A Search for Unity

I saw “East Africa’s first Ad-truck” today. This isn’t your average haulage vehicle with advertising on the side; it’s much more specialised. It is a large truck, modified to have transparent walls against which are mounted rolling advertising banners. Inside the truck (you can see in because the window-rollers alternate between banners and a transparent screen) are a bunch of people holding advertising placards and products, generally bouncing around, gesturing and posing at motorists to get their attention. It roves around town all day.

The truck was sauntering along at a leisurely 10 km/h when I caught up with it, billowing smoke and paying no heed to lane markings on the road. It approached a busy roundabout, and a few drivers confronted with this novelty come close to having an accident because of the distraction. The truck meandered along, leaving a trail of coughing pedestrians and congested traffic behind it.

Companies thinking of advertising on this new advertising platform might like to consider what message they are sending out to the public: “not only do we mind clogging up the already congested roads in your city and increasing the risk of traffic accidents, we also don’t care about the environment and public health. We do however care about giving you one more in-your-face marketing campaign to brighten your day and increase our ad-sales. We hope you will go out and buy our product!”