Arjen de Jong, creative director for Cygnus X-3 in Amsterdam and Pendoring's international judge last year, and Peter van Leeuwen, a previous international judge, were the drivers behind the invitation.
Pendoring displayed the cream of Afrikaans advertising at the exhibition, which was held at Angel Studios in Amsterdam's harbour district. A wide selection of print advertisements was put up for all to see while a CD and DVD with the best of Afrikaans radio and television advertisements were played throughout.
However, the highlight of the four day-long exhibition was an Afrikaans evening, which was hosted by the organisers of Pendoring last Wednesday. Local agencies, creatives and students as well as many South Africans from across the Netherlands attended the evening. For many of the South Africans it was a unique opportunity to hear and talk Afrikaans and enjoy Afrikaans advertising at its sharpest.
Francois de Villiers, Creative Director for FCB Cape Town gave a presentation on Afrikaans advertising and the challenges facing the industry in South Africa. He brought the house down with his many examples of original and creative Afrikaans - and it is this originality, which many of the Dutch creatives found unique about Afrikaans. Unlike Dutch, which 'borrows' many terms and words from other languages, they found that Afrikaans 'creates' its own original words for new products and services.
"Afrikaans is very fresh and creative," believes de Villiers. "You almost create the language as you write it." However, he was very impressed with the exhibition and believes Dutch advertising is very clean and classic and very strong conceptually.
