Betway Sports and Andy Roddick on the serve

So Betway Sports and Andy Roddick (their international tennis ambassador) team up for a funny ad. Roddick who has quit the courts eleven years back still has the tennis obsession... And it translates into his day to day life - he treats the fly squatter like a racket, the grilling for is used for a serve, a trophy cup holds popcorn (side note, this has been done prior in the heartwarming ad by Barilla with Steffi Graf - here), he signs an autograph on his neighbor's newspaper, and - this bit does not translate into Arabic - a car argument goes "you're way out of line" to which Roddick replies "no, it was on the line" (again translating this gimmick into Arabic is impossible). Bonus points for their line "advantage served" by the way.

On the whole, the ad serves (sorry for the pun!) and English or Arabic (apart from the above) it conveys a sense of cheerfulness. See the ad here.

The strange double life of the Barilla jingle in Lebanese pop culture

Credit: Lebanon Dikkene

That Barilla jingle! The one drilled into the collective memory of the Lebanese population. Yes, that one! One of the many many achievements of multi-hyphenate creative Elias Rahbani who left us at the beginning of this year. But you know how it happens, a musician produces a hit song, the song gets used in an ad - it happened gazillions of times.

But what if I told you the reverse happened in this instance. Case in point? Our legendary diva Sabah and her own hit single "wa3douni w nattarouni" - you will realize that it is the exact same beat as Barilla.

Usually this means that the hit was produced (by Elias Rahbani) and he was commissioned by Barilla to put new lyrics to it (side note - Rahbani who composed "Tafta hindi" for Raja Badr did exactly that for Niers luncheon meat in an ad starring Dalida Baroud when she was still at LBC in the 80s). Actually, in the case of Barilla, Sabah who had an ear for potential hits and a great sense of hype, heard the Barilla jingle and asked Rahbani to pen a song on the same music. Naturally, a mega hit was born. But as I said, it was born "the other way around" - with the advertising coming first.

Can we stop the advertising "stunts"?

Barilla just announced its latest gimmick, a Spotify playlist long enough for your pasta to boil. How cool is that? 

Actually, not cool. Am sick of advertising stunts. When I read the winners of this year's Epica Awards where I am a juror, I immediately sent an email to the team there saying "this is the year of the stunts" (thankfully, the campaign that swept the board - Burger King and their Moldy Whopper were indeed a clever mix of everything: Your usual TVC, the "classic" billboard, and the correct activation). 

But honestly, one more Federer-surprising-girls-who-played-tennis-on-their-rooftops-during-lockdown stunt (wait, that was Barilla too!) or any of those other very pointed, really short-life, advertising acts and I am going to blow. Look, all those brands who inserted themselves in Animal Crossing are really fine and dandy, but how enduring and endearing is that is beyond me.

At least we went beyond the "we invited 5 influencers to a restaurant while their mothers, unknowingly to them, cooked in the kitchen" idiocies which were flooding us. Or that Kiehl's campaign about people with hearing disabilities (of which I am one) which still makes me cringe. 

But still, I am totally, completely, irrevocably beyond stunts. 

Before you say that I live in a different world or come from a different era, let me tell you I am still enamored, several years later with The Next Rembrandt - but Tarek wasn't that a "stunt"? No, that was a perfect marriage between data, AI, an incredible questioning between human talent and the possibilities offered to us by technology, algorithms meeting natural born talents and the list goes on.

But again, stunts and silly "activations" bore me and the brands playing "hip" all the way is also cringe-worthy. For everyone of those "let's try to be hip" efforts, I can only counter with what Mercedes did on their Women's Day effort in 2019 (that glorious classic "Bertha Benz" ad). Or, wait, I can also point out to that immortal ad by Norwegian Airlines "Brad is single".

Before you start to say that was a stunt. No it was not. Sure it was issued on the day the world knew about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's split, but the ad gained a life of its own - it was totally, stratospherically viral, but also spawned its own niche ads for brands trying either to completely duplicate it or copy it or twist it. 

Elias Rahbani RIP

 

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

Elias Rahbani passed way. Really I cannot even begin to state what this man did to popular Arabic music. I am not a musicologist but I am a researcher in pop culture and his influence cannot even begin to be measured, and no, not just the Fairouz repertoire - I am talking everyone else, the whole artists he fostered and those whose careers he pampered, or the greats he collaborated with (many of the late Sabah songs were his compositions!) not to mention advertising jingles galore (Barilla anyone?), or the songs he made for children (3ammi bou massoud) or the eternal theme songs (Allo? Hayete) and the list goes on!

Barilla and a vintage new year ad!

Is it a bird? A plane? A firework? A Barilla ad with pasta masquerading as end of year festivity? No matter, this beauty from Barilla - which dates to a few years back - is wonderful to see and appreciates. And yes, I still long to the days when Barilla used to make ads with Steffi Graf as she used her Wimbledon prize as a replacement for a broken pasta serving dish or wore the penne as a necklace.