STAFF WRITER
A STORM has erupted between fast-food outlet, Mambos’ Chicken, and Public Relations practitioners over moral principles governing the art of advertising with the later threatening to use the force of law to compel Mambo’s Chicken to desist from sex-appeal marketing strategies that promote sexual immorality.
The fast-food restaurant immediately hit back with a potshot attack on the PR watchdog’s president Barry Manandi defiantly saying “our service has no time out.”
In a letter to Mambos’ Chicken, Zimbabwe Association of Accredited Practitioners in Advertising (ZAAPA) president Barry Manandi hit out at the latter, accusing the company of moral decadence and called for immediate pulling down of the advert.
“We have noted with concern, that in recent times your business has been exclusively using sexualized content to promote your products. While it is your prerogative to create the brand that you desire, the introduction of lewd and course innuendo has come to the Association’s attention and members of the public have raised concerns around this,” reads the letter.
ZAAPA said the advertisement is awkward, misleading and threaten to derail government’s effort to uplift women who are always at the receiving end of societal ills such as rape and violence.
“The inference is around your suggestion, as a brand, that at the purchase of Mambos Chicken for a woman, sex must be the immediate reward. In a society that has made it a policy to promote, elevate and empower girls and woman, this is not only against government policy, but flies in the face of womanhood,” Manandi said.
The Association had no kind words to the Mambos Chicken, calling it to toe the line and do away with dirty marketing strategies.
“We would urge that you and your marketing team stop this practice forthwith, and use wit and satire to promote your brand, rather than this base, crass innuendo you have been using,” the letter read.
The condemned advertisement in vernacular language reads “Kana akutengera Mambo’s ngaapinde hake amana,” which critics said it borders on promoting sexual immorality.
