Master curvy, 2 in 1 but make it advertising

Now that's interesting. The above is not one ad. It is two. And the reason I know is that when I was saving it, only half showed up. So whereas the ad continues itself on 2 fragments, it is basically - back when print was still in vogue - a double spread feature. Well, obviously Daher food is all out with the help of Mink. Master potato chips in all its variants, nuts, Sitos, where bags were redesigned and streamlined and made more appealing and easier to spot (here, here, and here as examples). According to ArabAd and the ever-precise Naji Boulos, billboard occupancy dwindled to 20%, so I can imagine how easy for Master to book adjacent OOH, and really push the idea on 2 billboards at once. Apparently though it was not to be, as it seems every flavor has its own unipole.

And despite this not happening,  the idea of an ad continuing on the next panel has been done, and in Lebanon to boot (in 2007). See below.

Ksara - Army Day

Leave it to Mink to come up with a good Army Day ad. OK the copy is very good but very expected. A part of the national hymn - "our plain, our mountain, birth to men" (please don't start with the sexism thingy, thank you). Now "plain" hints to Bequa'a plain where Ksara is from. That's bonus marks. But what took me aback? Instead of rows of grapes to make the wine, look closely and... these are soldiers aligned. Yes I know, a literal translation of "birth of men" but it works very well. Smart, very. Finding a way to include the product both in copy and in visual without going tacky? Seriously, how cool is that?

Master kettle cooked crunches differently and goes upscale.

The new Master kettle cooked potato chips went high end, as is very high end. A hidden villa? Check. A model in fancy clothing? Check. A very embellished copy in English? Check. Truly, one could mistake it for a perfume ad (if one adds an opera soundtrack), or a very chic clothing store (if there's a man somewhere in the shadows). 

Now, with the Master kettle cooked chips being really good - on par with their international counterparts - it seems the stress was to point people that they could still enjoy such high quality, yet at affordable prices. Which is sort of worrying because when the ad is so upscale, people might be afraid of the price and hence consumers might feel this might be too expensive for them to try and enjoy. But still, the ad is well done, the velvety ambiance very palpable, and the suggested quality does portray itself in the film setting the product in a different standard that any other local competitor. Then again, considering this is the Daher Food top selling product, the consumer already knows the price, so perhaps it was good to stroke their ego implying they belong to some exclusive club. See the ad here.

Mink goes on a double whammy for Mother's Day

Mink is back at what it does best. Distilling complex elements into easy and creative advertising. This time for Mother's Day it went with Master (using nuts and not potato chips) and Ksara (one of Lebanon's finest wines). The result? Two well done and put together ads which truly say a lot about mother's - funnily these are real slices of life that Mink managed to portray. Good to know Mink still kicks.

This blog's top 5 ads for 2025

And so here we are. The dreaded moment has come. My Top 5 best ads of the year listed in no particular order:

Exotica Valentine's Day:

Mink Mother's Day:

Johny Water:

McDonald's recruiting:

Jif (1 night 5 disasters campaign):

And so here we are, and contrary to other awards it does not matter if you have booked billboards with us or not (cough, ahem), or if you have pressured/cajoled/gifted us anything (another cough, ahem), or if you have bought ads in our magazine or website (I don't have a cold I swear but... you know the drill).

My awards are based on merit, and everyone who got featured here deserved their place. This being said "Weyn Sobatteh?".

Master nuts rejuvenates with a well-shot film and a let-down copy

So now that the Master nuts has been rebranded (here), Mink graces us with the film for the campaign. On the plus side, the cast is very well chosen, the slices of life very believable (bonus points for the luggage that rolls on its own - funny scene), and the whole mood does fit the product. On the minus side, it feels like a coffee ad from the 80s (with the Wadi el Akhdar truck scene in tow)... Old man/woman choosing every grain, artisanal preparation methods, people travelling with the product - OK, fine a Cafe Najjar ad to be specific. My major gripe? The film, whereas truly well shot, with the right colors and all, has such a let-down copy. The internal rhymes made me literally wince. Come on people, sacrifice these silly matching words for something more deep, with better decorum. Pity, the film deserved better wording for sure. Watch the film here.

Mink went Mother's Day

Sorry I caught this late! Mink went for a brilliant Mother's Day ad (note I did not mention their Ksara effort which fell a bit short this year). For their own brand, Mink simply took their logo and added a "alef". Why? Because reading it right to left as Arabic does it ends up spelling... Emm. Or Mother. Genius as always!

Mink, a matter of punctuation

Well, we can safely add Mink to the list of companies trying to advertise in these testy times (Slowear and ParAzar were incredibly good, Crepaway really needed to read the room). Mink is on the bandwagon, basically taking all the emotional angle out. Just to be clear, the company that graced us with superior and impeccable ads (some samples are here and here) does make its "rational" point across. But perhaps they set the bar too high themselves so maybe they fell short of some of their brilliance. I am not saying the idea or copy is bad, just that somehow one does not feel the oomph with it. Very decent outing but again, close but no cigar. See the ad here.

Ksara continues its great streak for Independence Day

No surprises here, Ksara did a wonderful Independence Day ad via the always reliable Mink. The trick? Ksara does wine. From what? Grapes. The copy? Our strength is in our unity. The visual? A grape with no space between the buds and done in the shape of the Lebanese map. Any questions? Maybe it is not as wonderful as their Army Day ad from 2020 (here) or their 2023 New Year ad (here), but a very solid showing nonetheless. Because after all, Mink set its own bar too high.

Ksara does a good ad for Army Day - and yet am ambivalent

Ksara has been doing excellent ads with the help of Mink - their army day leaves me a bit... ambivalent though. Is the ad good? Yes. It used the bottle corks to create the illusion of a "barricade" which the headline "we are all your barricades" supports for further explanation. Is it on-brand? Yes, because it is tough to use brand elements inside advertising for other brands, something done in brio in this one. But.... something about the ad is bothering for a full generation of people - like me - and in a country where we have lived successive wars and traumas there is something very "triggering" about the ad. I could be stretching it perhaps, but seems other people who saw the ad feel the same way.

My article about 2022 ad scene published in ArabAd

Cover by Mink for the Lebanon issue of ArabAd (February 2023)

A recap of 2022 in the advertising scene for ArabAd, please see it here. A very long and exhaustive article about where advertising stands. Sadly we got too many delusional answers, a lot of them had to be either discounted or heavily edited. It was Ogilvy who said "the consumer is not a moron, she's your wife", substitute that with "the journalist is not a moron, he's your Tarek" and you get how outlandishly positive some of the contributions were when the market is totally in the dolldrums. Still, we managed to construct a very even-handed article. Much props to the editor of ArabAd Ghada Azzi for working under such conditions and still being able to turn out a magazine and a website.

New Lebanese gin and vodka named after endangered species

How about a naming branding/masterstroke?

Leave it to Mink to come up with incredible names for two varieties of gin and vodka which are locally produced in Lebanon by Double Shake. Their thinking was oblique to say the least. The two most endangered species in Lebanon are the Wagtail bird and the Loggerhead Turtle. And here we are - from endangered species to alcoholic drinks! Obviously, the packaging is rockstar as well.

Seriously, I am impressed. Whomever came up with the naming has done a tremendous job and whomever translated it visually also deserves respect.