Father's Day ads - some effort was made

So Father's Day, which technically is today, came and went with very little interest. Well, maybe the word interest is misplaced, as many - too many - brands simply just plastered "happy father's day" with some discount or special offer. 

Very little effort was deployed, which made those who tried something - anything really - stand out from the crowd. Above are some of the rare examples who dared. We have "BAM" an app which showcases events and activities - to be honest the cake is a bit of an oddity but it was interesting enough to make you look at what the app does... Middle East Airlines has a nice take on their raison d'etre - "to the ones who carry us all our lives" (the pilot with his two kids just in case you didn't get the innuendo). Dubizzle cars, attempted an incredibly difficult feat: Inserting their product inside the ad. Something most brands try to do but fail. The line "to the one who gifted me my first car". Smart and touching indeed.

But it was Wooden Bakery which takes the cake. Pardon the pun. The idea? Celebrating "al ab-tal". "Ab" in Arabic is father. Abtal are heroes. All right, the English version does not work (they made it into superfathers - which makes the joke go stale). And indeed they offer cakes in the shape of superheroes (Superman, Batman, etc....). Well, omitting the fact that the others did not try this year, this one does stand on its own merits and is a great ad.

So voila, not a vintage year, but clear Wooden Bakery tried. And it worked.

Dubizzle became OLX and is now Dubizzle - again....

So how is that for a name change? Olx already an international name is now Dubizzle in Lebanon, mind you Dubizzle defines itself as the leading website for classified ads in the UAE. 

Once more, I am not versed in the business side of this - both Olx and Dubizzle seem to be in the same business (or as you shall see below, are the same business). Well, there you go as soon as you type the old website the new one comes immediately. For a week now the app on instagram has been notifying people that "something is happening" and that the app name is about to change (here) - image below as well:

Interestingly, the image above says "OLX "by" Dubizzle" whereas the banner says Olx "became" Dubizzle. The two sentences are very very different. But wait, in this article from 2015, it says clearly that "Dubizzle is OLX" (here), as if the whole name change is not confusing enough.

So in short - Dubizzle became OLX which became Dubizzle.

To quote the film Victor/Victoria  with the delightful Julie Andrews quipping - "So, I'm a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman."

Or Dubizzle pretending to be OLX pretending to be Dubizzle.