Headlines

Newspapers here in South Africa have an interesting marketing strategy. In addition to having people sell the newspapers on street corners (they walk up and down the rows of traffic waiting at a red light), they have cardboard signs on telephone poles and lamp posts.  These signs change daily, showing a new headline from that day's newspaper.  So even if you don't subscribe to a newspaper or get news from the radio, television or internet, simply by driving around the neighborhood you can get an idea of what's going on.  Here's one example:

Of course, the headlines don't give away much (or sometimes they're in Afrikaans...).  Often they are only a bizarre or confusing teaser, meant to entice you to buy the paper.  Whether this works or not from a business standpoint I couldn't say, but the entertainment value is tremendous either way. 

 

For instance, Cape Town has been experiencing an unusually rainy winter this year.  Although many days are beautifully sunny and mild (nothing like a Massachusetts or Vermont winter!), the downpours can be terrible and sometimes last for several days.  Apparently the situation has become somewhat dire, and thus we get today's headline:

 

“We Live in Wet Hell”