via Nando’s distances itself from Mugabe fall meme ad – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 19, 2015 By Garikai Tunhirb
South African fastfood chain Nando’s has distanced itself from an advert currently circulating on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
The ad, which started circulating early this week, shows a meme of President Robert Mugabe’s fall.
It reads: “Falling for our chicken is risky business.” The line is followed by a suggestive meme of Mugabe’s fall, then the line: “If you know what we mean”, after which comes the “Nandos flame grilled chicken” legendary undersigning.
Mugabe fell at Harare International Airport two weeks ago after he had just returned from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and various pictures of his fall found their way into the public domain through the social media platforms.
Nando’s, with branches in more than 30 countries, said in a statement yesterday it had been alerted of a fake Nandos’ advertisement depicting Mugabe’s recent public fall being shared on social media.
“This constitutes an abuse of our brand and trademarks and we distance ourselves from this material,” the fastfood outlet said.
“Nando’s Zimbabwe would like to assure the people of Zimbabwe that this advertisement was neither created nor sanctioned by Nando’s. We appeal to our fans and customers not to share this advertisement in the mistaken belief that it is a creation or product of Nando’s.”
Following Mugabe’s fall, State security agents forced photojournalists to delete the pictures and videos, but it didn’t serve any purpose as the pictures found their way into the public domain.
In no time, memes of Mugabe’s fall found their way onto the social scene as well.
He was caricatured chasing the ball in a football game between English clubs Liverpool and Chelsea, on the dance floor, on the starting line of a 100m track race alongside the likes of Usain Bolt, on the back of a horse, being chased by a hippo, water surfing, in American singer Beyonce’s video and many others.
In 2011, Nando’s released a 46-second commercial dubbed Last Dictator Standing which saw the company’s Zimbabwean franchise being threatened with closure if the fastfood chain continued flighting the ad.
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