Former students of mine, stop repaying me badly.

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Yesterday, it was pointed out to me that someone else's work has a whiff of my own in their writing. To be very clear, from one angle, I am very proud of that because this is a former student, but also it bothers me as it would be taking credit of something I did not do (considering a lot of people took credit of my work, I know how it feels). But, as Nietzsche said "One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil", I find it sad that after all the pushing, the huffing, the puffing, to make the students excel, they go into a market where the bar is getting lower and lower.

Clients are uneducated, agencies are run but not-exactly-bright stuffed suits, marketing departments barely understand the word, briefs keep changing, words such as "AI can do it better" are thrown around, insults and pressure leading to burnout are rampant. It is not like I am inventing gunpowder here, but you know what I am pointing out. 

I have a famous saying to my former students "the day you become better than me, I retire". Make no mistake, I am truly proud of my students, all of them, no matter what their choices were. I once had a brilliant student, I saw her later at a mall with two small kids in tow, she looks at me and say "I've done a mistake" pointing to her kids. And I answered with, "yes, you should have been at a shitty agency under an ignorant creative director instead of having two charming kids". 

But still, in today's advertising and marketing scenes, I can see what the students were and what they are now. A pale imitation of the brilliant concepts I have pushed them to do. When I was still teaching, one reproach other faculty members would throw at me would be "it's your work, not theirs" (and I have seen a teacher do the work for students on their PC, give it back to them and grade them subsequently). Actually, no, it was never my work, it was the relentless drive to push the students so hard (or what I not very charmingly call "beat them to the pulp" - figuratively, thankfully) so that they "spit it out".

I remember one student who once said "my sister works at (insert prestigious agency) and she loved the lines you rejected last time" to which I replied "but you came up with better ones, right?" and she goes "but according to their standards even the ones rejected were great", I sighed and said "well, not my fault my standards are higher than their agency's!".

And at the end of every course, I always ask "was it your work or mine?" the anonymous answer would be "our work", and then I ask again "did you know you had it in you?", and once more the ubiquitous reply is "no". I simply know the students had it in them. I simply know that the red-haired girl everyone pitied me when I said she was in my class was simply neglected not uncreative. The proof is that she got 95 on one of her assignments (part of the very rare 95 I have given in all my teaching career), how the class erupted after that was honestly something one cannot put in words.

I want my students to surpass me. I do. But the more I look at today's output, even if some of it is here and there brilliant, and I make every effort to highlight it, I still know, know, that the initial potential was bigger and of higher caliber than what is dumbed out.

The reason I know? I was there to push them to the abyss, and I threw them over the edge, they discovered they had wings and could fly.

Dear Almaza, no, do not mess with the flag.

No Almaza is not the first to play with the flag (here). But obviously it did not learn the lesson from either Aishti or Annahar. Because, yes, if you look closely on this add announcing that Almaza is now at the duty free, you'll discover that, instead of the original Cedrus libani in the middle of the original drawing of the Lebanese flag, Almaza put their own logo. Sorry people, this is inadmissible. If you do not believe me, look at the image below:

So honestly, enough is enough. You want to include the flag? Do something as respectful as Exotica did:

Otherwise, honestly just stop messing with it,

Sagesse University, leaders ahoy.

Sagesse University is positioning itself as a hub for leadership, and why not? At least they are picking a distinct lane to fight in. Interestingly "Universite la Sagesse" was - for a very long time - only centered on law. Until obviously they expanded to other degrees as well. The university was founded by the Maronite Archdiocese of Beirut, and has been around for - according to the ad 150 years (if you look at the logo) or 151 years according to the website. And yes, as I said, there are several faculties at this point and with youth (and their parents) trying to pick a university (as we are in August) from a very crowded and uneven marketplace, Sagesse University is trying to seduce its audience.

City Furniture, nothing comfort-ing and nothing biscuit-y

Please welcome, the art of inserting any concept on any product and pretending it works (hint: it does not). OK first let's define "raha w biscuit" a light treat which is basically Turkish lokum inside two round biscuits, preferably Gandour 555. Raha also means comfort in Arabic. So for City furniture, "the "comfort/raha" is on us, the biscuit on you". How this has anything to do with houses, with furniture, with sofas, with chairs, is beyond me (unless you are counting dropping sugar or bits of biscuits on said furniture or what not). So on the whole... Nothing comfort-ing here, and nothing biscuit-y either.

Alph from Alphabet, the writing is on the wall

I admit, it's smart. Alphabet the institution present since 1982 which trades in office supplies, art materials & books and which added a wide range of printing services, has now its own in-house brand of supplies for a back to school experience. The name is "alph" which obviously derives from the mothership "alphabet" it also means in Arabic "one thousand" which obviously brought the line "one thousand and one dream" if it is gratuitous does not matter, after all, some of the most interesting lines were there for the taking. Considering Alphabet has only one branch in Jounieh, it makes sense they centered their ads in Kesserwan where their clientele is. Now, in case you did not catch the drift, seems they added a flying carpet for you get the one thousand and one nights reference more easily.

Rexona is playing its cards right

Rexona, well, let's admit it - something is cooking there and cooking correctly. Yes, you can look at the details of the operation orchestrated by Pimo here. Am I in love with using "influencers" no, but they did a fully integrated campaign across the board, in Lebanon, Iraq and Libya. And those mini lockers were totally cute to be honest. All this of course on the backdrop of the FIFA World Cup. Sure, Rexona was one of the sponsors and I love, love, that the brand executed a viral "pit-vertising" marketing campaign by placing its logo directly under the armpits of match officials' jerseys across all 104 matches. Because duh, this is where there is sweat and you'd see that when officials raised their arms to announce the time left and what not. Still, to give credit where credit is due, the campaign was tightly managed on all fronts and doing in in 3 countries is no mean feat as it required very strategic and local coordination. The line "squirt, play, and bust some moves" is directly aimed at the target audience.

Klio - now with a differentiating proposition

 

Klio - yes, the powder milk. Sure, it has always been in the market, since the early 1993 to be exact. Whereas Dano, Tatra and Nido made their case very clearly on television each taking a different route (Nido with emotional memories, Dano focusing on children, and Tatra for all the DIY household foods) - Klio and I remember distinctly focused on radio with a jingle which was very high-pitched and irritating yet which still did not offer any specific positioning or clear differentiating point for the brand. Now, Klio is seriously back in the market this time with at least something to offer. 3x vitamins A and D (are they comparing to their old formula or to the daily bodily need?), also "energy and health" - the gigantic ad continues on the other side as well with more specific words. This of course is a welcome change to the older much more generic promises that Klio gave in the past. Now, with Lebanon being what it is these days, and with brand loyalty being out the window (here) I wonder if the people targeted in this ad (trying not to be stereotypical and assume mothers and females) will be hooked to Klio now that everyone is trying to save their buck.

Whaibeh - the football ad I am too late to talk about

I spoke about Whaibeh prior (here), and now there is more. "It's settled" marginally better than the prior ad, and right bang on time to coincide with the World Cup. But also not exactly related to the sport (they sell jewelry after all). Now, if they are implying that you'd go to them because "it's settled" not sure if people pick jewelry stores this way, after all, the competition is fierce in that sector and usually people rely on either word-of-mouth recommendations or simply trust a store and become regulars. Still, at some point, I do feel Whaibeh needs the services of a professional creative as the standing and positioning implied in the ads does not seem to either add up or to basically be top of the line for a jewelry story.

Pockets of liberalism: the exceptions that proved the rule.

Still from the Chāy-e Narges 70s Iranian ad

Yesterday I was made aware of the 70s ad in Iran for Chāy-e Narges (here), in it, a model sporting a tank top and a mini skirt with long uncovered hair does what every model does since time immemorial. Behind her, sitting, seems what are relatives much more conservatively dressed with an elderly woman having a scarf tied on her head (not the classic "veil" but a head-cover none-the-less).

Of course, this, according to the internet is hailed as being as to how Iran was permissive, progressive, and liberal it was before the Islamic revolution. Well, of course, everything is reductive, stereotypical and generalized. Let me give another example, on January 1rst 1978 Elias Rahbani (and his orchestra) released Liza Liza - the quasi immortal disco anthem. The cover had - literally - a bare-chested woman on it. Below is a censored version to avoid offending anyone.

The point is, neither Chāy-e Narges nor the Liza Liza vinyl cover say anything about Iranian or Lebanese society at the time nor about the cultural, ethical and social norms that governed both societies then. If anything, those were the exceptions that proved the rule.

When I tell foreigners Lebanon is conservative, the immediate culprit is the Muslim part of the Lebanese population. The Marie France incident (here) is a good example how conservatism runs rampant in all factions of the population - Christians and Muslims alike. And this has nothing to do with the levels of "education" some people boast about (here). Being a "technocrat" does not divorce your from beliefs that run rampant with less-educated people.

Images of Beirut in the 70s, which, yes, also include tank tops and mini skirts are "always" indicative as to how the country got radicalized to what it is today. Yet, the country that was shown, was one in urban dwellings where morals and habits are much loser than in rural dwellings, and even by city-standards, conservatism is still there in many shapes and forms - anything from rituals (fasting, attending religious edifices) to less noted signs and signifiers - such as wearing long sleeves for women, or curfews (mostly applied to daughters rather than sons), etc...

The image below by Rudolf Dietrich, can be a very good indicator of how economic and social disparity can be a much better indicator of social norms.

To quote again, what I wrote earlier (here): Under the Al Shams building, one of the most celebrated jewels of modernist architecture (by architect Joseph Philippe Karam) and in the pathways that made way to the sea, lived people in extreme Poverty, in makeshift houses. Literally at a stone throw from one of the most luxurious buildings of Beirut at the time.

So to reiterate the point, liberal bubbles were mostly the exceptions that proved the rule, rather than anything else.

Patrick Chemali and Lebnan sahar el layali

I shall start with a full disclosure: Patrick Chemali and myself are not related, we are close friends though, and this post, like all other posts on my blog is not sponsored, and indeed the song is done with AI yet with Patrick's own vocals on lead. Now that this is said, I am also (apart from being hard of hearing) tone deaf. Yet as soon as he shared it with me, I have been listening to it on loop. 

I do have soft spot for irony, because Patrick, like myself, tends to dip everything - including "rosy immaculate past" in bitter sauces, maybe because people keep rearranging that past continuously. If you really read into the lyrics, this is far from the benign happy-go-lucky suggestion the title implies. The song is available to stream on the several channels via this link (here). I would definately suggest you give it a listen, or as in my case, more than one.

Master curvy, 2 in 1 but make it advertising

Now that's interesting. The above is not one ad. It is two. And the reason I know is that when I was saving it, only half showed up. So whereas the ad continues itself on 2 fragments, it is basically - back when print was still in vogue - a double spread feature. Well, obviously Daher food is all out with the help of Mink. Master potato chips in all its variants, nuts, Sitos, where bags were redesigned and streamlined and made more appealing and easier to spot (here, here, and here as examples). According to ArabAd and the ever-precise Naji Boulos, billboard occupancy dwindled to 20%, so I can imagine how easy for Master to book adjacent OOH, and really push the idea on 2 billboards at once. Apparently though it was not to be, as it seems every flavor has its own unipole.

And despite this not happening,  the idea of an ad continuing on the next panel has been done, and in Lebanon to boot (in 2007). See below.

Maliks back to school - sort of?

Maliks, where does one start? The silly riddles which lasted too long for anyone's patience? (here) or the times it got it right? (here and here) so it seems now we are back to ambiguous territory. Look, maybe it was too simple, but it took 3 people to decode it. To be honest just one and it was him who told the other two (including me) what it meant. Well, apparently it goes something like this "iz it tyme too go bak to school?" but the problem is, in Arabic could barely decode the words and understand that these were grammatical errors. So maybe as someone told me recently "if you were smarter or more creative you'd have understood" (talking about his lame ads). So yes, these days I neither feel intelligent nor creative enough.

Najjar Raqwa2 - improvement but still without a soul

Remember the fiasco that Raqwa2 was? (here) To say there has been an improvement is not saying much when the bar was so low. Still, one has to give credit, but again, as the point of Raqwa2 is convenience. A small office break (probably to catch on the latest gossip), a quick cup in between two house chores, taking a breather in no time before plunging in what you were doing, or simply enjoying an Arabic coffee cup without the hassle of doing the Raqwa yourself (I am good and it, but yes, it requires technique and sometimes the patience of a saint). Still at least the woman seems to be enjoying her coffee this time, even if emotions and a soul seem to be lacking (coffee is not something purely visual, and Arabic coffee requires a mindset that instant coffee does not provide, this much I assure you). Oh, the "ahwtak 3a zaw2ak" (your coffee done the way your like it) does not hold a candle to "wayn ma fi ahwe fi Najjar" (wherever there is coffee there is Najjar). Not to be mean, but why Najjar let go of Pimo when it was doing brilliant work is beyond me.

Pampa reissues tamarind flavor

Well Pampa has reissued its tamarind flavor. I did some digging, turns out the original launch dates back to... 2005 (here). Not to confuse anyone though but seems the bottle was present in the market about 4 years and a half ago if Libangoods are to be believed (here). So, yes, a lot of water (or is it juice) went under that bridge. Which, I presume it is something to celebrate that the flavor is back in the market.

And if anyone is celebrating, well, Pampa is. Plastering the - supposedly summerish - product on the highways. Sure this is not the creative-oozing campaign, because honestly, it does not need to. It simply says "the original tamarind is back". How clean can it be? 

The army celebrates its own day

 A hand offering roses to some soldiers, small children waving flags to the armed forces, and... Tactical forces in the battlefield? Obviously the third is typical army choice. Because the first two, tenderly and cutely fall under the same concept - people celebrating the army. No matter "81 years and "the country" for the country". Confused? Well, "watan" in Lebanese is euphemism for anyone in the armed forces. But it literally means "country". So the double-entendre is there, alive and kicking. I believe this is done internally as with all their latest works. 

XXX

Khayrat Chtaura - a gate to a new religion

Photo credit: Mahmoud Ghazayel

Well, a small "kasra" would have done the job. Kasra? Yes, that is the small accent under a letter either to make it feminine or to better define a word. Long ago, mid 80s that is, Golden Pheasant - one of the most popular brands of tomato paste in Lebanon - came up (along with Trust, later to be renamed as Rouge) with an ad that went "rabb el banadoura". Considering tomato paste is called "ribb el banadoura", the wink was meant to the farmer who grew the tomatoes so well he was "the god of the tomatoes". A slight, funny wink. 

The problem with Khayrat Chtoura (funnily the logo is cut in half on the bridge where it is hanged), they went with what they thought was a "our tomato paste is Lebanese, our tomato paste is something else", yet, without the clear distinction it translated as "our God is Lebanese, our God is something else". 

I am not a religious zealot for sure, but damn it, this scared the hell out of me.

Ksara - Army Day

Leave it to Mink to come up with a good Army Day ad. OK the copy is very good but very expected. A part of the national hymn - "our plain, our mountain, birth to men" (please don't start with the sexism thingy, thank you). Now "plain" hints to Bequa'a plain where Ksara is from. That's bonus marks. But what took me aback? Instead of rows of grapes to make the wine, look closely and... these are soldiers aligned. Yes I know, a literal translation of "birth of men" but it works very well. Smart, very. Finding a way to include the product both in copy and in visual without going tacky? Seriously, how cool is that?

Jeep - enjoy the view.

Jeep is - delightfully - up to its tricks. Well, considering the car gave its name to all 4x4 cars (in Lebanon it is not unheard of for someone to say "I have (insert car name) Jeep", this brands means business. Serious business. Rock=climbing seems to be one of its hobbies, and as if to prove it, look where the car is. Or rather above what the car is. Yes, yes, this happens in the Faqra roundabout, the uppity place rich people go, people with enough spare change to buy them one of those Jeep cars. But no matter, we can all enjoy the view, while Jeeps enjoys some other more elevated view. Joefish is certainly on a winning streak as of late.

Dear Puck, welcome to the stereotypical sexist club

Photo credit: Geoana Hobeiche

I have written about this prior (here) - at the time it was through the lens of Vileda and Fairy. Plein Soleil played the same card as well (here). A sad sorry tale. Pity that a decade later, everything remains the same. Because yes, why would it change when women internalize the stereotype? Fairy, Vileda, Plein Soleil (and many other brands) walked so that Puck can run. But underneath it is the same, worrying, latent, mostly unrecognizable stereotype and sexism. A woman's place is in the kitchen. Hey, she can have all the career triumphs she wants as long as she is in the kitchen - cooking and knowing her place in the hierarchy. Truly, a very let down ad - especially that Puck falls under Arla, a Danish giant stemming from a country where gender equality is more advanced that most countries of the world.

So now it is mandatory to label AI

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Oh don't you just love the EU? (here) - the gist of it is that starting August 2, anything AI generated is to be flagged as such (texts, images etc....). Long - as in long - time ago I went all out on bloggers (when blogging was still a thing in Lebanon) who did not flag their paid posts as such. One famous blogger even sent out a post for a well-known corn flakes brand saying (quoting without linking) "everyday I have (insert brand) corn flakes for breakfast" when he went all out to advertise Zaatar w Zeit as his preferred breakfast somewhere else. He was known to have a lifelong card from Zaatar w Zeit if you want to know.

The polemics led on slut (the word is not misplaced) to declare "I've never heard of this guy (me), who is he?" and for the idiotic editor of (the now defunkt) Cloud961 to call me "a washed out advertiser turned blogger" and actually ask - no, seriously - the bloggers in question if they should declare and label their paid posts.

Two weeks later, the EU sent out a new law where all paid material was to be declared and flagged as such. As I said, I love the EU.

But honestly, don't you think it's - strict minimum - common sense? To go back to that funny sentence "why do they call it common sense if it is not common". Of course, AI is everywhere, it writes you essays, articles, produces layouts, songs, melodies, advertisements, videos, even full films. So it is everywhere, and the margin between reality and fiction is getting more and more thin. 

Now, of course, with AI as I previously said, present everywhere, could this be reaching out too far? Models are losing jobs for creatures created on AI and appearing in ads, everyday brings a new milestone in advancement - humanoids in the ring as an example (sure there is an element of teleoperation there, but seriously!), heck, "an autonomous OpenAI agent escaped a secure test environment and hacked into the AI startup Hugging Face during an internal safety evaluation" (funnily this sentence is copied from Google AI overview if you want to know).

And now what? Now we label AI when AI is labelable. Just like the slut in question had to label her Christmas photos with her family (kids in tow) and a mineral water next to them. If anyone does not know, some geniuses who walked the earth among us - am thinking Alan Turing who gave his name to the famous test - "the Turing test" predicted this long ago. That basically, if a judge - after asking questions - cannot tell the machine from the human, the machine has passed the test.

As Spielberg's film said eloquently in the subline of his AI Artifical Intelligence film "the Turing test was just the beginning".