Monday, August 1, 2022

27 atrocious ads for Army Day in Lebanon

"Now is the winter of our discontent" said Shakespeare, well, make that the Army Day of my discontent said Tarek Chemaly.

OK, I could have reviewed all the above ads alone - there is more than 27 - but the figure seemed right as they fit in collages of 9 after I took the time, energy and patience to cut the ad into squares. Mind you I think I inserted more time, energy and patience than anyone who contributed in whatever shape or form in the ads above.

Their quality is abysmal. Honestly, the level is above and beyond hopeless.

Sure sure, some of them show a glimmer of hope in the hands of more capable people, but by and large the amount of mercantilism, illogic and otherwise uncreativity is simply astounding. 

Where do we start? Do note that I did not even review them individually but lump summed them all together because - it's not worth it. That simple. From megabrands to micro-ones from multinationals to local companies, from actors to photographers to make up artists - all of them failed the test. All of them did not have the decency to shut up but rather inserted badly photoshopped ads and copywriting which would make me scream had it been offered to me.

The play of word "watan" (which doubles both as country but also in slang as army) is used, overused and abused. The play on word on how to pronounce Jaysh (Army in Arabic) is too cringy - there are too many culprits above to count. That feeble attempt to insert the army in the product line the companies are selling is just a level above (or is that below) idiotic - hamburger? Sushi? You name it and it has been dipped in army sauce.

Oh and spare me the errors - a brand is claiming the army is "keeping our settlements safe".

Settlements? Settlements! Settlements.

But hey someone else called them ninjas so why not? To go on describing this level of absurdity is just pointless.

Seriously, what is there to say? I honestly think this is sad.