That majestic Arabic copy for the iPhone15

Some words are not translatable. Nor they should be. Whomever done this has my utmost respect. And no, the English does not begin to express how incredible the Arabic is... Small hint: unimageinable would have been a better and more fitting English line, and yes, you're welcome.

Almaza goes back to Arabic - by remixing old ads

 Almaza has finally gone back to speaking Arabic. Something I have long been the advocate of.

Now that it's football season Almaza is going back to what it does best. Using the moment and being able to produce ads that catch the zeitgeist. I suppose in their case they are going retro however.

How so? By remixing the slogans of old ads they produced (2011, 2014, 2016 for example).

By using the same Arabic catchy word (Kes - cup - which in Arabic goes "world cup" and also "cheers to everyone") and applying it in 2022. Of course, legally Almaza can do whatever it wants because it owns the ads (not the creatives, not the agency who own the ads - this must be known). Also of note, it is the same creative who came up with all these ads throughout the years (considering it is the same client, it might pass - sorry for the football pun!).

So Almaza is back to Arabic. Yay!

Do note, I am all for brands using or rehashing old ads. If it worked once, it can work twice - or in the case of Almaza - third time is the charm. But hey.... There's always a football tournament somewhere.

Adidas "Impossible is nothing" goes Arabic (AMENDED)

That could easily have been on top of my list of selling lines to transpose into Arabic. Adidas beautiful line "impossible in nothing". Actually I just saw that someone did the job already - "I have nothing impossible" with the Arabic S mimicking the Adidas logo. A commendable effort for sure, yet, to be honest it leaves me wanting more. Why? Because it basically say "nothing is impossible" instead of "impossible is nothing" which is unfortunate as it takes away the powerful gimmick of the English line. I do respect the effort, but sadly I feel it was a botched effort. 

So - before you call me names - what would I have done? My take:

المستحيل مستحيل

(The impossible is impossible - you're welcome Adidas)

PS - I have been notified by Ali Darwich who did the Arabic copy that the line they were Arabizing was I'mpossible (here is photo below). So with this the excercise makes much more sense!!

The Medco campaign that actually works

Yes I know, Arabic/Latin typo transposition has been happening since ages - yet, Medco managed to still make it fresh and enticing with its campain. The trick was using the "chadde" which is usually used to emphasize letters (in one of the cases they used the skoun which "silences" the letter when pronounced). As I said whereas the original idea of using Arabized latin has been in the market for too long, Medco spiced it up to still make it relevant and interesting which is no mean feat.