I am going to play the party spoiler and start of with two small negative points:
The 2016 interpretation is too Mar Mekhael hipster-sih, sure I understand the brand wants to connect with a newer generation, but I have my reservations as it all seems a bit "staged" (even if it was not).
The copy "Lebanon has its taste/flavor" is good, but I feel it a direct interpretation of a visually very well-researched and multilayered campaign, so personally I would have used "jam3a deyme" (may this gathering be repeated - which is a traditional well wishing in Lebanon).
Now for the good part. Well, everything else, really.
Let me first tell you that Michael Karam, Lebanon's wine and alcohol reviewer says Arak Brun is "arguably Lebanon's best", so I am not going to contradict him there. Then there's the vintage part: Anyone who has read my blog or seen my artworks, knows that I have a heavy retro tendency, specifically in the way memory works - blurred, saturated, almost treacherous. So it is with a lot of joy that saw "untouched" old images - that 70s dabke colored one - almost made me faint (saturated colors, super8 feel, gigantic light captors!).
Anyone who is anyone is using vintage lately, and using it badly - books, festivals, advertisings (orange dial phones cohabitate with disco shirts.... to promote apps?) so even someone like me, with appreciation to true vintage, is getting up in arms against this atrocity. Which makes this campaign a welcome change to old, authentic photos - maybe found in some flea market or family albums, who cares? They are genuine and true and that's what counts.
If any brand is entitled to use old and vintage imagery, it would certainly be Arak Brun (rebranded Roadster, take note, you went out of vintage - which was your defining imagery - just as it hit major revival). Omar Boustany did serve the client correctly, and major bonus points for not "modernizing" the retro images (ie the past in a new touch - as everyone else is doing!).
All in all, the right campaign, at the right time...
Now, drink responsibly!