This past weekend saw the annual Lourie awards take place in Durban, with South Africa’s much-loved fast food brand, Nandos, winning the Grand Prix award for their #rightmyname campaign. With the payoff line, “Your name is not a mistake”, advertising agency M&C Saatchi Abel brought attention to the fact that the technology we use everyday still views African names as a mistake, with spellcheck putting a bold red line underneath most non-European names:
Your name is your right, don’t let anyone tell you it’s wrong. Download the #rightmyname dictionary today and together we’ll say voe*sek to spellcheck and its red line.
The campaign called for people to add their names to a database, which was made available for download at the beginning of this month. When you log onto rightmyname.com you have the option of downloading a list of names from South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and India, as well as a list of ‘global’ names.
A great idea that celebrates our diversity, one of the things that makes South Africa such an amazing country to live in!