Can anyone make Alfa stop, please?

Alfa has a new ad (here). And it's not even independence day. The sob, the drama, the - heaven help us that word again - resilience. I mean they got the mandolins to the power n, and the pinch-me-till-I-cry drama cranked to the level 11. Oh and as a close friend said, "now is not the time to dig a tunnel under the cedar" which, along with all other pseudo-creative ideas the ad is brimming with, it is indeed not. 

Does the ad solve anything? As usual not. And no, tilling the soil and dancing dabke while waving the flag as children are on the swing will certainly not fix the country. But then leave it to Alfa to have a much ado about nothing.

Parazar excels and Alfa deflates for the same Mother's Day creative concept

Alfa has issued its Mother's Day ad - the concept is "el denye emm" - an Arabic idiom that "life is a mother" (it teaches you, takes care of you etc...). See the ad here. OK, you did not hear it from me but I detected a very strong AI feel here, also, again - speculation your honor - but the ad seems like a down-low copy of the iconic Nido "kebro el wlad" ad (here). If not so I am betting my neck it was on their mood board.

In comes Parazar, with interestingly the same backbone "el denye emm" - listen, no, this is not one of my #CompareandContrast posts where brands end up imitating each other because well, it is only normal for the idea to float in different minds for the same occasion. The difference? ParAzar came with their arsenal of beautifully and professionally shot marriages and events. Add to this a kick-ass copy which drives the message home without being pinch-me-till-I-cry, and you have a dignified and well-put ad which expresses its message and lets you connect the dots. See the ad (here).

Alfa goes the AI route, only salvaged by a good line

Well, the line was good. Everything else? Not so sure. Alfa drowns in its own mushiness, pushing the schmaltz to the power n, and AI did not help at all with everything so - fakely - generated. Sure it must have sounded better as an idea but the AI execution is such a let down. The end line "all what is Lebanon is missing is people to love it" - illustrates the concept perfectly. But then again too much sugary scenes spiked my glucose massively (as a diabetic, this is not recommended). Watch the ad here.

What's in a name? Twitter, X, Liz Sarkissian, Iman

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

I know am not the first person to write about Twitter becoming X. A lot of people tangled themselves in pretzels to explain how X works/does not work as a brand, how X is a brand/not a brand, how X will become/will not become a super app, how X can/cannot be patented and the list continues.

The good news? X is here. The bad news, everyone keeps referring to X as "formerly Twitter". Well, if you are going to change your name, why bother keep calling you by your former name (I know the trans community is very sensitive about bringing up their "dead names") but this is Elon Musk we speak of, so any comparison to trans people is not really appreciated.

So what does this have to do with the actress Iman? Well, her original name is Liz Sarkissian - she highly intelligent, polyglot (8 languages), studied pharmacy and what have you - so when she wanted to launch her career in Egypt, she changed her stage name to Iman (which means faith). Until it turns out everyone kept calling her Liz Sarkissian. So the anecdote (and sorry I have no original reference to it) is that a friend of hers suggested she'd just put her name as "Iman, formerly Liz Sarkissian". Which obviously reminds me of X (formerly Twitter) in this case.

But truth be told, old names have a way of sticking around. When I used to go to work by bus, I used to pass "Damascus road" daily, specifically the stretch called "Becahra El Khoury" (it's near Sodeco if you want to know). At one point I just had to ask the driver as to why it was called so. Apparently there was a statue of our former president there, which got dismantled during the war, but eventually the name stuck. Another example? Cell phone carriers in Lebanon have changed names since at least 20 years. From Libancell to MTCTouch (then just touch), and from Cellis to Alfa. Yet, the major headquarters of the latter are still being referred to as "Cellis" despite the name change. Well, no one even bothers with "Alfa formerly known as Cellis", just Cellis would do.

So my question is - if X is going to hold as name, not sure why everyone keeps calling it by its other name.  

Alfa Telecom - a small New Year gem

Alfa Telecom managed to bring a lovely end of year gem! A simple idea about drinking and driving. I will no spoil the party by saying the copy should have been "you only get one shot at life" (rather than "in life"), but certainly the creative idea holds all while being unpretentious and unpatronizing! I do hope you did not drink and drive yesterday!