Project background TRESemmé wants to re-introduce its products to the South African market and has employed you as the Project Manager responsible for this project. Read the extract below and answer the questions that follow, in your capacity as the Project Manager.
TRESemmé: South African shops pull products after ‘racist’ hair adverts
Some of South Africa’s biggest retailers will no longer sell TRESemmé hair products, following protests over an advert that denigrated black hair. Pictures of African hair were labelled “frizzy and dull”, “dry and damaged” in an online advert for TRESemmé products featured by pharmacy chain Clicks.

White hair, meanwhile, was labelled “normal” and “fine and flat”. Shoprite, Woolworths and Pick N Pay all say they have removed TRESemmé products from their shelves, as has Clicks. Earlier this week, a senior executive at Clicks resigned and a number of employees were suspended. The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says critics found the advert particularly insensitive because of the historic issues around African hair in South Africa. Under white- minority rule, the state used the so-called “pencil test” to decide who was black or mixed-race – depending on how easily the pencil moved through the hair. Many Clicks stores were forced to close on Monday following protests led by opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who called the hair advert “racist” and “dehumanising”.

One shop sustained minor damage after being firebombed, police said. Following a meeting between the EFF, Clicks and TRESemmé’s parent company Unilever on Thursday, the party said Unilever would remove all TRESemmé products from South African stores for a period of 10 days and donate at least 10,000 sanitary pads to informal settlements in the country. Earlier this week the chief executive of Clicks, Vikesh Ramsunder, also apologised, adding that an audit of all promotional material would be “urgently implemented” as well as diversity and inclusivity training. “The implications of this are that Black identity exists as inferior to the identity of white people. It is an assertion that white standards of beauty are to be aspired to and features of black represent damage, decay, and abnormality,” the EFF said in a statement earlier this week.
Source: BBC News Website
Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54102625 [Accessed 22 January 2022]

Conduct more research on this subject before answering the questions below. You may use these articles as a starting point.
• https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/unilever-reviewing-all-marketing-campaigns-in-sa- after-racist-clicks-hair-ad-927e904a-9700-4fa8-a934-80f00b36691e
• https://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/784/208159.html

Project Instructions
Please note:
• This project comprises two questions – both of which relate to the ‘Clicks Hair Ad Saga’ Remember to write your answers in an appropriate style and tone in order to maintain the level of professionalism that this communication warrants.
• Referencing using The IIE Harvard method is required throughout. Please make sure you pay careful attention to referencing all sources you have used to help support your answers, both in-text within each question response and in a reference list at the end of each question. The negative marking criteria detailed in the technical referencing rubric will apply.
• Your lecturer/tutor will use the relevant marking rubrics (Appendix A) at the end of this paper to evaluate the quality of each of your responses. As such, you should ensure that you are satisfied that all required components are present and are of a high standard before finalising your responses.

• NB – Your lecturer/tutor will not mark beyond the maximum word counts indicated for each question. If you exceed these specified limits (1500 words for Q.1, and 1 000 words for Q.2), you could lose marks for key points if these fall within the words not marked.

Additional instructions:
You need to demonstrate the ability to synthesise information and communicate it in a manner that is accurate, concise, and relevant to the target audience, which in this case are the senior management teams.

You may refer to, and elaborate on any of the following points, and explain how these points could/ will/ did result in losses for TRESemmé and Clicks.

• Protests erupted because of the advertisement.
• Many Clicks stores were forced to close because of the advertisement/protests.
• Some stores experienced damage to property during the protests.
• Some stores experienced lootings during the protests.
• Employees who were present during the protests may have experienced psychological and/or physical harm and the company may need to provide counselling.
• The closure of the stores resulted in a loss of time for Clicks.
• The closure of the stores had an impact on some of the employees’ income as some casual workers operate on a no work, no pay basis.
• Senior executives had to step down from their positions.
• There was a lot of backlash on social media.
• Both Clicks and TRESemmé were accused of racial prejudice.
• Customers threatened to boycott Clicks and TRESemmé hair products.
• There was political influence from the EFF and ANCYL.
• Retail stores such as Shoprite, Woolworths, Pick ‘n Pay and Clicks removed TRESemmé products from their stores.
• All these factors resulted in financial and reputational damage and losses for both Clicks and TRESemmé.

The instructional graphic that you need to create can be based on any finding(s) of their choice. You may refer to the links provided in the assignment and the links below to gather their data and report it in their findings.

Question 1 (Marks: 60)
Draft an evaluative report (1000 – 1 500 words) for Clicks and TRESemmé’s Senior Management teams evaluating the cause of the ‘Clicks Hair Ad Saga’ and the losses that the Clicks and TRESemmé brands suffered.

To guide your response to this question, use the report section headings, content areas and length requirements provided in the table below, and the corresponding Q.1 marking rubric in Appendix A. No other content or report sections are required. NB – the 1 500-word count maximum for the report excludes the Title page, Contents and Reference list, as shown below:

Question 2:

Your line manager sent you a draft of the new TRESemmé advertisement which the company
wishes to use to re-introduce its products to the South African market. Review the advertisement and draft an essay (500 to 1 000 words) in which you (i) analyse the advertisement in terms of the AIDA method of advertising, (ii) evaluate any intercultural concerns that may arise and (iii)
make a recommendation on whether or not the advertisement should be used, and why.

Answers on Above Questions on Applied Communication Technique

Answer 1: An analysis of the given case study on Tresemme indicates that the company has suffered significant classes because of clicks hair ad Saga. The issue is mainly because of a racially insensitive advertisement run by the company and it has resulted into protests, closer of stores, property deamages an eventually lead to losses to the company. The main focus of this report is therefore on analysing the issue in detail and the major reasons that contributed adversely on the performance of Tresemme.