Last Dictator Standing
Nando's2011
Last Dictator Standing is a 2011 60-second television commercial (also cut to 45 seconds) for Nando's, created by Black River FC, Johannesburg.
Why it works
A Robert Mugabe lookalike sits alone at a dinner table laid for guests who will never arrive. To Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days" he remembers the good times with his fellow strongmen: a water-pistol fight with Gaddafi, sand angels with Saddam Hussein, karaoke with Mao, a Titanic pose on a tank with Idi Amin, and PW Botha too. The deadpan point: nobody should have to eat alone at this time of year, so share a Nando's. Black River FC turned 2011's fall of dictators into a festive-season offer, true to a brand known for riffing on current affairs, and director Dean Blumberg chose to make Mugabe lonely and human rather than simply mock him. It is studied as satire with real stakes. It passed a million YouTube views in six days, then Nando's pulled it from TV after Mugabe loyalists threatened its staff in Zimbabwe, saying no commercial was worth that risk. It still won the 2012 Loerie Grand Prix and a Bronze Lion at Cannes.
Techniques
- Humour A Mugabe lookalike dining alone fondly recalls water-pistol fights and karaoke with fellow strongmen, a deadpan joke ending in an invitation to share a Nando's.
- Real-time and newsjacking Turns the year's fall of dictators into a festive-season offer, riffing on current affairs in the way the brand is known for.
- Shock and provocation Lampoons Mugabe and his fellow strongmen through lookalikes, a provocation risky enough to get the spot pulled from television after threats against staff.
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