McCann Hosts Learners from Mafori Maphehlele High School,

Five years ago Cell C introduced a special day into the school curriculum to help educators provide tools to assist them with knowledge about the world of work, and also with basic skills to enable them to face their futures with confidence.
With this in mind, it was time to take a girl child to work again and this year, the team at the McCann Worldgroup wanted to give extra purpose to the day by motivating and inspiring girl children through empowering activities that will get them one step closer to achieving their goals and ambitions.
McCann WorldGroup decided that they wanted to empower the girl child with a clear knowledge and understanding of how the creative processes work in advertising agencies – and for each girl who participated to walk away with the knowledge that her individual talent has a home and place in the advertising world at McCann. On Thursday 24 May 2007, McCann Worldgroup hosted 20 girl learners from Mafori Maphahlele High School in Soweto and 5 additional learners from neighbouring schools. The girls ranged from 16 to 18 years of age (Grades 10 to 12) and were all hand-picked to participate in the day.

Representatives from all the major areas of business within McCann were invited to come and speak to the girls about their areas of expertise. The girls got an insight to the dynamic world of McCann Erickson, Momentum McCann and Universal McCann. They gained relevant information about possible lines of study and the honest highs and lows of the world of work.


Splitting up into groups, the girls were taken on a tour around the company, visiting and witnessing first-hand the departments and work that they had just heard about. It was an opportunity for them to ask more specific questions of the experts at work. Thereafter, the girls were then given an assignment. They were provided with sample lipsticks from one of McCann WorldGroup’s cosmetic clients (L’Oreal) and were asked to develop an advertising campaign for either print, radio or TV.

The girls were immediately thrown into the deadline driven and crazy world of advertising and they had to set their creative juices to work. An hour and a half later, the teams presented their campaigns to various staff and management from MWG, including (in their words) the “big big boss” Martin Hummel (Group Chief Executive). Martin encouraged and inspired the learners, giving them detailed commentary on each of their presentations and awarding them each with a personalized certificate of participation. “We will be forming an ongoing relationship with Mafori Maphahlele High School and will be spending more time with their learners again in the future” said Mr. Hummel after the presentations.

2007’s ‘Cell C’s Take a Girl Child To Work’ day at McCann WorldGroup, was a day well spent. This initiative formed part of the ongoing search for new talent, which the McCann WorldGroup has undertaken since the announcement of Zwelakhe Sisulu as the Executive Chairman of the group.