Every now and then an ad comes along that offends people, and there’s an outcry and outraged calls to 702 and threatening comments on some company’s Facebook page, and the ad is withdrawn, everyone says sorry, and the agency gets blamed. It happened with the spoof sell-your-organs pamphlet campaign for a local horror movie. Its […]
Sarah Britten
During the day Sarah Britten is a communication strategist; by night she writes books and blog entries. And sometimes paints. With lipstick. It helps to have insomnia.
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Oi! That’s my Marmite!
It’s an outrage. The Danes last caused this much English angst in the year 850. (We won’t talk about those cartoons.) They’ve banned Marmite. Seriously. And not because it tastes horrible, which it does, but because they’ve banned every foodstuff fortified with vitamins. Except milk, which is now fortified with Vitamin D. Yes, it’s confusing, […]
Posted inLifestyle
How was the Rapture for you?
The Rapture is so last week I know, but there’s something mildly exhilarating about sipping Veuve Clicquot — someone else was paying — making origami cranes and watching two aggressively heterosexual men commiserate loudly over a woman called Margo in a restaurant in Illovo. (It’s a longish story. Don’t ask.) Naked people might not have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Why don’t councillors tweet?
So there I was in the voting booth this morning, pen in hand, examining the list of candidates in my ward. I live in the suburbs, so the queue was a classically maid-and-madam scenario. Earlier, a middle-aged man standing in front of me had phoned to postpone his flight plan: this is the sort of […]
Posted inLifestyle
Sex, jets and rock ‘n roll
This Friday is an inestimably important anniversary. Not because it’s the 13th, and therefore the subject of a whole bunch of really crap horror movies taking up space on the shelves in Mr Video. No, I have been awaiting the advent of Friday the 13th of May with breathless anticipation (no pun intended) because it […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
I feel ripped off
Bruschetta with Parma ham, brie and preserved fig. Not the most revolutionary combination of flavours and textures the culinary world has known. Nice enough, but as canapés go, not God’s gift to cocktail parties. And yet bruschetta with Parma ham, brie and preserved fig can take on an urgent and insistent significance, especially when one […]
Posted inLifestyle
Another stalker (at least he’s entertaining)
“today if i go home,” writes my Facebook friend, “i will tell my mum about you sarah you are so nice to me”. Which surprises me because a) I haven’t been nice to him and b) I’d have a tough time distinguishing between him and a bar of Lux. In response to all of his […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
How crass is too crass?
I’m no prude. Granted, there are probably Mennonite housewives who are having a wilder time than me right now, but as a rule I’m quite relaxed when it comes to what more delicate types might describe as “colourful” language. It takes a lot to offend me. Hell, I’ve written three books in which I record […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Why Jozi’s hipsters are good for the economy
This past weekend I took a rather cynical friend of mine to the Market on Main, luring him along with the promise of plenty of hipsters to serve as the objects of his withering scorn. In the end, while there were plenty of bourgeois bohemians or bobos around, I was somewhat disappointed by the absence […]
Posted inLifestyle
To blank or not to blank?
Ah, the mutual blank. Along with the uncomfortable half-hug, blanking is one of my favourite forms of social awkwardness. This non-greeting, which occurs when two people either pretend they haven’t seen one another, or simply don’t acknowledge the other’s presence, is an essential weapon in one’s interpersonal communication arsenal. You never know when you might […]
Posted inLifestyle
Why do we care so much about closure?
It struck me again on Monday. There, on the front page of The Citizen, was a story about Earl, the Great Dane whose portrait I painted recently; he had found a headless body in the bushes in Durban — a location 500m from the home of murder accused and former Blue Bulls player Joseph Ntshongwana. […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
I tweet, therefore I am…happier
A significant event in my life took place last week and I didn’t even notice it at the time. No, not speaking at the Tomorrow’s Leaders conference — I certainly noticed that, and can report that sitting on a stage with Jimmy Manyi, Vusi Pikoli and Saki Macozoma was an experience that bordered on the […]