How Almaza found its groove back

Ah, Almaza is back. This time with a constant tone of voice, and dare I say, it found it groove back.

All right, it seems as I explained earlier that back in March 2022, Force Majeure snatched the Almaza account from Leo Burnett. One of the co-partners of Force Majeure is Assad Douaihy who was creative director at Intermarkets which had Almaza for a very long time and which set the tone for its comment-on- daily-events-wittily tactical mood all while keeping the large scope clear (not to shade Leo but somehow creatively Leo did not know what to do with Almaza strategically).

But now Almaza is back, it is consistent once more, and as I said earlier (here) I am in the camp of Almaza going back to using Arabic as it did when it was with Intermarkets as opposed to English. But we are getting there it seems.

And this is very refreshing. As refreshing as an Almaza (wink!).

Elections 2022: On selling your vote.

Photo by Tarek Chemaly

Selling your vote. Well, let's be honest, can you have an election without vote-buying and falsification?

Short answer: No.

Well, ad agencies jumped at this. Leo Burnett teamed with Lebanese Transparency Agency (LTA) and FP7 McCann with Annahar. Each from a different standpoint.

OK, so LTA went back to the Lollar (term originally coined by Dan Azzi, which if I understood correctly gave his blessing to the campaign, but without Patrick Chemali's logo). Actually, tangible and physical prints/designs of Lollar (that the LTA dubbed as "currency of corruption) were introduced. On May 13, this is when there will be an ATM which will dispense such bills which will move from Dora, to Sassine Square and Raouche.

Annahar went with another idea - since votes will be bought anyhow - might as well advise the votes how much their vote is really worth (with apparently a smart algorithm which calculates exactly how much it is worth compared to fuel, food, education costs etc....). They even launched a website: se3erlsot.com (which translates as price of the vote).

OK, you did not hear this from me but... Do I smell Cannes Lions entries here?

Leo Burnett Beirut x The Donation Container

Now here is an initiative from Leo Burnett Beirut this Christmas! How about being the Secret Santa of someone who really needs it. The idea is so simple, no one thought about it before... Teaming up with The Donation Container - on the 22nd and 23rd of December you can contact nour.itani@leoburnett.com to pitch in.... Again this is a very very difficult year for many people on all levels, and if you add the explosion, on top of the financial disasters one can only see how bad the situation is.... And Leo Burnett for good measure added their codework "humankind" (which is how they like all their campaigns to be dipped in that). See all info on this link....