Political mercantilism, again, in Lebanon

 So here it is, I have no idea who published this (not signed) for what occasion (also not specific), but as mercantilism goes in politics in Lebanon, this is a "passepartout" - it could work for any occasion, any political party. For a second I thought it was about the latest municipal elections (the sign says "thousand thousand thank yous") as posted by whomever won said elections. But as I said, could be anything and anyone, in the quagmire of Lebanese politics, it always works. Interestingly, this was a one off - meaning only saw it once. So who knows?

Jihad El Hokayem, with "roots" that run deep in Lebanon

Ah Jihad El Hokayem is back with a wink and a nod to work past. Patriotic as ever Jihad (full disclosure: Jihad is a friend whose work I support) Jihad is touching the Lebanese flag during a social event with the words "rooted in Lebanon, open to the world" well, this give back to... This! A lovely Arabic copy if there ever one! Now that's a man who has roots that run deep in Lebanon!

L'Oreal: Because you are better than that!

So I have lived long enough to see this. Pity the budget, pity the campaign, pity the media buy. Without any doubt this must be the most head-scratching moments for me in a long time. OK, so instead of "housewife" or "Sit Beit" (ربة منزل) according to L'Oreal you should be "Lady of the house" or "Sit Al Beit" (ربة المنزل). Because, yes, genius. Butchering the Arabic? Check (for your info Beit is an "addititve" - مضاف اليه - which in itself is - اداة تعريف - so adding ال makes it like saying "Lady of the the house"). No creativity? Check. Zero, none, nada. No logic? Check. I mean who in their right mind agreed to this and gave the green light for it? Also "housewife" or "sit beit" actually has a positive connotation rather than a negative on in the Arabic culture. Because honestly, when it comes to l'Oreal, you are worth better than that!

Caparol - a likeable, joyful ad

Have you ever liked an ad "just because". Well, meet Caparol - the German paints. Do I love it? You bet I do. Why? Go figure. There is something so inherently innocent in the ad, an elephant-shape made out of brush strokes with a tail in the shape of the brush itself. Something almost childish, with the colors joyful - and boy do we need joy - and all of this on a yellow background. What's there not to love? What's there not to notice? So here we are - a feel-good ad without too much concepting, research and twisted ideas.

Promarché, here, almost.

Promarché, is here, almost. But the gigantic wraparound ads are unmissable. Apparently the supermarket is and according to their instagram page (here) is partnered with Intermarché so here's hoping we get ads as good as l'amour l'amour (here) or un endroit pour vivre (here) or c'est magnifique (here). And yes, you should be watching this space. I shall be :)

Boulos, trying further to go out of olive oil.

Remember this piece about Boulos? (here). About how they are trying to branch out from their original "virgin olive oil" positioning which they hammered people with for decades? Well, it seems they are trying further bless their heart. Somehow though between "60 years" "new look" and the product(s) the ad is all but single-minded. However, and I still stand by this, the step between olive oil and home products (pomegranate molasses in this case) is not only small, but marketing-logical. So to me it all makes sense (oddly, and also as I said prior, Castania going from nuts to peanut butter was an oddity - here). Now, Boulos realizes its previous "error" and now says "not only oil but (insert product) too", knowing this is the original idea people associate them with. Still, a good move.

OMT, be lazy says Joefish

OMT is back at it with Joefish! There is an OOH campaign for as far as the eye can see, but also an ultra cute video (which I really loved in terms of atmosphere - here). Now the OOH is part of the TVC in terms of stills and yes it kind of portrays the ad but I still like the TVC better as it expresses better the moodiness and... laziness effect. I mean why do today what you can put till tomorrow? And who wants to - God forbid go to a bank, or even an OMT branch - when you can do it straight from your phone, while enjoying the "dolce far niente" (sweetness of doing nothing). I am not here to argue.

Keo beer goes golden. Yellow too.

I have previously spoken about the Keo beer (here) so it is refreshing (har har) that they are back with a new campaign. OK, they are axing it around yellow/golden (the problem with either color? Google "Golden shower" at your own risk and peril)... Still - I might be reading too much into a color. The campaign is sort of everywhere with many variants about the color and all that (real beer is golden for example). Of course there is the usual let-us-cut-from-the-Almaza-market "time for a change, go yellow" (mind you Beirut Beer is a professional in this - here).

Maliks wakes up with the house on fire

After trying hard (here), and then trying too hard (here), Maliks goes back to what made Maliks. Meaning? All the things we used go to him as students. Maliks customizes stickers, cake toppers, tote bags, roll-ups, thesis (printing and binding, not writing :) ), t-shirts, foam frames, sahses, and electoral paraphernalia. Actually the massive OOH campaign goes "Yes, we do that too". Because, "yes", this is what Maliks is beyond the silly gimmicky lines they bombarded us with. And somehow, Maliks realized that unless they go back to basics, the whole identity of who they are gets diluted. In an odd way, good we had Maliks back.

Master - now with gifts

I have problems believing Master has issues shifting its large size crisp bags. Sure like with everything there has been a case of shrinkflation (Gandour as a case model - here) but it does contain quite a bit of potato crisps for 1 USD that being said. Yet, as with Pepsi as of late (here) they felt compelled to include lottery items to encourage people to buy the bags. Children and parents I presume. Which is interesting - maybe Fantasia having had a campaign on the streets lately (here) was a compelling sign?

Taanayel les fermes, Tiktok and "sit el ghina w la sit el fo2r"

Can't a man plan his posts calmly? Apparently not. Taanayel les Fermes was supposed to go in 2 days. But nope! No more Taanayel les Fermes. Apparently, following "thousands who made tiktoks, memes and reels to get (their) attention" well seems Teenayel les Fermes "laughed", "panicked" but they're "on it". Ergo the product was so wildly popular it is no longer available. Reactions on X were "it did not even hit the supermarket shelves yet" and "khalsouna" (let's get on with it!) and other dismissive sentences. Oh well, guess people are not in on the joke. Because apparently this is no joke. Who knows? But hey as the Lebanese proverb goes "صيط الغنى ولا صيط الفقر" (better have the reputation of a rich rather than a poor)... 

Smash Plus, knows how to read the room.

Sometimes easy does it. Well, what do mosquitoes prevent you from? A good night's sleep. What do you do? Put a mosquito net (well, not always but that was the idea at base). The ad above joins "l'utile a l'agreable" as the French say (the useful to the enjoyable). It says "nemo" (sleep) and "nemo-usiye" (mosquito net). Smash! (a pun, in case you did not get it because that's the product's name!).

See? Told you easy does it. For reference, Smash Plus had a good ad prior (here).
 

Almaza (r)osé (insert Pikasso d'Or)

Considering the track record of Almaza for winning Pikasso d'Or, with or without reason, with or without logic, with or without creativity, I am already forecasting the award just because. Still the campaign is not too shabby, but neither it is brilliant or anything. The play on words is (r)osé - with rosé being the wine (or beer in this case!) and osé being outrageous and avant-garde. As I said, not horrible, nor classic. Just Almaza doing what it does lately - throw ideas and see where things go. Meanwhile they get awards for it instead of "bonpoints".

Libano-Suisse Insurance: Making molehills out of mountains

Well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of fun in the face of drama. Lebanese are kind of experts at this mind you. So introducing the new trilogy of films from Pimo for Lebano-Suisse Insurance. "Sarlak Chi?" "Wa law!" and "Chou Sar?" - the idea is the same transposed in three different situations: accident, flood, and fall. Note that Salim who has fallen literally into a ditch while hiking is worried about the menu at home for lunch, the mother-in-law is asking "what happened?" referring to the television series as opposed to the house filled with water, and the man who had his car smashed goes "no issue!" - considering he is well-covered. Well, who says you can't be funny with insurance? The films suggest otherwise indeed.

Castania goes peanut butter, unconvincingly

Remember Boulos? (Here). Well, Boulos was trying to expand from "oil" to "mouneh" - and in their case the step was a small one as it made sense. Now, I know on paper, a company selling nuts is moving from nuts to peanut butter sounds the same. For some reason I find it incredibly more complicated. To begin with the concept of peanut butter is not popular in Lebanon as it is in the US for example, also, the company is moving from a "bag" product to one in a glass jar, oddly this seems very off. Sure, they do gain from their name notoriety, and the "peanuts/nuts" association. I still think this is a bridge too far to cross though.

McDonald's McArabia - it wasn't broken and they did not fix it

 
All right, so it seems McDonald's is re-introducing its McArabia sandwich (on a flying carpet no less!) and the ad is very clear - it is back but not for long. Look, the ad is "OK". I mean how better can you portray a McArabia sandwich... Except, you can!

Please welcome the original Chicken McArabia ad. Blink and you'll miss it. The genius of it? The Arab is written from right to left as opposed to the Latin... Look again at the McArabia Chicken logo... it was flipped!

Dear McDonald's if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Because fix it you did not do for sure... You know, once you own an iconic ad, nothing wrong in repeating it. I love the ad so much it is among my top 10 favorite (here).

Pepsi - now with a car lottery

I think this is alarming. OK, last time Pepsi did a car draw was in the mid 90s for a convertible XJS Jaguar (the rumor goes that it was won by a Syrian worker who owed money to his boss, the head of a petrol station and the boss forgave the loan as long as he got the car, which he did). But mid-90s was a time when Coca-Cola was about to enter the market in Lebanon so Pepsi was protecting its market and here we are now, Pepsi is offering a car - again. A hybrid Hyundai Elantra 2025, however with Coca-Cola now being not present in the market, one wonders why the offer. This leaves us with - a severe dip in sales? Pepsi trying to stimulate its audience at the gates of summer for them to buy or buy more?

Again with Pepsi having the market almost totally locked, one wonders why they are cajoling their audience and doing such an offer. Because apart from the above answers, there are very few options. Unless Hyundai has too much stock? Oh the copy is a bit corny this being said.

Brands on the Therapy Couch - the ArabAd interview

The interview below appeared on the current issue of ArabAd.... So what's a book release without a cheeky interview. We are indebted to Ghada Azzi, managing editor of ArabAd for this. The book is also on this link (for inquiry and purchase inside and outside Lebanon)

First and foremost, how did you three meet?

Geoana Hobeiche: Well I was a student in Tarek’s classes at university.

Tarek Chemaly: But that was long ago… and it all morphed into a friendship afterwards.

GH: And Ali I met at work and eventually co-founded the Lime Buzz as we were both interested in neuromarketing.

Ali Agha: And one day we met all three of us.

 

And the idea of the book?

AA: This originated from me, but Geoana was adamant, if anyone can vet if the project is viable or not it had to be Tarek.

GH: And so like 2 minutes into the meeting, I told Ali “you see! I told you he’ll like it look at him smiling” and poor Ali was confused because smiling for Tarek was a very very slight smirk – but that was something I was used to from university days.

 

Apparently the bulk of the writing fell on Mr. Agha?

AA: Well, yes and no. I mean I wrote the first chapter and sent it over proud as punch.

GH: Little did he know. Ten minutes later we get it rewritten by Tarek, who basically changed the whole thing.

TC: Well, not changed the whole thing, I mean the information was still the same what I did is that I dipped in a totally different tone of voice.

AA: Honestly I was… taken aback. I mean – yes, it was still my chapter and no it was something else, more reader-friendly. And speaking of readers, throughout it all Geoana was our alpha reader. If anything was “too much” or “not understandable” we would hear about it immediately.

TC: Actually this whole rewriting thing went on for the rest of the book. Ali would write, and I would make sure the whole book had the same “breath” all over.

 

Were there any disagreements among you about anything creative or where the book would go?

GH: Interestingly, eventhough I started Tarek’s student, at this point we were literally on the same level. If I say so it is because we all wanted to be implicated in everything on all levels.

TC: Well, at some point I was even outvoted on many things. I was very lukewarm about the cover for example but both Geoana and Ali loved it.

AA: And things were very respectful. In the sense that if anyone said “no” about something then we’d go back to the drawing board.

Speaking of drawing boards, who came up with BranDisorders, the title of the first segment of the book?

GH: Funny, when we were chatting on the WhatsApp group I told Tarek “I feel I never left university”.

TC: Because the creative brainstorm is the same everywhere. I mean we had to kiss a lot of frogs to get to the prince!

AA: And truly there were so many “no”, “no”, “next”, “not interesting”… Look if you go back to the original discussion I am sure we can pinpoint wo came up with BranDisorders, but it does not matter because it was an accumulation of many ideas.

TC: The funny part is that it took us 45 minutes of conversation to decide how to write it – which parts were bold, etc….

 

And AntiBrandiotics?

TC: This one was easier. As with everything in the communication world, once you have one coming up with the second is a no-brainer.

GH: Again, the brief was something with “brand” in it but make it positive.

AA: Again someone must have come up with it, but it does not matter because it was like “yes!” or to quote Tarek’s famous word “sold!”.

 

And now the book is out and apparently the original early reviews were incredible!

GH: Oh that is one funny story.

AA: So Geoana was like, what do we do with the back cover of the printed copy? And Tarek – who has published too many books to count was, “oh this is for the blurbs”

GH: And both Ali and myself were “what blurbs?”

TC: Sigh. I needed to explain to them that this is the quotes we use from very influential people who reviewed the book before it launched. And Geoana and Ali were like “so who are the biggest fish we know?”… Actually, I told them “nope, we are going to the top of the ecosystem!”

GH: And 10 minutes later Tarek comes back saying “so Quirino Malandrino – one of the biggest branding experts in the world – and Mark Tungate – the editorial director of the Epica Awards – both said yes”. Really, our jaws dropped.

TC: But look it all meant nothing if they did not like the book and thankfully, they did. I mean they liked it, and a lot.

AA: And in his usual self-depreciating way Tarek goes “I guess I am well-connected for someone wearing pyjamas and sitting on a retro orange desk!”

 

Apparently the book was written during the war in Lebanon in 2024 and the upheavals in Syria considering Mr. Chemaly and Mrs. Hobeiche are Lebanese and Mr. Agha Syrian. How did you manage?

GH: If I remember something from Tarek’s courses it is that in times of crisis, one needs to double and triple the effort.

TC: Look you cannot let slacking win! You need to go out and go what you do best.

AA: I admit something it was… challenging. I was terribly sick on top of everything and Tarek would be like “I know you are sick, but on page 127 there is the third paragraph”… And….

TC: Look, by then you knew that all this came from a place of love. What was I to do? Let you wallow in self-pity? I mean – because you were sick, you needed to busy yourself and activate your brain.

AA: I think this is one of those times when – like Geoana, I got to understand how odd Tarek is. But also I got to understand her stories which prior did not make sense.

TC: See? And now you like me. Oddity included.

Brands On The Therapy Couch– new book exploring link between brands and psychology

 

“Brands on the therapy couch” (which you can find on this link for inquiry and purchase inside and outside Lebanon) is literally a book like no other. Co-authored by Ali Agha with Tarek Chemaly and Geoana Hobeiche, the book says what it does on the tin: It treats brands as humans and goes to analyze their disorders. The book is divided into two sections, the first is BanDisorders where the authors play psychotherapist (sometimes dividing the word into three) with the brands – and yes, the authors are aware that at times the word brand was used as a substitute to companies – detailing the logic behind their ailments and psychological disorders. The second part AntiBrandiotics offers a clear and – at times surgically precise – way to assess a possible way out of the maze along with very pointed questions to put the situation into focus.

Commenting on the book, internationally-respected brand counsel Quirino Malandrino said: “You had me at page 1 when you say “…treat brands as if they were humans, each with its own unique struggles … placing brands on the metaphorical therapy couch to explore their disorders”. Brilliant perspectives that are extremely helpful in diagnosing the issues, and then a clear examination of targeted problem-solving action and tools. I will definitely use these notions in my corporate branding work.”

Also giving his thoughts about it, Mark Tungate, editorial director of the Epica Awards commented: “An intriguing, thoughtful and entirely original approach to branding, this book requires your full attention. It is not for the faint-hearted, but whether you are consumer or a brand owner, it is a deep voyage into the psyche of brands, the ailments that weaken them – and the solutions that will allow them to thrive.”

The book, written literally while Lebanon was at war and Syria was experiencing upheavals (which is an indicator to the nationality of the authors) is nothing but a proof of Agha’s, Chemaly’s, and Hobeiche’s resourcefulness. You are truly invited on this trip which explores an unexpected, completely human and humane aspect of branding and psychology.

The book can be bought digitally here.

Communicate gets a new website

First full disclosure, yes I am the editor in chief of Communicate, and yes, I am bragging. But there is reason. Communicate just got its new revamped website (here). The website is sleek, minimal, a little Bauhausian (form following function), and is incredibly easy to navigate. You remember that Nike Atlanta Olympics in 1996 "don't insult our intelligence, tell us what it is, tell us what it does and don't play the national anthem while you do it". And we are not playing the national anthem. In French they say "c'est complique de faire simple" (it is complicated to do something simple). But of course to give credit where credit is due I wish to thank Obeida, Hoor, Carla, Tonina, Amani and our external consultants Charbel and Wissam. And whereas I have a hint some thought I was too stubborn during the negotiations but that was because I knew from the get-go where I wished things to end. And here we are indeed!