Pikasso x AGA ADK, The Unseen Ads

 

A good initiative is a good initiative. The visibility results elude me though, but someone is trying, and the "someone" in this case is Pikasso and AGA ADK. According to their own text "In Beirut, many independent workers depend on small paper flyers taped to stairwells and street poles to find work. A phone number. A skill offered. A lifeline in an economy where poverty is near 44% and unemployment around 45%." 

Having documented many of those in my ArcheWALLogy project (here), I can assure you that rain soaks them, sun makes them unreadable, more often than not they are posted on top of one another. In effect making them unseen, when they are sorely needed as a lifeline for people who just want to be "out there" to be able to get clients. 

Apparently the initiative by AGA ADK x Pikasso has a  name "The Unseen Ads". at least the initiative places back the billboards very close geographically to where the original flyers were posted, to keep the geographical reach intact. Again to quote them: "Because when visibility means livelihood, giving someone the right stage isn’t just design; it’s dignity."

Because yes, many people just want an honest income as opposed to resort to begging.

Madi - 2010-2025, wasn't broke...

The ad above goes back to 2010. The one below 2025.

Same word play. Almost. Madi means past. So the ad goes "the past is present kiddos", then now "the past is present for the future". As I said, done and dusted not sure if improved. Again, with back to school almost here, such ads will be in full swing, but it is interesting Madi still chose to revisit an old one. It did work in the past, now apparently it was dipped in "new and improved" sauce. I think the idea is that since Madi is celebrating 50 years so they are looking ahead "for the future". Could work I guess, but the original word play still there.

Of Beirut and Dubai: We're having a heat wave (yes, this is a song)

To those of you who have not melted, welcome. Supposedly the worst of the heatwave has passed. Well, between the temperatures soaring, the lack of any electricity from the government, and the diesel engines exploding left and right due to overcharging their capacity, welcome to the joys of living in Lebanon. And yes, we are supposed to compete with other such cities because, never mind the because, but seriously when my internet provider gave a free internet to the bazar organized for the feast of the Assumption, it sent all our accounts into a tailspin, and I had to work very very difficulty for two days when a client in Dubai was eagerly waiting for answers. Because, you know, Dubai has internet no matter the feast.

During the war, then drinkable water was too far and in between, an AUB professor suggested that people can fill glass galons and leave them in the sun for a day so that the sunlight would do the purification. Suspiciously, I saw our neighbour putting glass galons outside having told him the story now that drinkable water is even more spottier than my internet account.

But yeah, Dubai has to be shaking in its boots. Long long ago, Ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said on Beirut: a dream that echoed in my mind that one day Dubai would be like Beirut.

But that was long ago.

Meanwhile my neighbour has put a new batch of glass galons.

Jerry Ghazal is now a l'Oreal mouthpiece - no, really

Remember that laughable ad l'Oreal has graced us with (here), well apparently there was even more in the bottom drawer. Introducing Jerry Ghazal as their new mouthpiece (here). His bio states - writer and actor. I shall bypass actor because not my field of expertise (Patrick, you listening here?) but writer? As in writer? People I am a writer, and a damn good one at that (yes, with my ego in check). So honestly, not everyone who says he or she is expert at a domain on the internet is, caugh, ahem, expert in it. Of course, if you want half-romantic sayings with pseudo flirty sentences and bottom of the barrel expressions that go passpartout with a sprinkle of fake Nizar Qabbani, be my guest. But still, l'Oreal should know better.

Lux, or rather LuxLux - twice the woman

When the moisturization is twice, what do you do? Your confidence, strength, and wisdom doubles, the two sides of you collide and amplify. People, this is very good, exceptionally good. Why? Because Lana Medawar, Cynthia Karam, and Mira Hasbini ended up, not interviewing each other, but... Themselves! Because - tadam - they are twice the woman they are with Lux. Pimo does it again, well, am I biased? Like hell I am, when they keep churning hit after hit. Again, some of you might be upset, go solve your problems elsewhere, for Lux, Pimo has been doing a great job. For Omo too by the way. For this time, schizophrenia has never looked so lovely.

Yes, the Spinneys "Missing" campaign was an unforced error.

I know I am late on this one relatively, as it was done before the opening of the new Spinneys in Ajaltoun. But here's the issue, all this "missing" campaign by Spinneys was actually done very close to the 5th anniversary of the August 4th explosion where more than 218 people lost their lives and which engendered a large destruction on 2/3 of Beirut. Worse, one of the people portrayed in the campaign lost a close relative in that explosion. Of course, all this is "circumstantial evidence" but between this and that fishy ad before (here) that makes it too many unforced errors.

However, if advertising taught us anything is that, for those who shop at Spinneys, this does not move the needle either way. Also note, the figure of 17,000 missing people during the 1975-1990 war is also incorrect, the figure was literally "invented" in a report to force politicians to take the issue seriously. This does not negate that there are thousands of people whose whereabouts are unknown, but the above figure, I maintain, is incorrect.

Almaza - a good ad that fits no strategy

Photo credit - Mohamad Haidar

After the atrocity that their summer campaign was (here) almaza had a very decent follow up for their light version which is an excellent copy that is the equivalent of "I don't want to impose" except in Arabic it goes "don't want to spread my weight" which obviously a nice gimmick on their lack of calories and all. Is the ad good? Yes. Does it announce a turn for newer and better ads? No. Why is that so? Because every is done without a backbone of a strategy. It is just a mix and match or rather mix and mismatch. Almaza used to be - back when they were with Intermarkets - very clear in their tone of voice, visuals and messaging. Interestingly the same creative who was back with Intermarkets is now doing the new ads, yet somehow, the spark seems to be gone. It is very hit and miss. More miss than hit to be honest.

Burger King and its stacker

This has been the summer of deals, almost everywhere, and from the whole F&B sector. So let Burger King join the fray with its "stacker" - which basically means more meat per burger. Double the meat apparently. Well, as I said, everyone is releasing their own thing prior to back to school hitting back very soon now. Also interesting Burger King is playing a bit catch up, now that its competitor launched several campaigns back to back. Not being too much into fast food, am sure those who are get to pay more attention than me.

LIU - show and tell

How do you depict a multi-confessional university? How do you say you have campuses in regions predominantly so and so (meaning both sides of the religious aisle). Well, you just show it, with camera ready students who are easy on the eyes - one of the just just happens to be veiled, the other not, the third can pass off as of any denomination. And yes, LIU with campuses all over Lebanon has also managed to snag some very good faculty and staff so they have something to show for (interestingly, there is also a "through website" as the ad suggest). So, I guess LIU just went with the most suggestive route to strut their stuff. In the end, parents could be drawn to cheaper tuitions though.

Ixsir, another wine, same summer

Along with Ksara (here), Chateau Musar (here), Ixsir is joining the wine summer fray - from what I have seen, a double ad. The first goes "revive every moment" the second "great wines are born to great heights", truth be told this is not a "campaign", how could it be? When there is no creative concept tying them - but then again probably this is asking too much from a summer campaign aimed to sell. Still, and again, not to spoil the Ixsir moment, I also found this ad in downtown Beirut.

The ad is for Go Cola, the line? Revibe the moment. Once more the occurrence of both at the same time is a bit funny. Ixsir went revive and Go Cola went revibe. Oh well, you know the line "great minds think alike" but do you know the other half? "fools sledom differ".

Dubizzle-OLX-Dubizzle-OLX again.

So some people enjoy playing yes-no-maybe with their name. Introducing Dubizzle which became OLX which became Dubizzle which became OLX. I mean this is more confusing than gender pronouns. I already talked about it here, and compared it to Victor/Victoria with the delightful Julie Andrews quipping - "So, I'm a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman." Considering the case above, you an add "pretending to be a man". So enough of the confusion and name-switching and I honestly do not care if 11 influencers were involved and a 100 thousand votes cast, and that 87% chose OLX because honestly there is so many times you can play with your name switch before it becomes tedious, boring, repetitive, and - incredibly bad for the branding and naming itself. Now, can we please settle on one name without the whole song and dance? Thank you.

Chateau Musar reeks of summer

Now that is an ad that makes sense. Summer. But make it with ice cubes straight from the freezer. You can almost taste the chilled wine - and when you say chilled wine, you imagine loved ones around a table on a boozy lunch that extends to the evening. And yes, this does conjures this image. Also as a back up a beach scene could be inserted - but I can't swim so let's go for boozy lunches. Now, to be clear, I am not accusing Chateau Musar of anything... but, me being me, I immediately remembered this 80s ad from Adidas...

Army Day - 80 years in dignity

As someone who has, for several years, produced the Army Day (August 1rst) ad, I can assure you, it is difficult to come with different executions when the implementation and the brief is so narrow. This year, with the armed forces celebrating their 80th, their ad seems classic. A flag, on a blue sky background. I remember the years where everyone and anyone was putting camouflage on their products in their ads to for Army Day producing a horrible panoply of visual atrocities. Thankfully, these days are gone. And as someone who has done his military service as an officer, the ad sends a small frisson in me. "For you, we are ready for anything" says the line. Again, sometimes going back to basics yields the best results.

Tannour el 3asr, cheesy ad that does not sell cheese

Interesting, a bread campaign on too many billboards. Introducing, Tannour el 3asr (for those of you who do not know tannour is a round open-air oven used to make bread and other such items, usually made of clay), a bread - according to the ad - easy to digest, colorant and sugar-free, and very rich in fibers - (do note, these attributes are not exaggerations, there is a strong scientific backing behind this). So far all well and dandy, until we get to the visual and the headline "Tannour el 3asr for the waist to shrink" (in Arabic it rhymes). The visual is obviously the bread with a shrinking waist. The cheesy part? All this. I mean seriously, as a diabetic (or as anyone who is health-conscious), such bread could be of interest to me so why didn't they keep it scientific and well-researched, but no - they had to dip it in a line and visual that make it silly. Pity.

Beirut Beer - strategy overflow.

Remember that corny Almaza ad (here) for the summer? Beirut Beer, for once did not seem to be answering them, but rather branching smartly on their own: A trilingual welcoming ad for all visitors and expats coming to Lebanon, dignified, smart, and quite friendly. Now, not to rain on their parade, but I personally would have modified all three ads to "we are pleased and honored to welcome you to" (because then Beirut would be both the brand and the city). And yes, it works in all three languages (this is the copywriter in me speaking).

Maliks goes Mandarin, no not the fruit

Another of those ads which are either too smart or not too smart. Malik's goes on with its "ma7loule" streak (ma7loule means "the answer is easy"). This one however, has a problem, not in the answer, but in the problem itself. It took so far 5 people to decode this, all of us armed with decades of working in advertising, to arrive to - nothing. No one could make head or tails of this. It was all Chinese to us. No wait, this is Chinese!

Dunk in - is this even legal and doable?

Well, it is a marketing fact - you rarely, if ever, resort to distorting your logo (some applications are permissible - lately Coca-Cola did it to indicate its cans can be crushed and recycled, ArabAd did it when Gibran Tueni and later Walid Azzi passed away with ArabSad, but examples are too far and in between). So this caught me aback, and again I stand corrected - Dunk In. Not Dunkin' (formerly known as Dunkin Donuts). So I am rather perplexed if this is even "legal" and doable. on the upside, we all know the brand. On the downside, the logo is distorted. Interestingly, the original logo is nowhere to be found.

Halabi goes nuts - and not very smart

File under "advertising is getting too smart for me" - because honestly, either this is too smart or me getting too dumb. So let's recap, "a mix-and-match whose worry is - beach and mountain" for beach you get a bodybuilder (good to know someone has a bigger nose than me) and for the mountain you get a hiker (good to know there is someone thinner than me). All of this with obviously a background of beach and mountain. Seriously, all of this is so first degree, not single-minded, and honestly goes in 19 directions at once. People, please.

Unpopular opinion - the late Ziad Rahbani was not a good fit for Almaza

All right, the cat is out of the bag. The late Ziad Rahbani has graced us with two ads - Almaza and Bankers Insurance. That he was a natural born copywriter is not even a question, and - judging by the amount of people seeing any of his television appearances - the man could be extremely present, has brilliant zingers, and incredible comebacks. The problem? You cannot bring an alcoholic to a beer ad.

And yes, the man himself admitted on television, that his liver processes alcohol like water, which is why he was able to consume gigantic quantities - once more, I have an OCD memory, and I can quote snippets of discussions I have seen on television. So when the man himself admits he is an alcoholic... how is he a spokesperson for a beer brand.

Please note, one's genius with words - and being someone who appreciates his songs' texts - does not negate the other. And if this is an unpopular opinion so be it. One should not speak bad of the dead. All right, Bette Davis being an exception - her own lyrical genius deserves it (When Joan Crawford died, Bette Davis famously quipped, "You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.")

Long live the legacy of Ziad Rahbani. The man who was larger than life, but sadly, smaller than death. But I stand by every word in this post.

Khoury Home nails its copy

Well, one has to give it out to Khoury Home - the copy is simply very good. First the admission "mich wa2to" - slang for "this is not the time" (you know with Lebanese being besieged with so many expenses and bills it is only normal for them to feel financially overwhelmed especially that most have lost their livelihoods and stashed money to the banks but also the official Black Friday which is after thanksgiving is way off - for info about Lebanese and Black Friday visit here) then the redeemer part "bas bi wa2to" which translated to "but it is right on time" (again with prices so low how much can you delay a new stove or fridge or a piece of electronics). Hats off indeed, one needs to know the market perfectly well to come up with this!