Lebanon: Rules of political mercantilism

So, tell me, what is a presidential election without mercantilism? What mercantilism you ask? The one that goes "blessed is Lebanon" (Poster gift of - insert name of businessman-aspiring-politician-in-the-next-MP-elections). Yes, some did try to make an effort - "he is worth of it of it and more" "his excellence the head of the army" and some went completely sycophantic with this foregoing any personal pride and just going for the jugular. Do note the above are merely a sample, there is much more in the market dipped in give-and-take the same sauce.  But hey, Lebanon is what it is, and this is nothing new (this comes to mind - here) and with every new election you will have the well-wishers with their not-so-hidden agendas. 

And electing Joseph Aoun for the presidency is no exception!

Fiftyfiftylb - sisters are doin' it for themselves

So now that Lebanon has a new president and a new prime minister, and no I am not going to go through the hyperboles that everyone is suggesting simply because the road ahead is long and hard in front of them the time has come for the - usually incredibly difficult - task of choosing the ministers with everyone who is anyone in Lebanese political parties wanting to nominate this and that for this and that ministry which creates an equilibrium which is akin to walking on eggshells.

Now, truth be told, with a major political party having suffered a massive retreat (no names, but come on) perhaps, just perhaps, the equation might be a little easier, though no guarantee. Still Fiftyfifty - a feminist organization (here as a positive example, here as a so-so one) - is calling for many potential female candidates (which I assure you are no worse than men considering our current specimens since several decades) to be part of the government (sure some examples are questionable to be honest, I am not naming anyone but some of these females have been accused of police brutality and tainted in corruption folders in the past, so am not sure they merit their place on the list).

Still, it would be lovely to see female representatives in the government, for as I said, their work could be much better than their male counterparts.

Snips goes for a natural extension with stix and knots

Snips, a local brand, started off with baked snacks, and variants of potato chips. A very popular category which was mainly the affair of 2-3 brands thus far, so it is a testament to their ingenuity that they carved their own path within more established brands in the market. Their site details their many subproducts, all "snacks", and interestingly was not updated to list the two which are covered in this post - namely salt sticks (stix) and pretzels (knots). The products are on sale on their website but not listed on the landing page, normal I guess. But once more, the jump between their "original" goods and the knots/stix is so minor it was I guess a bit anticipated (at this point the salted sticks and pretzels is basically dominated by a Turkish brand). Mind you Stix and Knots are actually addictive, so it is not unheard of to finish the bag in one go. So here we are, it only took a step!

Halabi Trio... And some local copywriting

Well, as of late everyone has been trying their hand at home-grown copywriting (without much success). But here comes one which made sense. OK, it is too convoluted to explain but the gist of it is this: When it comes to nuts, the ad says "not one kernel or two kernels" - "a trio!". OK "not one kernel or two kernels" is a local expression basically to indicate something worthwhile. So at least someone did their homework. So apparently the stuff comes in three different flavors, apparently each containing three different nuts (hence the trio!) to mix and match at your own taste (all covered in cricri coating).

Gaza-Los Angeles: The banality of evil

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Well, a lot of people are talking about schadenfreude, or about karma, or whatever all else. The idea is that the fires came back to where they started from. This, however, is no time to laugh. The full effects of environmental factors is being felt in Los Angeles, oddly, so is climate denialism. Apparently, major networks are not even mentioning how climate change is a major factor of the fires. How all the decisions we, as humans, have made and which compounded into this disaster.

Of course, there is also Gaza, which is still being bombed - and this is not the time for Palestinian tragedies, is it? - by, well, what turned out to be American weapons which brings us back to schadenfreude and karma. 

But all of this is leading me to Hannah Arendt and her book "The banality of evil" (fun fact, the words "banality of evil" do not appear inside the book). We are, at this point sanitized. There is a fatigue, not just setting in, but one already set in long ago. With the coverage of all these international (and in our case national - because, "Lebanon") being non-stop, and yes, biased and unfair, there is little left in terms of sympathy in us. 

All evil becomes banal.

What was once deemed evil, is now filed under, "what else is on TV". I have not watched television since 2012 - yes, not even the times I appeared on television myself - but the result is the same. Just images upon images, of purely horrific acts, with little or no feelings from viewers.

The 2006 war in Lebanon was eclipsed by another news - a man confessing (wrongly) to being the killer of JonBenet Ramsey (you know the child beauty queen) as he was on his way to Thailand for a sex-change operation. Suddenly, everything happening in Lebanon was no longer worthy of news.

And by the way, the image above? Well that is a mix between Gaza and Los Angeles, but you wouldn't know, would you?

And make no mistake, as people will try to rebuild their lives in Los Angeles, or Gaza, well, that's old news.

Old evil.

Old banal evil. 

Joe Fish gets the president's election (if you work in communication)

And this comes from our friends at Joe Fish! If you work in communication, you'll get it, if not - sadly it is a "meh". But here's the gist: Clients, sadly, tend to tinker with the assignments they give creatives ad infinitum so it is not unusual for a file to be labelled "final" "finalfinal" "finalfinalfinal"..... So yes, now we have a president... "finalfinalfinalllFINALLLLLLYYYYYY". 

Almaza, a new year with a fresh start

Are they talking elections? Are they talking freshness? Are they talking new beginnings? Are they talking about all of this? Or none of this? The new Almaza ad is up for interpretation - or interpretations. It might mean a million things. I am inclined to think this might be about electing a president - supposedly tomorrow January 9th! But again I could be mistaken, I guess all this continues with the Almaza of several years yonder - just try it. I do miss when they used to do great ads - and I remind everyone, why not reissue older classics, because you know, the brand does own them by virtue of having paid for them? In that sense it wasn't broken, so why try to fix it?

Politics - Mix and mismatch

I admit it has been long since I shot ads throughout town in vivo. But here you go - Politics is everywhere. There are signs from the time of the war in 2024, there is a sign for electing a president (apparently 2 days from now on the 9th of January), there are signs with neutrality signed by Paulette Yagopian aka Paula Yacoubian (see here), and one by Lebanese Forces (or is this Kataeb?) with "Lebanon first" as a message (which is not too far off from the Yagopian/Yacoubian one) and all of this begs the question - who is paying for this and with what money. Because many message stand there, with hashtags and all, yet there is no party/politician/entity signing with a logo. Obviously my arms are not long enough to pursue the financial paper trail, but even that - it could be a company owned by a company owned by another to hide the actual source. I still find this very interesting truth be told, how messages are plastered, both innocently enough and meaningfully enough yet no one tells us who plastered though and for what purpose.

Compare and contrast Wolfofbey Vs. The Economist

So here we go - again. I am not saying they did, I am not saying they didn't....

The iconic The Economist ad. Then comes Wolfofbey.

A pastiche? A copy? An hommage? You decide.

Spinneys, how about that for fishy

In the plethora of writing about the Michel Hayek debacle, this slipped through the cracks.

But yes, Spinneys has a lot of explaining to do. Out of respect for my readers I shall not explain what the problem is. But interestingly four male readers pointed this out to me. The innuendo is simply too much.

I am wondering how come no one - male or female from the marketing, executive and communication team either at Spinneys or their agency did not notice this. Again, in the world of communication things are never as they were intended but rather as perceived and understood.

And this one was understood under a very very bad light indeed.

Spinneys - the Michel Hayek edition

And so it had to happen. And it did.

Michel Hayek, Lebanese clairvoyant/psychic said - and I am not even sure when - "Spinneys name is heavy speculation/hitting hard". Cue to the last campaign by the supermarket giant gracing the streets of Lebanon. Now at this point, this goes beyond the campaign itself, but rather linking it to a character Lebanese wait for on New Year's eve and hang to every syllable he utters. But hey, a scoop is a scoop is a scoop and Spinneys are emphasizing on his words. So be it. Advertising is what it is - and now it happened, he is being linked to the chain, for better, for worse, for marketing purposes. Go figure! Watch it here!

For the love of artisans (The Ready Hand and Makers of Lebanon)

Sometimes good news come at once. As Lebanon grapples with - let us not go back to this - two pages popped up for the support of artisans in Lebanon. Not just two pages, two well-designed pages with beautiful content which, thankfully, does not hark on the past but also drags it towards the present and the future. Also, for the Ready Hand, filmmaker Danielle Rizkhallah produced some lovely visual storytelling (here - as one of the beauties!), you can follow The Ready Hand on instagram (here) and Makers of Lebanon (here). Sometimes, we need to take things slow, and really invest in things done by hand - says the man who really is into slow fashion and other things produced by people who love their craft.

Malik's, still trying too hard

Remember when I said Malik's was trying too hard (here), so we start off the year with more of the same. To be clear the ads are not "bad", they just don't appear "organic". As if - not sure how to put this - really, as if the audience wouldn't catch this so they have to be spelled out. I mean do we need to have the pun of "alam" (which can be written as "kalam" which means pen and "alam" which means pain) to be underlined to get it? So the ad goes "hopefully this year this is the only pen/pain" - points were awarded for the effort.

Taanayel les fermes vs McDonald's - Compare and contrast

I am not saying they did, and I am not saying they didn't.

But there's an ad for everyone there. And yes McDonald's was the first.

La d'ou je viens - where I come from.

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

On Christmas Day, at noon, a car was parked in my garage. A car not belonging to me or any potential guests. It was our neighbor J.. He parked without even consulting me. I can see your reaction – what temerity! Actually, during Christmas mass at midnight, I saw his brother along with wife and four children, we exchanged warm wishes. Now by 5 PM on Christmas Day, his other brother F. put a photo of their gathering on his WhatsApp status – everyone was there along with their families. I sent F. proper effusive greetings, he sent his back along with promise he’d be by my house on Monday before opening his salon to do my mother’s hair before New Year’s Eve.

On boxing day, the door knocks, it was J.’s sister along with a huge plate of homemade Meghle.

The morale of the story?

Well, I come from a place.

To go back to St.Exupery’s little prince when the rose says “La d’ou je viens”.

Where I come from.

Believe it or not, I often think about it. Knowing you come from a nuclear, extended family but also a village, a tribe perhaps, a community for sure. Sometimes you go to give condolences. Long time ago I used to attend weddings as well. I admit that my “parish activities” are basically very minimal. But I do show up to the major annual feasts.

When I moved full time to the village in 2010 I used to tell my mother “why bother no one knows me!” and she’d say “don’t worry everyone will ask who this is”. And with time, well, people recognized my face. Normally if I am doing my shops run, I say hello to an average of six people – 2 I know, 2 I know by face and 2 I have no clue who they are but they seem to know me for sure.

That same person who parked his car on Christmas Day? Well, a week before I was outside and he crossed the street to say hello. He is opening a new shop – and then he asked “what should I call it though?”… “Ah naming is one of my specialties but am expensive” I joked. A quick brainstorm lead to three very good names, and so a parting sentence I said “well, will send you the bill later” and we both howled in laughter.

Because that’s what people who come from some place do.

They are there for one another.

In case you are wondering, the lamp went off in the dining room, F. came to do my mother’s hair and thankfully I had a spare. He replaced the lamp as we chatted about this and that. Mundane chats that will not influence your world.

But they can park in my garage any day. Unannounced.

Did 1750 just do a comparative ad?

1750 has a new ad. Here. A girl is drinking water from a bottle and asking her mother (presumably) "where was this bottled?" (OK, granted, not a question one would ask but this adland).

Tannourine? Higher

Rim? Higher

Sannine? Higher

Barouk? Higher

The answer ends up being "1750" - and the tagline? Our height is our name.

Now here's the issue: Tannourine, Rim, Sannine are names for bottled water brands. And comparative advertising is forbidden in Lebanon (here and here) so naming three competitor brands in the ad is a bit... fishy. I do understand the rationale of comparing-but-not-so but still got uncomfortable truth be told. Maybe to drive their tagline they could have done differently - there was already a hint of comparison previously (here), but this time it is too overt.

Oh and in case you ask - 1750 is Tarshish.

ParAzar gets Christmas right

Lebanese have been in half-half celebratory mood. Understandably so after the year that has gone by. Christmas ads were too far and in between, but hey, ParAzar managed to land a lovely video - which is neither too over the top nor too out there, in what seems like a retro-TV laden message. Again, perhaps the power of the video was that it was not overdone. It blends the tiredness but also the anticipation mix that the Lebanese are so good at - an incurable hope and stubbornness that characterizes us as people. Enjoy the video here!

End of year card 2024. #merrychristmas

And time for the annual greeting card!!... I know I know, 2024 was not easy for us as Lebanese so here's hoping for a better 2025 (that bar is too low though!). For a recap of older cards please check here.

Boulos - on expanding a stuck identity

For years and years, no make that decades and decades, Boulos hammered us - as consumers - as "zeit Boulos". Boulos oil - extra virgin olive oil. I am not here to debate the quality of their product but you can't stick around in the market that long (apparently 60 years) without proving how good you are.

Actually, for a short while they even went "hip" when Basketball player Boulos Bechara was playing for the Sagesse team in 1999 and won the Asia Champions Cup which presenter Tony Baroud called "Boulos Boulos Boulos" due to his 3-pointers, so they signed Zeit Boulos Boulos Boulos to get on the hype.

On the whole though they played it conservative. Advertising their product eventually coming up with the "iza de2et 3le2et" line (if you taste it, you're stuck), a local expression about tasting anything well-made.

Now Boulos are trying to expand. Their ad literally says "not just oil, but the whole mouneh of the house". Mouneh is a Lebanese term of all edibles people used to prepare before the advent of winter and stock them up in the coldest room in the house to sustain them through the winter months. 

For Boulos, this is a double-edge sword, on the one hand the reach between olive oil and other homemade products is not a stretch, on the other, it has built its identity around the oil (I think at one point the whole company's name was zeit Boulos but I stand corrected) that it might be difficult to get the consumer to think of them as anything else.

It reminds me of Mentos a bit. Mentos was definitely built around the mint flavor, but the success let them to do a "strawberry" flavor... Which seemed odd as a name. 

Boulos is certainly trying to expand its "homemade" line, so here's hoping the consumers are ready to think of it more than just oil.

Top 5 ads for 2024 on this blog

Ah! It is that time of year again. The top 5 ads for the year. Was this a vintage year? Well, it started off on the right foot... And then boom! (sadly literally). But for all its faults, there were some very good campaigns. So without further ado, please welcome this year's winners (in no particular order):

The IPT Mother's Day!

The Ksara ad released during the war!

Labneh w Jebneh for the post-war ad - which made everyone look!

The Lux Raouche thingy!

And that Omo campaign (like Lux, a second entry by Pimo!)

An honorary mention goes for the combined ads by Ali Alaadeen - here (and yes, I am a fan!).

I realize I am releasing a bit early but sadly there seems to be no end of year surprises.