Ogilvy confirms Idols fake

2007-08-30 13:58

Birgit Ottermann

Cape Town - The adverting agency Ogilvy JHB has confirmed claims of a blogger and News24 user "Bruinman" that the newest Idols phenomenon, Cliff Jennings, is a fake.

A spokesperson for Ogilvy JHB told News24 on Thursday that the character of Cliff Jennings was an advertising campaign of the company.

"We are to own up completely up front," she said. However, she denied that the project has been commissioned by M-Net or Idols South Africa.

"The Idols South Africa: Cliff Jennings Living the dream" ad campaign has been featured on the Ads of the World website as a project of the Ogilvy JHB, South Africa. Soon after News24 verified the fact, access to this page on the website was denied.

According to the website, the character of Cliff Jennings was created "to keep interest up during lull periods of Idols."

Published prematurely

The Ogilvy spokesperson told News24 that the Ads of the World website had published the news about the ad campaign prematurely, but that it wouldn't have mattered anymore after the last Idols audition on Sunday, as he probably wouldn't have made it to the next round anyway.

The role of Cliff Jennings, who has won a cult following in certain circles for his bad singing and rude treatment by the judges, is acted by a Johannesburg actor named Eduan van Jaarsveldt, who played small roles in the feature films Tsotsi and Catch a fire.

The Ads of the World website also claims that Van Jaarsveldt is one of the creative people behind the advertising campaign. Van Jaarsveldt also runs a film production company Stealth Donkey moving pictures with a fellow-filmmaker Stephen Abbott.

'Huge fan'

News24 contacted actor Eduan van Jaarsveldt about the claim that he is acting the role of Cliff Jennings.

"I'm not sure about that. I don't know." He was aware, though, of the fact that Jennings had 16 fan groups on Facebook and had profiles on MySpace and Facebook. Even after News24 disclosed to him that Ogilvy had confirmed it was an ad campaign, he remained "unsure".

He did say, however, that he was a huge fan of Cliff Jennings. "He is the big star of the future and he will still win a Sama, for sure."

The Head of M-Net's Public Relations, Lani Lombard, referred all News24's queries to M-Net's media spokesperson for Idols South Africa Handrie Basson.

Basson told News24 that he could neither confirm nor deny the claims, but that a big announcement surrounding Cliff Jennings, will be made on Sunday.

- News24