#INTACapeTown kicks off today with a welcoming speech from
INTA President Ronald van Tujil noting how proud INTA was to be on the African
continent for the first time, recognising that the world is watching the
African Lion emerge as the Asian Tigers struggle to maintain their allure and
committing INTA to help develop the continent further as it builds its potentially
enormous consumer class. He explained that this INTA conference has attracted
200 delegates from 34 countries.
Brenda Kahari and Barry Gerber provided remarks as
Conference Co-Chairs and thanked their teams. Brenda, in particular, struck a
chord with her emotional observation that, in 138 years of INTA’s existence, it
is the first time that they have come to the continent with a conference, and
what a watershed moment it was for her having been involved in African IP progress
committees at INTA for a long time.
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| Brozin |
The much awaited opening keynote address by Nandos’
co-founder Robbie Brozin did not disappoint. Replete with fuck yous, fuck thems
and theirs, he inspired the audience with the irreverence and journey of the
Nandos brand taking us through their cheeky and controversial advertising
campaigns in South Africa, to their international design driven brand philosophy
and philanthropic malaria initiatives in Africa - “Changing lives too, one
chicken at a time!”
The function of the trade mark attorney in the success of the
Nandos brand was well recognised by Robbie who often referenced the work of
Deon Bouwer, their trusted advisor, in “protecting the lunatics” especially
when it came to the strategies to defend their campaign strategies and copycats
in South Africa. Even the choice of name NANDOS emanated from a trade mark
problem with the original preferred name FERNANDOS.
Robbie Brozin could easily have been Robbie Brazen. His
message and very much the inspiration from his talk was for us as Africans to
believe in ourselves. At the same time
he stressed that it’s not an acceptable excuse to be African and “don’t be late!”,
“Celebrate the crazy”, “change the rules” and “have fun doing it”. Well - you
can’t give the bird to that!
Afro Leo
