Cliff - Fake - Jennings

Posted by Marc

August 30, 2007

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It would seem my previous post about Cliff Jennings should be taken with a pinch of salt. According to a fellow South African blogger Bruinman, it turns out Cliff is just a good act by actor Eduan Van Jaarsveldt . A fake but clever marketing ploy by M-Net & their ad agency Ogilvy, who created the fictitious character to bring some lively airtime to a sometimes dull show.

Well done to them. The first part of the Idols season can sometimes be boring and monotounous, but they have done something interesting here to keep the show alive.

The use of social media to promote something like this is awesome, and it is working. The facebook profile has over 1200 members, the youtube videos are getting some cool hits. Actually, in the 24 hours after I posted my previous story, I got 150 hits just from google searches for “cliff jennings”.

Well done to the ad agency, and to M-Net. It has taken 3 weeks for the public to figure this out.

For some info on the “undercover detective” work that has been going on, check out the following links:

http://bruinman.blogspot.com/2007/08/cliff-jennings-fake.html

http://www.joblog.co.za/2007/08/another-nail-in-the-coffin-of-idols

http://www.jasonbagley.com/2007/08/30/cliff-jennings-is-a-complete-fake

http://www.news24.com/News24/MyNews24/Your_story/0,,2-2127-2128_2174101,00.html

I’m still a Cliff Jennings Fan. Live the dream

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