Callum Wallace

Radio advert analysis

Listening to the “Nando’s” Radio advertisement, it was apparent from the start that the style was extremely humorous and light hearted. This is demonstrated through the stereotypical accent of the Portuguese language, which was the voice of the colloquial jokes that were told. An example was mentioning a Hispanic women’s “Unibrow”, and also the shared reference to the audience of “Bambi’s mother dying”. In using this technique, it immediately engages the audience within the brands purpose, to sell the food and to establish their brand even further. However, this could have also been a less effective technique because of legal reasons regarding the RACC guidelines stating, “The use of foreign accents in advertisements have the potential to offend. Extreme care is needed to make sure that such creative treatments will not be perceived as being unkind or hurtful to ethnic minorities, and that they do not reinforce racial stereotypes in a negative way. A fine line can be drawn, for example, between the use of a foreign accent in a relevant manner and one which is being used to denigrate or mock. While the mere use of a foreign accent is not precluded in advertisements, it needs to be borne in mind that humour in advertisements does not necessarily get round the potential to offend.” Therefore, the brand is arguably using a dangerous technique in damaging their brand identity, as to many this would appear racist and an unattractive way to promote their food and brand.

The main message of the advertisement is to promote the food within “Nando’s” and to also create a profit from the consumers of the restaurant. Thus, the tagline, “Nando’s it’s okay” is used, as it creates the sense that eating there is an enjoyable experience, and the public should not feel guilty for doing so. Perhaps indicating their food is inexpensive, or healthy, therefore the audience can enjoy the meal without feeling guilt afterwards. In addition, perhaps it is also used to combat the arguably racist indications used within their stereotypical accent, as it gives the impression that what they are doing is deemed as acceptable within society.

Although no information surrounding contact details or factual information regarding prices is used, this is expected due to “Nando’s” being such a well-established and well-known brand. It would also be near impossible to make it so everyone who heard it would know where there local Nando’s is with the amount of franchises there are across the country. The company therefore chose to include arguable pointless humour, to make their advert more memorable then informative, which in my opinion is a much more successful technique. However, it does use information regarding the menu, including food items, “salad” and “rice” to show they are more diverse and sell other dishes than just their most famous “chicken”.

The background music was that of a Mariachi band, which linked directly to the contextual factor of Portuguese food and the brand establishing itself their geographically. I feel the use of this added to the accent and jokes used, as it created the impression that it was a unique place to eat and would be enjoyable for the whole family.

Callum Wallace

To conclude, I feel the advert was extremely enjoyable to listen to, and would be seen as a totally different amongst the rest of the adverts. However, despite this being my opinion, I do feel it could have offended many potential customers and therefore was perhaps now the correct way to sell their food and restaurant. I feel this could have made the brand be associated with racism, and in doing so loosing many customers.