Hippo vs OUTsurance: Court throws out bid to pull controversial ‘Katlego Maboe’ ad

The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has thrown out an urgent application by OUTsurance to have Hippo’s controversial advert removed from screens.

The advert got tongues wagging this week when it featured an actor, who some said resembles celeb Katlego Maboe, in what appeared to be a spoof of an OUTsurance ad.

In it, the man can be seen discussing ways to save on vehicle insurance when he and a “customer” are interrupted by a hippo showing them a better quote. The woman confronts the man about the saving and then tells him “out”.

Papers seen by TshisaLIVE indicate the matter was heard on Monday and was struck off the roll. OUTsurance was ordered to pay the costs of application.

OUTsurance spokesperson Natasha Kawulesar told TimesLIVE the insurer believes the advert is an infringement of their brand properties and is misleading.

“The court bid was an urgent application to have the ad removed. We believe the ad is an infringement of our brand properties, is misleading in content and generally places the industry in a poor light,” she said.

“We support healthy and fair competition but do not believe this campaign satisfies regulatory and legislative requirements. Some of the content is inaccurate and clearly draws inference to OUTsurance and, by association, places us in a bad light with consumers. This is our point of exception.

“As always we will continue to protect our brand by all legal and regulatory avenues available to us.”

CEO of hippo.co.za Bradley Du Chenne said the point of the advert was to “educate” South Africans about the benefits of comparing quotes before committing to an insurer.

“Hippo is not an insurance company. It just provides a comparison tool that fetches quotes from 11 insurers and presents them to the consumer to help them make an informed decision. After that the choice is theirs to make.

“While there are a few insurers missing from our platform, they have been invited and it’s their call not to participate,” he said.

The advert has drawn debate, with some calling for it to be boycotted and reported to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA (BCCSA) for “exploiting Katelgo’s personal pain”.

In 2020, OUTsurance distanced themselves from Katlego  and removed ads in which he was featured after a video of him confessing to cheating on his former partner Monique Muller went viral. He also faced abuse allegations and accusations of contravening a protection order against him. Katlego denied the allegations of abuse. 

Hippo said it had no knowledge of complaints lodged against it with the BCCSA in response to the advert. 

TimesLIVE reached out to the commission to find out if there have been formal complaints. This article will be updated once a response is received.

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