Trouble for OUTsurance Pointsmen programme in important South African city

The OUTsurance Pointsmen programme has been drawn into the spotlight after an advert promoting its success was played repeatedly on a radio station catering to residents of Cape Town – a city the programme does not serve.

According to the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB), it received a complaint about the 30-second radio commercials that were broadcast on CapeTalk.

The advertisement in question claims “OUTsurance Pointsmen have been easing traffic congestion so we all get to where we need to be quickly and safely for the past 20 years”.

While the advertising omits that the service has not been available in Cape Town for ten years, the complainant stated that advertising on CapeTalk represents that the programme is available to its motorists.

Furthermore, the complainant said that the advert is broadcast multiple times a day, meaning the representation that the service is available in the City of Cape Town is repeated to listeners on a continual, daily basis.

In response, the advertiser said the advert’s words are a factual reference to its history, rather than an indication of its specific area of operation.

It added that while the service is not provided within the City of Cape Town itself, it serves Paarl and Stellenbosch, and that CapeTalk’s broadcast reach extends beyond the municipalities in which the Pointsmen service is provided.

Despite the advertiser’s response, the ARB upheld the complaint, stating that its partnership with CapeTalk creates a misleading impression that the service is presently available to motorists within that area.

The ARB explained that the radio station’s primary listenership is closely associated with the City of Cape Town and the advertisement contains no indication that the service is largely unavailable in the area.

“Language inviting listeners to feel personally assisted by the Pointsmen, without any geographic qualifier, is capable of creating the impression, in the mind of the ordinary listener located in Cape Town, that the service extends to their own experience of traffic congestion,” it said.

“The Directorate accepts that a 30-second advertisement or live read cannot reasonably be expected to enumerate every municipality served, but this does not extend to omitting any indication that the service does not extend to the metropolitan area from which the broadcast draws its primary audience.”

As a result, the ARB instructed the advertiser to withdraw the advertisement in its current format from CapeTalk or any other station primarily targeted at the City of Cape Town.

Why the pointsmen aren’t deployed in Cape Town

In conversation with the radio station earlier this year, the City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, explained why the OUTsurance Pointsmen are missing from the city.

He noted that while the city had pointsmen in the past, the service was discontinued because of concerns about outsourcing policing powers to a third-party service.

“You can’t outsource or defer a policing power when somebody is employed by a third party,” Smith explained.

“For the same reason, we can’t give peace officers status to private security guards.”

He added that no employee of a private company can wield the power to direct traffic, or in the case of a peace officer, the powers to arrest, seize, and search individuals.

Instead, Smith explained that Cape Town is exploring alternative options, like partnering with the City Centre Improvement District for a rental cop model.

This would allow third parties to sponsor pointsmen, but they will remain under the municipality’s control.

The proposed approach aims to address traffic congestion while ensuring policing powers remain in the hands of the municipality.

That said, according to the MMC, Cape Town is facing a resource challenge, and most traffic vehicles on the road have already been allocated to an incident or task.