Monday, May 11, 2026

Balkis - afandi sans wordplay

Balkis (here, here, here and here as examples). Balkis previously advertised its mandarine (afandi) flavor before. Here's what I said back then: (for) the mandarine flavor - they go "charraf el afandi" (Afandi is a title from the Ottoman era which means "Gentleman" or "sir" and still used in Lebanon as a valuable way of addressing someone, the word also means "mandarine") and "charraf" means "he is here" (do note in my archive I have and ad for Balkis Afandi flavor since 2004 so I guess this is a reissue of an old flavor.

Interestingly, the new ad does not feature the witty wordplay - as to why is beyond me because it really worked. Also, and this is me and my OCD memory: Pity I do not have their first ad - which is not present in my archive - which simply said "3a fekra" which translates as "by the way" or "here's a thought" and it was simply introducing pure natural juice.