Dear Almaza, no, do not mess with the flag.

No Almaza is not the first to play with the flag (here). But obviously it did not learn the lesson from either Aishti or Annahar. Because, yes, if you look closely on this add announcing that Almaza is now at the duty free, you'll discover that, instead of the original Cedrus libani in the middle of the original drawing of the Lebanese flag, Almaza put their own logo. Sorry people, this is inadmissible. If you do not believe me, look at the image below:

So honestly, enough is enough. You want to include the flag? Do something as respectful as Exotica did:

Otherwise, honestly just stop messing with it,

Almaza - flunk I'm your father.

Sorry for the insult Star Wars. But what a flunk this is. Seriously, this is a level of - what's the word here? - unseen prior. Not for the lack of effort mind you. But this is honestly beyond comprehensible. So Almaza is celebrating Father's day. So far so good. Then it goes with a crushed can and a line that goes "inta bayye ktir raso tenke" - in Arabic "raso tenke" is someone opinionated but out of ignorance, lacking facts but still unmoved by logic, basically - not exactly a compliment. Seriously, I am still scratching my head over this just to understand any ray of logic or positive sentiment in this. But it fails on all counts. Hopefully this was not a paid ad for Pikasso because otherwise I can see a Pikasso Gold coming. Sigh.

Heineken - between Amsterdam and Beirut

Apparently, despite selling back its majority shares in 2022 of the Brasserie Almaza to the Jabre family, Heineken never left the Lebanese market and the said brewery still retains the sales and distribution rights for all Heineken products on the Lebanese territory. So it is a pleasure to see a Heineken ad at the gates of summer - and especially with the World Cup kicking off soon - somewhere in Lebanon. As far as I saw the ads were not plastered all over, perhaps Brasserie Almaza wishes for its star product to remain center stage, also this could be down to the price factor - with Heineken being 0.5 to 0.6 USD more expensive than its Lebanese counterpart. Still, "born in Amsterdam, enjoyed in Beirut" clearly wishes to differentiate the two products giving one an international cachet. I think this might be to distinguish between the two target audiences.

Beirut Beer World Cup bottles

Look everyone does it every time so nothing is new. So Beirut Beer is jumping once more on the World Cup bandwagon. For heaven's sake every beer brand does it - for reminder here's a sample from the last edition of the World Cup (here). For this edition Beirut beer titled the bottles as the teams are usually called (The Three Lions - England - La Albiceleste - Argentina - A seleção - Brasil - Les Bleus - France - Die Mannschaft - Germany). Before anyone accuses me of being a football aficionado, just remember there is something called Google. With this, at least effort was done this time around. I still did not see the Almaza output though. For the copy Beirut Beer went for "The game is international, the cheering is Lebanese" - and make no mistake, Lebanese take their cheering very seriously. 

Almaza goes back to silly shenanigans

I said it since 2023 (here and here) and I stand by every word. Almaza is working without any strategy. They are going through what I call the "spaghetti theory" - throw things on the wall and see what sticks. And here is another proof. Their new summer Rosé (the fruity beer) ad. Now they picked French, because yes, why not? "Pince-moi, je reve" (pinch me I am dreaming) - or more like pinch me I am having a nightmare. So yes, they picked a crab, trying to open the bottle, this time with a background of a setting sun. And so here we are, another boneless trial. All of this could be great had it had a strategy behind it. I assure you, it does not.

Almaza is on to something with its unfiltered

Source

Almaza is on to something here with its unfiltered ad. "Everyone is buying gold" a wink at the price of gold that everyone has been talking about as of late. Considering they just had a hit (here) the above is another good ad even if, honestly, I don't understand why they're not talking in Arabic. Almaza is playing between languages and not really making strategic sense. I mean as I said, the ad is interesting, and yes it hits on the Almaza forte of talking about current events with a wink, but had this been in Arabic it would have been a smash.

Awal chi... Almaza deserves a victory lap!

Almaza has two back to back new ads (on instagram at least), the first "queen" is a wink on the election of the new Miss Lebanon (they had better entrances on this prior so am skipping this). Then... booom they have an incredibly nice one. I mean this harks back to their days being very much on the zeitgeist, of knowing how Lebanese banter, or really having an ear on the vernacular - heaven help us I am ventilating in superlatives here. But here we are... Awal chi bonsoir... Tene chi keskon (first a good evening, then cheers to you). I know, I know, too simple but it works - as in really really works. This is how people talk, this is what Almaza always stood for (at least during the Intermarkets days and within some nice flashes with Force Majeure). But I, impartial as I am, have actually criticized Almaza left and right (and center for a good measure!), but - this one made me melt. The beauty of it is that it came out of nowhere, a reminder of how good Almaza can be when it wants it. Here's hoping it wants it more.

Almaza: Welcome to the bottom of the (beer) barrel

Is this ad tasteless? No, more than tasteless. Triggering? Actually, a lot more than that. Has a sick twisted sense of humor? I am not laughing. This ad, to any Lebanese, is truly, seriously, the bottom of both, creativity, lack of empathy, and disrespect for collective trauma. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

For anyone who did not understand the Arabic: "in both cases the summer is on fire".

What both cases? Duh, are you not following the news, or worse, living the news (last year 2024 was a good sample). This is, truly, shameful, and a disgrace for both the brand and - trying to keep my words in check - anyone who came up or approved of it.

Almaza has touched the bottom of the (beer) barrel.

Heineken enters the chat in the beer wars

Almaza, Beirut Beer (add Keo), and now Heineken has entered the chat in the summer beer wars in Lebanon with each trying to establish its own share of the market. Funnily, Heinkeken used to own (not sure if outright) Almaza but sold their shares to an investment banker. In case you are wondering "for that first ahh" is Heinken (campaign from last year). Still, here were are, a lot of beers, for a supposedly flush clientele (innocent question: where is the money coming from knowing the market is in shabby state still?). Well, if you got it flaunt it, let the summer enjoyment begin (if only the weather was compliant though! Still grumpy on the whole).

Beirut Beer says out loud what everyone is thinking about the Almaza Rosé

All right the cat is out of the bag, remember the Almaza Rosé (here), Beirut Beer has come and said out loud what everyone is thinking. Although I have said repeatedly that Beiut Beer should grow out of the shadow of Almaza (here), this one is spot on actually. Because the Almaza Rosé thingy was... odd to put it mildly. So what did Beirut Beer say? "instead of coloring the beer pink, we kept it genuine". All right, that makes sense. A lot of sense. And although this is not starting out a beer war (which has happened in the past mind you), at least Beirut Beer is saying it as is.

Keo beer goes golden. Yellow too.

I have previously spoken about the Keo beer (here) so it is refreshing (har har) that they are back with a new campaign. OK, they are axing it around yellow/golden (the problem with either color? Google "Golden shower" at your own risk and peril)... Still - I might be reading too much into a color. The campaign is sort of everywhere with many variants about the color and all that (real beer is golden for example). Of course there is the usual let-us-cut-from-the-Almaza-market "time for a change, go yellow" (mind you Beirut Beer is a professional in this - here).

Almaza (r)osé (insert Pikasso d'Or)

Considering the track record of Almaza for winning Pikasso d'Or, with or without reason, with or without logic, with or without creativity, I am already forecasting the award just because. Still the campaign is not too shabby, but neither it is brilliant or anything. The play on words is (r)osé - with rosé being the wine (or beer in this case!) and osé being outrageous and avant-garde. As I said, not horrible, nor classic. Just Almaza doing what it does lately - throw ideas and see where things go. Meanwhile they get awards for it instead of "bonpoints".

Beirut Beer preaches national unity

Beirut Beer has a good one (but as always one step forward two steps back sadly), the ad above is about "national unity". Well why not? My only gripe? This is NOT a comparative ad (please read my take on comparative ads in Lebanon here) so the logo of Almaza should not have been pixelated (again, Beirut Beer is not comparing itself to Almaza, but just saying that old and new should cohabitate... in a "national unity"). Now, at some point in the past Almaza was owned by Heineken (no longer) so perhaps Beirut Beer is riffing on that by saying "pick a "local one"" (which wehde watnaniye could also mean as a double-entendre). But I could be reading too much in a benign ad.

Back when Almaza used to do excellent Mother's Day ads.

Because this year Almaza went with a literal platitude (here), how about going back to the time when Almaza ads actually mattered with this beauty above. How Almaza came to personify "meh" in their ads is beyond me, but here we are. This year's ad is so unmemorable it is excoriating to see how much of a shrug they deserve. The ad above dates back to 2019. The one below to 2016.

Almaza releases a headscratcher

I can write paragraphs upon paragraphs about this.

Or I can simply say: I have no idea what they are saying.

I really don't. If anyone can translate am listening.
 

Almaza - Valentine's

Just not to leave it out, here it is - after other brands did it, and Exotica won it handily (here), Almaza is here for a Valentine's ad - "tab2in" which means "they click". Not bad, not a vintage either. But since Almaza is winning awards, not sure they care (no names, but you know which awards!). Again, I said it many times, since Almaza owns its old ads by virtue of paying for them in the past, why not rehash them. They worked perfectly well!

Almaza, a new year with a fresh start

Are they talking elections? Are they talking freshness? Are they talking new beginnings? Are they talking about all of this? Or none of this? The new Almaza ad is up for interpretation - or interpretations. It might mean a million things. I am inclined to think this might be about electing a president - supposedly tomorrow January 9th! But again I could be mistaken, I guess all this continues with the Almaza of several years yonder - just try it. I do miss when they used to do great ads - and I remind everyone, why not reissue older classics, because you know, the brand does own them by virtue of having paid for them? In that sense it wasn't broken, so why try to fix it?

Almaza - expats ahoy!

So expats came and went (much earlier than expected for many), and expats never ended up coming due to the very entangled political situation. And Almaza is riffing rightfully on those who still are here. Heck, maybe it is even talking about those of us stuck here! "He who is still here raise your hand" - OK I admit it reminded me of the teaser revealer long long ago (Raise your head - raise your head and the revealer: Almaza raises the head (a double entendre in Arabic because you need to raise your head to drink and the Arabic equivalent of "makes you proud" - ارفع راسك - ارفع راسك - الماسة بترفع الراس) Small note all this happened sometime in the mid 90s so it's very old stuff.

Wait did Beirut Beer just take a page out of the Almaza book?

Photo credit Rabih Dib

How about that for an answer! Remember I already spoke about Almaza stressing its Lebanese identity (here), apparently this did not sit down well with Beirut Beer. So they launched a counter ad "In Lebanese this is Beer". Long time ago I wrote a post about Beirut Beer growing out of the shadow of Almaza (here) strange, they twist and turn and go back to the same place. Why I know not. But truly when Beirut Beer stood on its own two feet (here) there was something interesting happening. Finally the brand was looking intrinsically at its own merits over and above being the anti-Almaza. Sadly, it was more of a one off than anything else. 

Almaza stresses Lebanese identity

Photo credit Nibal Hadchiti Dfouni

So Almaza is pulling on up! Their newest efforts center around their identity. Mind you the trick has been played long ago when Almaza was with a different agency (لبنانيه وشايفة حالها - Lebanese and proud of it). But that was probably in the mid 1990s. Anyhow, Almaza played the trick of how words are said in different language - which is common on Instagram, in English (Beer) in French (Biere) in Lebanon (Almaza). As I said this is current on Instagram where Lebanese always have a different way of saying words. And yes, Almaza could be the first name to come to mind in Lebanon when mentioning beer.

Now the second ad is a bit less obvious - "despite is all, Lebanon is Almaza" (Almaza means diamond in case you did not know in Arabic).