"Forget about tomorrow, stay in Today" - a zero sugar chocolate with everything in Arabic except the name of the brand. A brand mind you that is a favorite of diabetics o of people wishing to diet or not gain weight, or damn me, people who like good-tasting chocolate. Today comes in different variations, and all of them good. Whereas the ad is not award-worthy, it fulfills what it came to do and does it very well if you ask me.
Either my English is getting bad or this sentence makes no sense. OK "live ahead". Again, to be fair if anyone knows what this means, please enlighten me. Does this mean "live with the future in mind" or "live and prepare for tomorrow" or... "be a time traveler"? I mean I don't mind grammatical mistakes (the great Apple line "think different" is wrong, it should be "think differently" but it is the error that makes the beauty). So again, the picture I get it - a man with his daughter on his shoulders as they have a great time together (emotional language 101). It was the slogan next to it that left me puzzled. But then again - what do I know? I just worked on the account several years and I know the company could have its fixed ideas.
Who knew the market needed a new cola brand. If you didn't, here it is. Kinza Cola - available also in diet if you must know - is now a new entrant to the Lebanese market (currently locked under the Pepsi claw considering Coca-Cola has left the building). To be clear I did not even try it, but one must give it out to the guts of going into a market which is price-sensitive, and one where a major brand is literally monopolizing it. Also not sure, but I thought Kinza was a more female-ish name....
That I am a fan of Mink is no secret. They landed on my best yearly ads several years - no mean feat I can assure you. Their classic Ksara ad for 2023 is mind-blowing (here). Which brings us to this underwhelming series for Valentine's this year. Apart from "single and ready to minkle" (which is passable) the rest are - sadly - too below their usual standards (and mind you, it pains me to say it). Nothing works, either they are too forced, or too plain, or too "meh", or too McCafe-already-did-that-just-two-months-ago (here). Which is surprising coming from a team which kept churning hit after hit after hit. Ah well, on to the next, no point getting stuck in a bunch that was really, well, did not work at all. Let's see what's down the line and forget this flop.
Maggi and Ramadan, a real hand in hand companions. "Ramadan definately with Maggi" or alternatively "Ramadan for sure with Maggi". Because yes, soups are a major component of the Ramadan table, in addition to chicken broth which can be added to many dishes. All this makes Maggi a definite companion for the Ramadan table. Pity it makes me miss their old line "anti wa Maggi wal akl alaz" (you and Maggi, and the food gets more delicious). No idea why they discontinued it.
XOXOOH where love goes out-of-home. Geddit? OOH is out of home, and XOXO is well, much kissing. Oh bummer, I needed to explain a nice wink. So here we are. Vivad does it own Valentine, in a nicely designed advertising. Sometimes you know, not everything needs to be "award-worthy", on the contrary there are times where the cuter, nicer, subtler, goes a longer way. And this ad is truly one of those times. Maybe it could be blink and you'll miss it, but am one of the fans of this.
Well first there was Romeo & Juliet, now it is Afla Romeo & Giulia its iconic model. So why not? A bit too stretched but once you think about it, it does make sense. For the purposes of the ad Alfa could have been dropped because hey even with a "half logo" the brand is too well-known to be confused because it would make it easier to make the link with Romeo & Juliet. No Montagues vs Capulets here, just plain love for Valentine's day.
Smart. Well, yes, that Smart, and no, not that one. I know I am throwing a riddle but hear me out. Smart now comes "in every size". Straight, concise and to the point. No gimmicks, no over-creativity, no head-scratching. #1, #3, #5. To note, this is not your usual "Smart" car but rather an all-electric crossover developed through a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely (because yes, did you know that Smart was engineered by Mercedes Benz?).
So as I said, the previous Smart models need not apply. And the original brilliant campaign which turned every flaw in Smart as an asset does not work here. Case in point? One of my top 10 favorite ads: The sky is the same size in all convertibles.
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So Valentine's Day comping up and the best clubs and venues are competing at attracting the hottest and brightest stars to celebrate - on the one hand this is great news, people spending money and injecting a bit of energy in the economy considering the caliber of the stars in question. On the other hand, and I don't care what you see on social media, the economy is still in doldrums, people are still trying to find jobs, and no we have not had our money back from the banks and - yes, people are still rummaging in trash cans in broad daylight.
Do note, this is not a judgement on people trying to live and attend concerts of their favorite stars, this is simply telling it as it is. A country still not just as the French say "a deux vitesses" (on two speeds) but rather on 100 speeds at the same time.
In my daily AMA (Ask Me Anything), the above ad came en masse. "Why the rings?" "What does the car have to do with anything?" "How much do I have to buy?" "That's not the original logo, is it?". Well, fear not kids.
All right I shall attempt to answer as best as I can. The rings, may or may not indicate a wedding list at Sleep Comfort. Or it may indicate the marriage of the two bands (Sleep Comfort and Chery) who are on the roaster of the same agency mind you (which, may or may not have been the origin of this cross-over ad). This might, or might not, explain why the car has to do with anything - clients of the same agency. Now, the ad, I think, leaves it a little fog as to how much to buy to - what might, or might not - be a draw on the car. Now as you can see the above photo, yes, the Sleep Comfort logo was morphed for the purposes of the ad, which brings us back to the rings.
Naturally, this would not be the first time an agency combined clients. Look at this Cyberia and Warde combo from 2007:
Roadster, the brand that reinvented itself and its branches to be less Americana and more mature, is now back with an add that screams "same burger more protein" which is good to know and not very interesting to see. The ad is bland leaves you wanting. I mean if I said it was without taste, you'd think I was talking about some moral issue not a culinary one. Do note, the ad is practically everywhere, which means at least Roadster did the effort to spread the idea (or lack of it) everywhere. Unfortunately, I don't see the tone of voice anywhere in the ad.
Pepsi is launching a new ad to compare itself, once more, to Coca-Cola while using the Coca-Cola white bear. No, really. Apparently, it is a blind taste. And Pepsi is trying to say "the proof is in the pudding" and therefore once and for all (until the next Cola war is ignited) that taste is on their side aside from marketing and branding gimmicks. Maybe the best way to sum up the situation is to go The Onion brilliant "Ad industry veterans honored with Cola wars memorial". It was fun while it lasted the first time around. But honestly, I am so over it.
Well, the 90s called and they want their ad back. Ras al Houssan is back into the saddle (no pun) to offer us a pre-Ramadan ad (notice the lantern and the hanged moon etc). "from one generation to another, the taste does not differ" (yes, it is shorter and also rhymes in Arabic). After a fiasco (here), one which is better (here), Ras al Houssan is continuing its blitz of ads. To be honest, considering its end target audience the ads is not bad. Old man drinking tea after the iftar etc. And even the line is also appropriate even if honestly this style of "rhyming" dates back to the 90s. At the end of the day, and this is something Mohamad Haidar spoke about, the digital part is so totally misaligned with the OOH, which makes this a bit confusing.
Budweiser, which tanked in sales to the tune of 9.2% (well considering its sister brand Bud Light went down 24.6% that's no biggie after it displayed an ad for trans model Dylan Mulvaney in 2023), is now back to its American roots. Featuring nothing but American "icons" in their ads. A horse, an eagle, famers in caps and obviously Pegasus. Pegasus who? Well never mind, there is just this horse with an eagle on top of it jumping over a log - wait, the best part? The "I'm not crying, you're crying" comes when the farmers go "“You crying?” one asks. “The sun’s in my eyes,” says the other.
I am sure Kid Rock is not shooting any more Budweiser cans like he did in 2023 after this the Mulvaney ad. And so here we are. I need however, to give credit where credit is due with the brilliant "made of America" final line. Not made in America, made of America. That's one brilliant move here.
Now ask any average American about the name of the winged horse and then come back to me without having "the sun in your eyes" from laughter.
See the video here.
I admit I was not even aware the brand existed. Waba - a high end plates and cups - think Villeroy et Boch but make it Arabic designed and styled. When it comes to Arabic culture, they have it locked down for sure. Not just the dishes, or the sahara, or the camels - interestingly they went for a Chevy Caprice rather than a Toyota Hilux but I digress. The abayas, nikab, deshdasha, cultural items to the power n. But what separates the ad from the lot is the way it was done - everything static, but not so, everything moving to the music, but again - not so. Very precise gestures, a suave moving between frames. Blink and you'll miss it (a round object is followed by a round object in the consecutive frames, the back of a man becomes that of a woman, the 4 pieces of cutlery seen from above morph into 4 tables etc...).
The ad takes some time to get accustomed to, but seriously, the pace is impeccable.
See the ad here.
Let me be clear the "prisoner trick" in advertising is nothing new. And giants like Maybelline take months to do their ads and adapt them to different markets and all. Which is cool and dandy considering the big ad space they took over. The problem is that the Zod Security campaign is still on their Dbayeh Branch as we speak. And yes at one point the campaign was prominent in the market. So doing the ad back to back while the Zod is still in town is a little confusing. Still, maybe they did maybe they didn't, you be the judge.
Well, IPT diesel does its own Fairouz. The lyrics, "in days of cold, in days of rain" taken from Fairouz's "habyatak bil sayf" (I loved you in the summer) were used by IPT to talk about their own diesel availability and delivery. Do note, a lot of Lebanese homes have diesel heaters (mine included) and yes, delivery of large quantities - depending on the severity of winter - is not unheard of (average twice a year). Apologies for the bad image quality but honestly, the ad is positioned above their Dora petrol station, you can't get a good shot while walking and you can't get a good shot from the moving bus on top of the bridge. So you'll have to trust me on this one.
"Rightly-done work needs the right tools".
There, Rodsons went back to the least common denominator and won accordingly. No fuss, no pretenses, no gimmicks, just simple and plain advertising. Basically they went back to single-minded - something a lot of advertisers forgot as of late. Because when you deliver a unique message rather than a plethora of jumbled-talk, you end up delivering an ad that basically sells what you are offering.
Now, I am not a handyman (though I did fix the shower - thank you!) so I might not be the audience Rodsons is speaking to, but to all professionals and Do-It-Yourself enthusiasts, Rodsons might have a point.