aside ala rangerman et al), articles like this just compound the problem.
Not even once did I think of the ad as having some sort of negative racial connotations in it, that was until you mentioned it. I still dont see it to be honest. Silly article; I swear I only return to this site for the bloggers and their insights. Your lot (and I dont mean white people, before you jump on my back – I mean jc, ryan and especially simon and grant) are worse than the ad. Why not put a pot bellied jan or converse wearing Sipho or Alice who never misses a game caricature at the bottom of the page.
Reflect on that
23 Mar 2009, 13:51 pm
#202 Dawn:
Get by our reading glasses ‘ouma’#206 Pietman: , I am getting tired of posting this
23 Mar 2009, 13:52 pm
#206 Pietman:
Holy ****! Is that for real? I liked Harry the Beach Walker he had some good chirps….
23 Mar 2009, 13:54 pm
#213 Yetirat:
Trust me…I have been keeping tabs on that lot down in the shadow of Table Mountain….bloody embarrassing. King Paul and I are the only ones who don’t live in the north of CT.
Check with Roy, if you don’t believe me…
23 Mar 2009, 13:54 pm
Keo, I think the comments on this article should open your eyes…people are becoming less and less sensitive to RACE/Colour and becoming more involved with ISSUES. Lekker man. Surely that’s a good thing?
23 Mar 2009, 13:54 pm
#206 Pietman:
We are much smarter/good-looking/more intelligent than the rest of the country?
23 Mar 2009, 13:55 pm
Dawn?
Ek gaan dit nie weer post nie.
Lees en lewer kommentaar, of lossit.
Dankie.
23 Mar 2009, 13:55 pm
I’m told that KEO above is the real Keo.
23 Mar 2009, 13:55 pm
#215 Dawn:
And that’s it then?
Ok….
23 Mar 2009, 13:56 pm
#212 Pietman:
It shows you what decent people stay in KZN.
23 Mar 2009, 13:56 pm
#206 Pietman:
And how many of those bloggers were banned because grootblousmile reported them?
I seem to recall him gloating that he personally was responsibly for reporting all of those, after you first posted that list and RobZim commented on the preponderance of “leftists” on the list…
23 Mar 2009, 13:56 pm
#206 Pietman: I was innocent too… it was all Dawn’s fault…. Ig the Plakkieman banned me and Dawn together for a week or so, prior to the Super 14
23 Mar 2009, 13:56 pm
I thought it was an excellent representation of 99% of the people on here, but at times he even had more style…i am heitant to say taste. We all know thats a step to far.
As to Keo’s whinge. Well Vodacom are a pile of **** anyway so i am surprised you expected a balnaced well thought out campaign from the company that made all of South Africa hate the meercat.
23 Mar 2009, 13:57 pm
Cheers mense, ek moet waai, net gou vir Dawn haar huiswerk gegee….hehehehe!
23 Mar 2009, 13:57 pm
#217 Simon:
He he… well.. we thought so…
23 Mar 2009, 13:59 pm
#222 Ig:
And YOU banned me, unneccesarily bru!
Cheers!
(Remember some of this names, hehehehe, they sure gave you a lot of grief, good times, ek se….)
23 Mar 2009, 14:00 pm
“keo has written 1332 articles.”
And this one is the worst…
23 Mar 2009, 14:00 pm
lol, many miss the point, keo still knows how to write them.
i agree the ad is nothing, and pretty amusing, i enjoy that side of the afr culture, which is very admirable esp in view of all the female-like vanity and superficial **** that seems to be the new-age thing.
there is an element of truth to what keo is saying tho, which is that sometimes the adverstising and spectacles can be patronising, and that is trully cringeworthy, the **** where u see those 3 multi-coloured poofdas crouching down on the castle advert is sick-indcuing and totally contrived.
its when the adverts become condescending or patronising, by calling one another ‘chief’ and so on, where its a bit off, but that looks pretty amusing.
23 Mar 2009, 14:00 pm
#213 Pietman:
Well the Southern Suburbs is traditionally a wealthy white area but I can’t see any correlation between that area and racism above the norm in SA. I went to SACS for 12 years right under the mountain and I can tell you that those black clouds and constant rain coupled with squashed little properties do start to create some agro. Maybe thats why…
23 Mar 2009, 14:01 pm
#220 WP Till I Die Is ‘n Slaafse Seun:
Dunno ‘seuna’, most of them were banned by Ig….before your time I am afraid…no report button way back then.
23 Mar 2009, 14:01 pm
“1102 Robzim Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
#1097 Pietman:
Hi Pietman,
In case you are still around today here is something more:
It is probably save to say that the overwhelming majority of bloggers on this site are centre or on the right side of the political spectrum in SA. The so called “lefties” are therefore far in the minority. Despite this, the banned or suspended list comprises of nearly only “lefties”. It leads to a number of questions such as:
Is it because only the “lefties” are vulgar and do not know how to behave themselves while the “righties and centries” are all as clean as whistles?
Is it because the “righties and centries”are much more intolerant and therefore more “trigger happy” as far as reporting of people are concerned?
Is it because the moderator is biased or perhaps giving in to pressure applied by the majority?
Is here perhaps some sort of Keomafia who is running (or trying to run) the show?
There are obviously more questions but that will only complicate things further. Do you have the answer?
1103 cab Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
#1097 Pietman:
yes that was the way it seemed, since all those recently banned bloogers you mentioned were from the left politically and there bannings seemed to after fighting with those on the right.
if you are suggesting that these ppl just go off for no reason in the manner they do, well no-one buys that.
so far as hater is concerned, i was probably wrong and she’d obviously just lost it. however frustrated and angry you are, it remains a public forum with ppl of all ages and sensibilities, i dont mind it personally, but if you get banned for acting like trash you cant complain since that its precisely this adopted persona/identity for the explicit purpose of causing offence.
the ppl that get right in amonst the **** do it for a reason, they do it to rub ppl up the wrong way and it works and is entertaining, but yeah its pretty unpleasant when it becomes personal.. there’s free speech, but also manners, and manners are not limited to any social class, they can either be adopted or rejeced by each individual.
but some don’t want manners, they want someone who rails and gnashes and upsets, a man of the downtrodden masses, a populist, a demagogue, a n’hher in the woodpile (bladdy terrible word). but thats just it, they feel their are attitudes and crimes that have been committed which make all these PC niceties farcicaL
alot of the stuff is offensive, but so too are the attitudes on here which they find offensive. so sometimes leeway needs to be given to keep the balance even if not everyones cup of tea.
1104 grootblousmile Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
#1102 Sheriff: Jy is ‘n goeie ou Sherriff…. jy sien dinge helder….
1105 Pietman Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
#1101 whatever: #1102 grootblousmile:
Hllo boys.
Klikme Jinxie said, I am also tired of this ****.
Now all of a sudden Robzim and Cabbie come up with this idea that there is is a ‘rightest’ (derdemag. KKK. Broederbond, and what not) move behind the bans, and that I am am perceived to the instigator.
Have heart…check the posts of those who have been banned.
\And why they have been removed.
You think Mark, Roy, and the rest of us regular bloggers want to be associated with those people.
Asseblief….
They should move onto some political/racist site. I am going nowhere, I will be here intheir faces, day and night.
I am gatvol of those people, and I will detest and fight them here on keo until I get banned again….
I won’t give in.
1106 Pietman Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
#1107 Pietman:
Sorry for the typos, foreign keyboard also moerig…but you will make out…
1107 whatever Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
#1102 Robzim:
You hit the nail on the head with vulgar bro. I have been on this site awhile now and have seen alot of **** (for lack of a better description) being written but in the last few days it came from hater and lukes buddy. Now if you want to put them into a political camp, thats your perogative, but my guess is that they ain’t right wing
1108 grootblousmile Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Ek moet winkels toe……. Bonzai vlieg more…. moet nog vir hom ‘n skooltas en ‘n hoop skoolskryfbehoeftes en boekery gaan koop….
1109 Pietman Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
#1104 Robzim:
Easy Rob
Check their posts.
Vulgar language, reference to *** with teenage girls (folanke) Kilikijaan swearing at KingPauls mother, Tulsa giving my wife the stick, MacDadday calling GBS’s mother names…provinceboutjie swearing at me and the ‘dutch reformed okes like Pietman.
wWf is this?
Politics ?
Right wing?
C’mon, don’t talk kuk to me now, go spin that ***** to your boss Kortbroek van Schalkwyk, he might believe you…and then tell the little arsehole Pietman from way back then in Stellenbosch said hello….
1110 cab Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
#1105 Pietman:
i did think you and your group were behind the bannings, and it seems i was totally wrong on that since you have clearly stated you’ve had nothing to do with it and i sincerely apologise for that. i cant do more than apologise, i simply pbserved what appeared to be a correlation between the bloggers you argued with and their subsequent bannings, and i thought this is a bit odd.
1111 grootblousmile Report comment
January 17th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I’m the “Group” behind the bannings…. me, myself, I….
I like to use the Report Button…. I like to weed out the schmucks on this site…”
23 Mar 2009, 14:05 pm
#229 Pietman:
By the way, I am still waiting for proof that I attacked your “mense en kerk”. Like I said, show me the proof of that, and I shall apologise, publicly, here on keo.
I am also waiting on all the instances where I supposedly quoted the Koran, “asof dit my dagboek is”.
Failing that – I believe I require an apology from you.
I once attacked you in a moment of anger (you’ll remember the Boeremafia comment) – but then apologised for it afterwards.
23 Mar 2009, 14:05 pm
If anyone finds this add racist then they have rocks in their heads. It is a pisstake of the highest order.
Seriously there are guys like this at every game at every level and they are all colours/brands. They’re also usually grossly over-weight in a jersey a few sizes small. Having said that there is also the cool dudes in their stove-pipe jeans, collar length tussled hair (tad emo for sure) downing a pint or 2 just like Jan.
23 Mar 2009, 14:05 pm
Jan is the typical BBulls supporter. Just look into the stands at a Loftus game. They park their caravan next to Loffies, braai and suip for half the day and then go watch the game like soccer hooligans. Can not say the same for Cape Town & Durban games. The Bulls have the best girls though….
23 Mar 2009, 14:05 pm
I’m sorry but this is really a nonsense article. Complete sensationalist rubbish. Looking for a story where there is none.
Also, I wish I could have this 30 seconds of my life back.
23 Mar 2009, 14:08 pm
Geez Keo, please get over yourself. It’s just a fun advert, ment to put a smile on the face of the viewer while advertising player23.
Sometimes a spade is just a spade and there is no conspiracy around each courner.
Surely you have better rugby related articles to write.
23 Mar 2009, 14:08 pm
#212 Yetirat:
Harry is not banned now. Chosen to stay away from the rabid discrimination on this site.
23 Mar 2009, 14:09 pm
well then…aangesien 99% van julle blind of dom is of net nie omgee hoe big business jou nasie rip nie sal ek maar dit n dag roep en in die hoek gaan huil
Wonder wat dink my vriend Luke W van dit…??
Anyways…Keo verstaan waarvan ek praat.
23 Mar 2009, 14:09 pm
This post is a joke. We all love Jan.
Keo your the one with the prejudice.
23 Mar 2009, 14:10 pm
#223 Pietman: cheers Pietman
23 Mar 2009, 14:10 pm
#230 WP Till I Die Moet Sy Plek Ken: What happened to the Report Button?
23 Mar 2009, 14:10 pm
en niemand gee n moer om wat julle klomp dink of comment nie…proof is in the print!!! ciao
23 Mar 2009, 14:10 pm
Taccie loves Jan? When did he move to Cape Town?
23 Mar 2009, 14:11 pm
die karakter Jan is n klap in my gesig en vele ander.
23 Mar 2009, 14:12 pm
#240 bokfan1:
No idea…
23 Mar 2009, 14:13 pm
Keo you are a TOOL.
Thanks to people like you keeping the Racist issue alive, you serve all the Fools higher up than you in society (READ Government). They need this for their own self serving purposes. Without this Racist vehicle they will lose out. Remember, ALWAYS follow the money.
So, a BEEEG thanks from all the comrades. Keep helping to divide people even further. Luckily most sane people see right through such antics.
23 Mar 2009, 14:13 pm
maar dan weer…die gem. afrikaner het n “spoorweg” agtergrond.
23 Mar 2009, 14:13 pm
Jeeeez, the next thing, we’ll see reviews of Washing Powder adverts on TV……..
Now that is farktup stuff !
Hehehe
23 Mar 2009, 14:14 pm
I blocked all advertising on this site/ Any Vodacom Ads? Maybe this is why Keo is no fan…
23 Mar 2009, 14:14 pm
#243 Ned: kry n sin vir humor, my ou.
23 Mar 2009, 14:14 pm
#229 Pietman:
Lucky Roy is asleep half the time cos he missed the post where you admitted to being a Grand Wizard.
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