A Christmas - End of year pot pourri of ads around town

No, it not starting to feel like Christmas. I am not saying this to be the messenger of doom but no matter who I meet, I can detect immediately how crushed, tired and - yes - defeated everyone is. The advertising scene is not much better. There are no official figures that I know of, but am sure this year has not been a vintage one. I spoke to several people who own shops and all of them agreed that the second half of the year was a disaster. Still, there are some mild efforts being undertaken. Below is a mix and match of some of them - and even if some ads do not refer explicitly to Christmas/End of year festivities, I included them because their raison d'etre seems obvious:

ABC Mall went their usual upscale route inviting their customers to "celebrate their love" (the love of the nearest and dearest). Well, considering the prices, the treatment makes sense.

Beirut Beer went with building a Christmas tree from their bottles. I saw this installation in two places (Gemmayze and City Mall in Dora). Well, it does make sense I presume considering what they sell.

Bildits - which has a name that immediately tells you what it does - is a children's set where the kind can build a house like a "real engineer". Well, OK, the kid is male which is a bit anticipated, but well, who knows, maybe including a girl could have caused some social stir.

Bo Concept is having an up to 60% off sale. I do hope they do mark down items - several years back on a "clearance sale" I was offered 15% off a sofa.

File this under "I had no idea Bombay Sapphire was in Lebanon" also file under "I don't consume much alcohol to know it is in Lebanon". Still, it is interesting Bombay Sapphire decided to launch such a wide-covering campaign to celebrate their "premier cru".

Boss watches & Jewelry - OK fine you get a free bracelet with every purchase. Interesting, considering the first function of a cell phone is actually to tell the time.

GS went for a bit of a serious image for their end of year outing - I already spoke of their advent calendar online though (here).

Deco Sleep Comfort - with wishes of a peaceful Christmas. One cannot miss this ad. Obviously you know what they sell.

Cyber Monday? Make that Cyber Christmas for Home Tag. Well, many companies are already offering sales and offers - just to tell you how dire the market situation is.

Ixsir has a limited edition of bottles out enticing people to add color to their celebration. Usually the bottles are co-branded with an up-and-coming and promising illustrator. Not this year. Obviously due to budget restriction.

Beauty x Magic for Izzat Daouk gave birth to something akin to ugliness and black magic. I am sure effort was injected in this ad. But am truly not a fan.

A long long time ago, there was a Johnnie Walker ad which went "some gifts are too good to give away" (whereby a man is writing a card to accompany a bottle of Johnnie Walker wrapped near him, he ends up drinking the whisky and wrapping the gold pen). I talk of this ad because Johnnie Walker has an ad for Blue Label which can set you back more than 300 USD. At that price, take my pen.

Reva is gifting "dreams for Christmas". Considering my many many insomniac nights, yes please. Also it was belatedly pointed out to me that "reva" and "dreams" are one and the same words, I missed the double-entendre.

As a friend of mine joked - buy tights and get a car, or mostly, the other way around. A bit of a head-scratcher if you ask me.

Zoughaib & Sons have a new collection out - the boussole. Interesting they bothered to design and produce a collection at a time when the market is in such doldrums.

Swarovski - celebrate wonder.... Again, well am sure the ad has its target audience. Women who really long to shine - without the price of real jewelry.

As you can see, some effort has been done. Nothing to write home about, but there is a very shy activity going on. Nothing like the mega campaigns that used to be done in the past, but one can feel the budgets squeezed to the maximum, and since the whole country is not in top shape, I suppose the ad scene sort of mirrors that.

GS advent calendar

So GS went for an advent calendar this December. Open the slot of every day and behind is a selection of gifts you can pick from their stores. Quite smart actually, because it gives them space and time, daily, to exhibit the panoply of their wares up until the 25th of December. Also, every day, not just one item is exhibited but a multitude of items that can go for every gender and age. Interestingly, the whole thing is dipped as "Secret Santa" but we know better.

Christmas according to ABC mall, Aishti and GS

It is, believe it or not, Christmas. Hard to guess it from the ambient lack of cheer in Lebanon what's with the economic crisis still hitting everyone hard no matter the socio-economic class. Yet still, Christmas this year for the ad industry is slightly - marginally slightly - better than than the 3 years that preceded it. ABC mall (with its major flagships in Dbayeh, Achrafieh and Verdun) has unleashed its "unwrap Christmas" campaign with a visual a little too on the nose (even if well done art direction wise of - you guessed it - a large ribbon being unwrapped from the dress of a woman). 

Aisthti the most upscale retailer in town has gone the if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it route by rehashing the "give plenty" campaign it unveiled last year (here), to be honest I think the Christmas tree made of boxes was also done prior though I cannot find it in my archives.

GS - a multibrand store - which represents companies not as luxurious as Aishti but still well seen and (pricey in their own way these days) such as Timberland or Geox has gone with "Holiday in Style" inside a rectangle - which it applied to various visuals or stand alone ads.

Of course, asking cash-strapped shoppers to be enthusiastic for Christmas is a very tall order especially with everything going completely bananas at this point.