LOCAL NEWS: DEIRDRE ROELANTS
A CONTROVERSIAL ADVERTISEMENT FOR HAKANOA HANDMADE DRINKS REBEKAH HAY STARTED UP HER BUSINESS IN 2009 producing old fashioned ginger beer that people remember from their childhood days when mums would brew it in the kitchen. Rebekah uses a commercial kitchen but did all the experimentation at home in Hakanoa Street where she has lived for 20 years, hence the name of her company, Hakanoa Handmade Drinks. There are two ginger beers, the one we are all familiar with and a lime and chili variety for adult tastes. She started selling at farmers’ markets and during winter, when sales of the beer fell off, she developed a ginger syrup that is a hot drink and one of the more exciting products in the range. When working on a business plan, a friend who worked for Saatchi and Saatchi called to tell her the agency had an idea for a ginger beer ad and were looking for a ginger beer company to use it. The ad would be entered for an award so it came free of charge. This was an offer too good to refuse so Rebekah met up with Art Directors, David King, and James Bowman, both ginger tops, who sat her down and explained where they were coming from before showing her the ad. On his way home from school, David’s eight year old ‘ginger’ son had been set upon because of his hair colour and they wanted to do something to stop this sort of behaviour. Their idea was to come up with a controversial but funny ad and bring media attention to the problem. Rebekah agreed the ad was politically incorrect but obviously tongue in cheek. Nevertheless she checked it out with a few people to get their reaction, namely a ginger headed cousin, a ginger headed nephew, and a ginger headed neighbour who has the
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most beautiful little ginger headed girl. Their reaction - it’s a celebration of the ginger headed people in our lives. This research did not prepare her for the negative reaction the ad received. All she expected was a bit of positive exposure and some ginger headed people would receive free product. Instead, because she had not hidden her name or address, she became the target for a lot of hostility, so much so that in one particularly threatening instance, she had to ask the police to intervene. One of her outlets, The Little Grocer received a call threatening the owner he’d punch his face out, and another saying they’d never step foot in the shop again. Rebekah did not create the ad - the parents of bullied ginger -haired children did, and because they work in advertising they decided to address the problem by getting it talked about. It sure made an impact, receiving unprecedented negative media attention and unfortunately, Rebekah and her husband became the fall guys. What a storm in a teacup! After all, the campaign consisted of only a few posters displayed for a short time around Auckland. In the words of David King who wrote the ad, “Ginger kids take a lot of flack. Sometimes nasty stuff. And you want to do something to stop this. Hakanoa and Alia of The Little Grocer have copped a lot of flack to help get the issue raised in the media. Now that people have seen why they’ve done this, I hope everyone gets right in behind them because they’re on our side”. Well conversely, because of all this hoo hah, the Hakanoa brand is now well and truly out there. (DEIRDRE ROELANTS) PN www.hakanoa-handmade.co.nz
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