Wait did Beirut Beer just take a page out of the Almaza book?

Photo credit Rabih Dib

How about that for an answer! Remember I already spoke about Almaza stressing its Lebanese identity (here), apparently this did not sit down well with Beirut Beer. So they launched a counter ad "In Lebanese this is Beer". Long time ago I wrote a post about Beirut Beer growing out of the shadow of Almaza (here) strange, they twist and turn and go back to the same place. Why I know not. But truly when Beirut Beer stood on its own two feet (here) there was something interesting happening. Finally the brand was looking intrinsically at its own merits over and above being the anti-Almaza. Sadly, it was more of a one off than anything else. 

On being myself because everyone else was taken

Image credit: Cult couturier Ziad Ghanem

"Be yourself everyone else is taken" - so said the incredibly talented Oscar Wilde, OK, you can also get it from cult couturier Ziad Ghanem in the image above "no one will be the new anyone ever". Thankfully, I decided that long ago - my career was literally filled with that:

"In ten years you will be the next me" - when I was offered the job at one of the most prestigious research offices in Lebanon.

"Stick with the magazine, you'll be my number 2" - when the owner offered me the editor in chief job.

"Who am I leaving the agency for?" - when I told the creative director I was leaving his shop.

The above is but a small sample of how many times this was said to me in my life.

The good news is that I never wanted to be an obese chain-smoking research office owner, or be anyone's number 2, or inherit a faltering ad shop from anyone.  I admit it before anyone, taking the uncharted territory was not the easy route (I left a secure government job in 2001 - a dream position to any Lebanese !).

Now, whereas I did make quite a bit of money in communication, it was rare to find a client I really wanted to work with. Most dumbed down the creative ideas to the point of flatness. Which is why teaching (which I sadly stopped in late 2019) was the perfect antidote. I was that mad, wild client and pushed the students to deliver.

Do I regret leaving my research career? I never left it to be honest. There was always this research element in everything I did communication-wise. I distinctly remember when we were pitching for a large automotive account, the designers came up with these funky layouts. Then while looking at ads already done internationally for the brand, I discovered there was a rigid grid that the brand was adhering to. I got everyone back to the drawing board. The client was super impressed when he realized it.

And that editor in chief job? Well, I am the editor in chief of the blog - or as they say "head chef and bottle washer" because I do the marketing, branding, image, promotion and what not at the same time. And I do all this on my terms without compromise to get ad space or what not.

The agency I left? Well, it does not exist anymore.

Today, like many in Lebanon, my career is in limbo. Oddly, I have zero regrets. I have used my background to the fullest extent before the financial crisis struck, took as many precautions as possible and now seeing where this will lead me. Throughout it all, all "friends" or relations which brought nothing to my life - or worse took from it - have been disposed of. "Better be alone than badly accompanied" the saying goes.

It was Dwight Eisenhower who said "plans are useless but planning is indispensable" - as someone who has lived the Lebanese war (1975-1990) I can attest to that. As someone living in Lebanon today I can certify it.

I took my bets, now I shall see if they will come to fruition.

At least I took those bets as myself not as a surrogate or as a version of anyone else. 

Apparently everyone else was indeed, taken.

And during lockdown, time is elastic.

Well, you know how people are saying that all days feel the same during lockdown due to lack of measuring parameters when one does not go out to work, or knows when the weekend or when Easter is? Oddly, I do not face that problem. Yet, time is indeed elastic. My serious lockdown started way earlier than anyone due to a combination of trying to save money (you know capital controls oblige and all that....), to me quitting my university lecturing (nope, I will not be paid by head rather than by course!), severe winter (that Friday the 13th storm!), and an all-around other family factors. Meaning that to me - working from home is not a novelty. With work being so scarce to begin with, what's with shops/companies/institutions shutting down left and right.
Yet, the time I speak of during lockdown being elastic is a different kind. For a long time I hanged on to a useless past with its relics, objects, boxes, and dwindling emotional significance: Natural Born Killers soundtrack I used to listen to on loop, Red Hot Chili Peppers CD which I introduced as the agency's official sound to the creative department of the ad agency in KSA, my old university books whose info by now is quasi obsolete...
These objects meant something.  At least they were sent to the recycling which is being run by the municipality. Hanging on to these objects was perhaps a way to keep possibilities, a way to go back to a life that is now done with and too far back. Today I look around to a present that is too fractured and to a future that is as odd/perilous as ever (what will happen to my money in June 2021, will I get back the missing money that was supposed to come from Oman? Will this? Will that?). And yet, spring has come with its cleaning - make that springs and cleanings - considering what was thrown away.
Maybe in time we will look back at this period and say it was a new start or perhaps it will be business as usual when things go back on track. Whatever happens/does not happen, time proved to be elastic and disposable and getting rid of an economics book will not negate the person I am today.
"By the way, I tried to say, I know you from before".
No you didn't, but we will leave that to another post.

UAE rebrands

So the Emirates drops the eage and goes towards an abstract design which according to the National newspaper, is somewhere between wave and and dune in terms of movement and shape - and is also an abstract map of the country. The new logo is accompanied by a selling line "Make it happen" which reflects the journey of the nation. As the new logo helps propell the Emirates into the future, apparently 10 million trees will be planted (one for every vote) in West Papua, Indonesia, a centre for marine biodiversity, and at the Amaltaari planting site in Nawalparasi, Nepal to support the endangered species, such as the Bengal tiger, that live there. Now, CSR aside, the logo must live and prosper according to its own merit.