Shhhhh... No wait, I heard that sound before. Exhibit A: Roadster 2025 Exhibit B: Bellvie April 2026. Same sound, same distinctive hiss, but as always, I am not saying they did, I am not saying they didn't, but compare and contrast and you be the judge.
First the facts: Comparative advertising is banned in Lebanon (here and here as examples), so you cannot name the competitor directly (weirdly enough the links show it happened twice - it also happened directly with Brinol washing detergent when competitors were shown in the background clearly, but ad agencies reeled against this, this was when the law had just been immediately passed). The second fact is that I am smart - with tests to prove it.
Now Bellvie: The ad IS very smart but it had to have someone else explain it to me. Why? Because "Salim" a lovely Arabic name, was featured in the ad. Except that Salim and Slim (as in Slim Oil, the main competitor of Bellvie was mentioned in the ad) are spelled in the same way in Arabic. I know, I know, very smart. And to top it all, they used an Arabic expression that went "ask someone who tried, but don't ask a doctor" which was detoured as "ask someone who tried but don't ask Salim/Slim" (do note in Arabic doctor/7akim and Slim/Salim rhyme). All this while pointing to a guy who is supposed to be "Salim"... Because... Tadam, comparative ad is banned.
Yes that's a lot of explanation for an ad. I was still asking who Salim is, if you wanted to know!
So Bellvie oil has a brilliant new ad (here). Actually the ad is beyond normal - and to be honest sort of surreal - because the amount of food cooked is today beyond the means of the average Lebanese. Sill, this is an ad so it's a make-believe. As I said, there's nothing beyond the "ordinary" in the ad - a family, a gathering, cooking, basic acting and joie de vivre, the voice-over is "OK"... So why am I going on overdrive in the flattering? "Don't just choose me because I am Lebanese" says the tagline!
At a time when every other brand is claiming that it is local, and ergo tries to activate the "patriotic" gene in consumers, and when all of them try to sway people by emphasizing their local roots or what not - a little bit pitifully at times - and most trying to convince people that it is economically more cost-effective to buy "made in Lebanon" when an imported detergent is actually cheaper than its locally produced counterpart (and you get 1 kilo more gratis!). Comes Bellvie with - choose me for my merits and not just my nationality.
Because of course, you'll choose it first and foremost because it's Lebanese!
Seriously, how more brilliant can a strategy be?