Durex x Good Thymes.... If only

 Well after that Nok Nok ad it could have been worse (here)... But thankfully that was just... An April Fool's.... Oh well, seriously this could have been much worse.

Beirut Beer preaches national unity

Beirut Beer has a good one (but as always one step forward two steps back sadly), the ad above is about "national unity". Well why not? My only gripe? This is NOT a comparative ad (please read my take on comparative ads in Lebanon here) so the logo of Almaza should not have been pixelated (again, Beirut Beer is not comparing itself to Almaza, but just saying that old and new should cohabitate... in a "national unity"). Now, at some point in the past Almaza was owned by Heineken (no longer) so perhaps Beirut Beer is riffing on that by saying "pick a "local one"" (which wehde watnaniye could also mean as a double-entendre). But I could be reading too much in a benign ad.

Dear advertisers, just because you can do an AI ad you don't have to.

So recently I saw an AI ad coming from the region. I am trying to be generic in the description in order not to offend (too much). OK, so the technology is nascent so they are forgiven the few illogical glitches in the ad. But my problem was - the ad lacked a clear creative rationale, a logical construction (mind you a lot of Scandinavian ads lack construction but they are drop-dead funny that way!), a well-defined target audience, the soundtrack sucked, and honestly nothing can bring back the time I have invested watching this monstruous advertising. But hey, it was done on AI yada yada... People, if you have nothing to say, you don't have to say it via AI because honestly it is embarrassing and unfortunately, in advertising like any other creative field, you are as good as your last ad no matter how much you trumpet your achievement as this and that everywhere on the net, that ad sucked like many others. So please, just don't touch AI, that was a blemish on your resume.

It has been brought to my attention that the post seems like anti-AI because "AI is what to advertising what photoshop was at its beginning". Please note, what I am saying is, if you have nothing to say, then you have nothing to say no matter the technology used. These last 2 days I have seen anyone and everyone doing a "Studio Ghibli"esque photo of themselves. Yeah but show me the person who can do a Spirited Away and then we'll talk. 

Oh and the image above? That's from the Matrix (you know the trilogy of films).... The above were sushi recipes from a cookbook that British graphic artist Simon Whiteley's wife owned (she was Japanese). Because sometimes, you need smartness and wit rather than AI to create something iconic and enduring.

Onetouch, continuing their great campaign

Because am partial to excellent campaigns. I am super thrilled to announced that Pimo is continuing it "so that diabetes won't play with you" for the Onetouch glucose-testing machine! And now they are back appropriate festive visuals - and the diabetic in me is melting! But hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Another super campaign. Above is a mix of the new and old (dating back to circa 2020) visuals to celebrate the continuity.

Vaseline goes to the slopes.

Vaseline went to it is needed the most: The slopes! (here) Apart from all the activities and winnings and whatever what attracted me the most is the pure logic of it all. I mean if you are skiing (and no, I do not, still learning to walk without tripping) you definitely need hydration for your lips and skin and what not, so honestly the place is just super-logical for a product like Vaseline. So here we go, now Pimo has done it! As they say in French "il fallait y penser".

McDonald's goes lent without calling it so

McDonald's has an offer for a "veggie burger" (the ad says "we picked you one") for a "limited time". Guess what the limited time is? Lent! Of course, there is no such mention of it, and also no mention of fish-o-filet which was literally invented at the time for Christians who abstained on meat on Fridays. So here we are are again, lent time but don't call it so. If interested about places mentioning lent go to Mr. Brown (here). Crepaway (here). and the first to mention the word in their ad in 2012 Classic Burger Joint (here).

Back when Almaza used to do excellent Mother's Day ads.

Because this year Almaza went with a literal platitude (here), how about going back to the time when Almaza ads actually mattered with this beauty above. How Almaza came to personify "meh" in their ads is beyond me, but here we are. This year's ad is so unmemorable it is excoriating to see how much of a shrug they deserve. The ad above dates back to 2019. The one below to 2016.

Mink went Mother's Day

Sorry I caught this late! Mink went for a brilliant Mother's Day ad (note I did not mention their Ksara effort which fell a bit short this year). For their own brand, Mink simply took their logo and added a "alef". Why? Because reading it right to left as Arabic does it ends up spelling... Emm. Or Mother. Genius as always!

Exotica - Mother's Day translation

Not content to sleep on its laurels for Mother's Day (here) Exotica just launched the Mother's Day translator. So if she says "this is a thunder" it means "this war plane doing sonic boom" if the says "hey you didn't phone today" it means "I miss you", and if she goes "OK, do as you wish" it means "no, and last but not least "don't get me anything" actually translates "don't forget the bouquet". As I said, Exotica are soooooo back! 

Laziza - Pineapple-flavored beer

OK, I admit, I am no beer specialist so it took me a while to understand what the product was. Apparently it is a "pineapple-flavored beer" brought to you by Laziza. Been a while since we last heard of Laziza which makes this re-entry out of nowhere. And again, the product is incredibly niche. But hey, what do I know. After the Beirut Beer Mexican (Mexbeer) which apparently was panned by anyone who understands beer (not me), let us hope this one is more in line with what it says on the outside. So here it is, pineapple-flavored Laziza. 

Almaza releases a headscratcher

I can write paragraphs upon paragraphs about this.

Or I can simply say: I have no idea what they are saying.

I really don't. If anyone can translate am listening.
 

Apple - when advertising is divorced from sales.

Today an ad for Apple pocked my interest. Called "the matchmaker". In typical Saudi culture, a matchmaker finds "a suitable groom" for the girl in question. See the film here. The ad marks a very clear shift to the GCC culture. But it was not the first. If you look at the ads above combined show that they are entrenched in an Arabic pseudo-slang way far from the super copywriting on the iphone 15 (here). I have heard clear rumblings that the brand has lost its direction with this copy. But my point of argument is elsewhere: These ads, if they bother the purists or do not, have zero effect on sales. And I don't say this negatively, but rationally. Apple will still sell by the bucketload. Women will still want the newest phone in their "mahr" or dowry. The newest Apple gizmos will still be a claim to bragging. Whatever the tone of voice of the ads is irrelevant. 

Which of course begs the question:

Is advertising in any way related to sales?

BOB Finance went Ramadan

Oh so this slipped through the cracks. BOB Finance placed an ad for Ramadan, well I shall spare you the technicalities but apparently you win gold by using their app. Apart from the - weirdly sensational - "Akram min min" on LBC, offers have been few and in between so noticing there is one is interesting this Ramadan. Actually BOB Finance went strict basic in both design and slogan - not that I have anything against considering one has very little time to see the ad on the highway billboards anyhow. Interestingly, transfer services such as BOB Finance have come to replace banks in Lebanon which has become almost strictly a cash economy.

A luxury that has lived a life - editorial for Communicate 183

This is my editorial for the issue number 183 of Communicate, enjoy!
 

In 2010, while I was visiting a friend in San Francisco, and on a whim, we went into thrift store. John, my friend who is the CEO of a huge company, absent-mindedly rummaged briefly through the racks and decided he did not want anything. I threw an eagle-eyed look at the store, went to that basket near the cashier, and immediately took out a tie. I paid 6,25 USD Dollars for it. Showed it to John, his jaw dropped. “Would you gift it to me? Please?” He said. Or rather pleaded. The tie in question was the ultra-rare, obnoxiously expensive vintage Versace Miami print in mint condition. He wore it the next day to his board meeting and returned with giddy glee to the rave reviews he received.

Another time, I was at a second-hand store in Beirut. I saw a pair of shoes, instinctively knew what they were and casually strolled to get them. Before I reached for them another woman grabbed them, and although they were in pristine condition, she – thankfully – decided against them and threw them back carelessly. I took the pair without even trying them on, went and paid for them – 2 USD if you want to know – and bang! Their original price was 340 Euros. The lady tried to buy them back from me at the store door (apparently she checked them online) and I kindly declined.

These are not isolated stories. My life – or rather closet and house - are full of them. In today’s world, the word luxury is loaded. Its meaning shifting and morphing from one generation to the next. Originally, and according to the Oxford dictionary, the word means “a state of great comfort or elegance, especially when involving great expense.”

Yet, paradoxically, Hermes artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas says that the brand is costly, not expensive. “Expensive is a product, which is not delivering what it is supposed to deliver, but you paid quite a large amount of money for it, and then it betrays you”. It feels as if this hinges on a technically. Yet, in 2024, major “luxury brands” were embroiled in a sweatshop scandal – in Italy no less - whereby a 2600 Euros bag was costing 53 Euros to make while using workers toiling in abominable conditions.

Speaking of Hermes, somewhere between Chirstmas and New Year’s Walmart, the discount department stores in the US, sold – what is technically a “dupe”. A product which looks like very expensive designer item is but is a copy, which is a tendency that invaded the markets when people could not afford the originals. The dupe in question was dubbed the Wirkin, or Walmart Birkin, for the price of 78 USD for the regular leather and 200 USD for its premium leather – literally at the 1/100^th of the price of the original.

Right now, the world of luxury brands however, is in full crisis. The Chinese – often the backbone of the clientele - found themselves in a wave of real estate crash and wave of youth unemployment. Currently, major houses, including LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), Kering, and other such empires find themselves playing catch-up for having lost 60 million “aspiring shoppers” and concentrating on their Very Important Clients (VIPs) who still found themselves short-thrifted on experience and treatment when compared to how much they were buying. Only Hermes rode the crisis high, still producing its extremely “costly” bags – the Kelly and the Birkin – and still enjoying the aura of their exclusiveness.

The more we delve into the word, the more complicated in becomes. If “vintage” is indeed luxury, then no wonder the world of second-hand, deadstock merchandise, upcycling, thrifting, and pre-loved is booming throughout the world. The value of that market is supposed to reach 113.2 Billion USD by 2030 up from 42.5 Billion in 2023. So much that major brands are initiating second-hand lines from their overstock, archive pieces or garments and accessories cosigned by their clients from previous collections.

Mona Ayoub, who in 2023 auctioned many items of her haute couture Chanel wardrobe, said of her coat which took 800 hours to make and embroider and which sold at 312000 Dollars: “I wore it at a venue when Karl [Lagerfeld – former chanel designer] was present”. She styled it open “over a turtleneck and a pair of pants. “When Karl saw me he was so shocked and asked me how could I do that. I told him that I gained weight and can’t close it. He then laughed and said to me, ‘join the club’.” Because even owning such exclusive pieces cannot negate you from gaining weight and not fitting into them.

Luxury is so multifaceted, it could be a nice meal, a good night’s sleep, a treasured sweater from high school, a simple wedding band with sentimental value, time spent with family (or “chosen family” as the expression goes), or time alone.

Speaking of time, in 1988, watchmaker Piaget came up with a series of ads which went "La plus belle facon de porter une Piaget c'est de n'en rien montrer" – “the most beautiful way to wear a piaget, is not to show any of it”. Because you are wearing it for yourself, not for bragging. Because self-appreciation beats all show-off.

In Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s lovely book “The Little Prince”, the titular hero meets up with a merchant selling pills that quench thirst. You only needed to take one per week and feel no need to drink. Apparently this saved 53 minutes a week. The prince, in his own logic said, “if I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at my leisure toward a spring of fresh water.”

Because walking at one’s leisure toward a spring of fresh water is, indeed a luxury.

Antoine Kerbaj - RIP

 

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Barbar Agha, Abou Bleik, Jean Valjean and hoard of other characters anchored in our collective memory, that was the giant that Antoine Kerbaj was. May he rest in peace.

Exotica goes for Mother's Day

Remember Valentine's Day? That epic classic glorious ad by Exotica (here)? Building on the strength of the other one, Exotica is now writing "oum" (mother) with flowers too after writing "hobb" (love) with a rose. Ok, maybe this one step lower than the other but it still works. So if it ain't broke Exotica is not fixing it. But hey, this is indeed steps closer to their glory days. If I understood correctly this comes from The Department ad agency.

Maliks goes for Mother's Day

Maliks is at it again, oddly they fell on a good idea. Which of course means they have the worst most cheapening art direction ever! Because, of course! Now there might be a bit of undertone on this ad meaning that "M" is also "oum" (or mother in Arabic) but I don't think they dug that deep and they just went with the first letter of the logo. But again, Maliks and I said it many times just tries too hard, except on this one, idea-wise they were really really on the money. So here's hoping.

Ksara and a personalized mother's day!

Well, drink to her health. No, better, drink to her health with a specially-labelled bottle from Ksara.

So how one-on-one can this be? Indeed, seems Ksara is launching this - understandably - a bit early (as logistically this might be a bit difficult to pull) and one can personalize their bottle of Ksara wine with the name of their mother's. Sure this might be a bit Coca-Cola throwback but the end effect is still neat!!

Galaxy Jewels - the Ramadan edition

On the one hand I must appreciate the hard work. On the other it all ended up a bit... bland. I mean compare to the warmth of the Aramex ad (here), the Galaxy Jewels has a feeling of paint by numbers. You know where it is leading from the get go, and even though the main cast (the grandfather) does a good job, it all feels a bit too contrived truth be told. See the ad here. I am not reproaching the production, but something is missing - perhaps the suspense or not knowing where the ad is landing, but no, one can immediately decipher it from the get-go. Someone pointed out that it reminds him of early 90s ads done by Lebanese for the Gulf, the remark is a bit spot on. Oh well, still, I guess the brief was fulfilled.

Now about that flag-defacing sensational ad

Many moons ago for Independence Day Aishti came up with the ad above. It caused a stirr and some legal repercussions.... And today? It seems Annahar was behind (along with their ad agency one presumes!) the stunt of raising the Lebanese flag with the cedar striken-through diagonally. Apparently, with the approach of International Women's Day it seems it was the most fitting way to - what exactly, I know not! Yet, the furore was so big, even the presidential palace told them to shove it because you cannot deface the flag (kind note: who in his or her right mind did not know you could not deface the flag). Now, the stunt has been dismounted thankfully. But seriously, how idiotic is that?