This story we tell, it concerns three farmers.
One carry him money, to go for him villay,
So all de people come, an' they borrow
everything. Another farmer put him own money
for ground, But thief steal am for night, an' ant eat some too. One of them farmers, him got plenty sense, 'E go for Barclays Bank an' they keep him money well.
Brown shoulders swayed and laughter filled the night as this simple tale in pidgin English wafted last week from the screen of one of Nigeria's 45 open-air cinemas. A commercial for Barclays Bank of England, written in the local "High Life" beat, the short cartoon has become so popular among West Africans that it vies for equal billing with ancient Tom Mix westerns and Charlie Chaplin slapsticks. It also pleases Barclays: savings accounts have almost quadrupled since it started showing the film. Says Barclays' Advertising Manager Kenneth J. Lashmar:
"Africa is an adman's dream. These people are curious, keen, vital; they love to laugh, they love the visual approach, and they're wild about education.''
Hut-to-Hut Research. Barclays' film is one of the most successful feats in a new and challenging field of advertising especially geared to the African market. Before 1945 there was virtually no advertising by European or U.S. firms designed for Africans. Today, with African purchasing power blossoming, admen in London and New York are working hard to sell the Africans their wares. So far, the market is not very big (advertisers spend only $1,400,000 a year to reach Nigeria's 35 million people), but Africa's future is so promising that firms that want a part in it are moving in now.
Far from being a gullible prey for the adman's every gimmick, the African checks into quality and price before plunking down his hard-earned money, can be fanatically loyal to a product once he is won over. But his sense of values, his different cultural life, and his ignorance of many Western habits all conspire to make him a customer to test the ingenuity of the Madison Avenue adman. Hut-to-hut market research, for example, does not seem to work. A recent survey for brilliantine among upper-income Nigerians ($280 to $1,400 a year) showed that 38% were nonusers. Yet among these nonusers, 52% insisted that they preferred to buy brilliantine in jars rather than tubes.