Youth focused general entertainment television channel VUZU, produced by M-Net for pay television platform DStv, will debut the first programme of a three-episode spoof giving the low-down on premier advertising awards, the Loeries.

Conceptualised and produced by Quizzical Pictures, one of South Africa’s leading film and television production companies, Lastborn Does The Loeries sees a Borat-style character, Lastborn Leburu, from North West embark on a fact-finding quest, consisting of a series of interviews with all sorts of advertising types, ranging from brand managers and creative directors right down to runners, techies and tea ladies being interviewed, on a mission to secure recognition at the 2013 awards. Big names include Xolisa Dyeshana, chairperson of the Loeries and Graham Warsop, founder and chairperson of The Jupiter Drawing Room.

With huge dreams and aspirations of becoming an ad-man, Leburu starts out by making a dreadful commercial – for a business in his rural hometown – it is so bad that it might actually be brilliant. Shot on VHS, the commercial serves as a teaser for the series.

“The title sequence is narrated by Lastborn, telling his back story; his struggle to make it to the Loeries; his epic journey on foot from Limpopo to Cape Town; and finally his arrival, armed with a box of VHS tapes, hoping to enter his work into the competition,” says Tim Greene, executive producer for Quizzical Pictures.

“The question is whether or not Lastborn has any real talent,” comments Greene. “This will be for the people he interviews to decide. Viewers will revel in watching some of the top creative minds in the country trying to figure out if they should be taking this character seriously.”