Dynamic Duos: BMF’s Dantie Van der Merwe and David Fraser
In this week's Dynamic Duo's, the BMF creative director duo Dantie Van der Merwe and David Fraser, share the story of their international friendship, moving from Johannesburg to Sydney in pursuit of their advertising teams, and landing themselves the job of lead CDs on the coveted Aldi account.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella asks two members of the same organisation with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Dantie Van der Merwe:
David and I should never have met. We didn’t even speak the same language. I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere and he grew up in the middle of somewhere, I think it’s called Johannesburg.
We met in our first couple of days of our unpaid internship. It’s around this time where David started to teach me how to wear shoes, speak English and say things like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. We’d smoke in the office and stare at the beautiful view of a Johannesburg parking lot.
I tried to escape him by moving halfway around the world, but David’s tenacity followed and found me six months later. Now we were staring at the Sydney Harbour while learning how to say things like ‘mate’ and ‘@#7$-ing good on ya’, but with a weird accent.
Working with David for the last 100 years has been like living across the road from an old high school friend. Wonderfully honest and stupid. He’s always there to help, we’ve never had an argument, and he’s never made me do anything I don’t want to do, except for making me try wasabi that one time.
David Fraser:
We met many winters ago when we did internships at Ogilvy Johannesburg. Can’t remember exactly how we crossed paths. Probably in the mounting room, under the influence of spray glue, while boarding up some CD’s layouts.
We didn’t become a creative team until Dantie moved to Sydney a few years later and couldn’t find a local writer to partner with (Rabies issue, I think). He hit me up on Facebook asking me to join him and then proceeded to ignore every question I had about moving my life to Sydney. He’d just send beach shots from his weekend. It worked though. Here we are 15 years later.
Hard to say exactly why we’ve stuck together for so many years. Probably to keep ourselves sane. To have a partner whose creative taste and instincts you trust, with a different skillset, and who calls you out on bullshit is worth way more than any chunk of award metal. We’ve also laughed a lot over the years. Think that’s the cornerstone of the relationship, a sense of humour about it all. Other than that, we’ve always just stayed focussed on the work and tried to make stuff that felt true to us. A shared love of Dr Steve Brule also helps.
Dantie on David:
Most memorable moment with David: Observing our first UFO sighting on our first road trip in Australia. I thought it was a UFO, David just thought I was intoxicated. We’re all different.
Describe David in one word: Tigger (long story)
David’s most annoying habit or endearing behaviour: It’s annoying watching David carefully think things through thoroughly and make great life decisions without fail.
David on Dantie:
Most memorable moment with Dantie: Dantie cracking my rib in celebration when I got permanent residence.
Describe Dantie in one word: Fireball
Dantie’s most annoying habit or endearing behaviour: I’m a fan of his ability to identify the elephant in the room and kill it with his elephant gun.
Dantie Van der Merwe (left) and David Fraser (right)
If you and a colleague would like to submit your story to Dynamic duos, please email kwelch@mumbrella.com.au.
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