It's Not Inside It's On Top: Memorable moments in South African advertising – Khanya Mtshali

6th May 2021

It's Not Inside It's On Top: Memorable moments in South African advertising – Khanya Mtshali

Khanya Mtshali

From ‘Yebo, Gogo’ and ‘Glug, glug’ to ‘Sgudi Snaysi’, South Africa has produced unforgettable ads over the years. Borrowing from music, sports, politics and youth culture, brands have created definitive cultural moments with ads that have spoken to our national psyche.

Blending memoir, criticism, and cultural commentary, Khanya Mtshali takes a keen and witty look at South African advertising. She questions commonly held truths, presenting a fresh take on how we’ve come to see ourselves through the ads that we grew up with.

It’s Not Inside, It’s On Top is an entertaining and informed addition to the debate on the role of advertising in our democracy, and how business, politics and marketing intersect. It may also leave you laughing out loud.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Khanya Mtshali is a writer and cultural critic from Johannesburg. She holds an MA in cultural reporting and criticism from NYU. She writes about history, literature, politics and fashion and her work has been published in The Daily Maverick, New Frame, The Mail & Guardian, The Guardian, Newyorker.com, Timeline, Popula and Quartz Africa.

It's Not Inside It's On Top: Memorable moments in South African advertising is published by NB Publishers