Proof that advertising used to be smart without being convoluted

You know how I always harp about advertising that used to be smart without being too contrived, convoluted or pseudo-creative? Take this for an example. The date is unknown and I got it from this source (here). My guess the ad was in the 80s because already in the 90s Juicy Burger had a branch in Kaslik, and even more so, in the early 90s Juicy Burger was shutting down its branches. But that's just estimation. Still, isn't that ad brilliant? Two consecutive panels, one attached burger, a very easy to follow and understand concept, and a lot of freshness in the vibe.

All this crammed in a very tight space, with a lot of creativity and a minimum mental effort for the end target audience to understand. Now, can I have some Raymis ice cream? Because, if you know, you know.

Pikasso - 40 years of "Jaune et Partout"

Ah Pikasso. "Jaune et Partout". Yellow and everywhere. 1986. In a Lebanon still reeling in war. Then these came out of nowhere. Yellow billboards. As their selling line went "yellow and everywhere". Truth be told a lot of people never went to "the other side" (be it Eastern/Western Beirut, depending where you were). But again, there it was, once more. Unmissable, organized, striking, those of us in the business would later learn that it was all orchestrated by Antonio Vincenti. As time went on, Pikasso would expand not just in Lebanon but internationally as well. Think Jordan, Armenia, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, and Italy. Whether Pikasso d'Or - the yearly award they initiated - was truly up to the hype is a different question altogether. But the power of their yellow has been dominant for 40 years. Here's to 40 more.

Pikasso x AGA ADK, The Unseen Ads

 

A good initiative is a good initiative. The visibility results elude me though, but someone is trying, and the "someone" in this case is Pikasso and AGA ADK. According to their own text "In Beirut, many independent workers depend on small paper flyers taped to stairwells and street poles to find work. A phone number. A skill offered. A lifeline in an economy where poverty is near 44% and unemployment around 45%." 

Having documented many of those in my ArcheWALLogy project (here), I can assure you that rain soaks them, sun makes them unreadable, more often than not they are posted on top of one another. In effect making them unseen, when they are sorely needed as a lifeline for people who just want to be "out there" to be able to get clients. 

Apparently the initiative by AGA ADK x Pikasso has a  name "The Unseen Ads". at least the initiative places back the billboards very close geographically to where the original flyers were posted, to keep the geographical reach intact. Again to quote them: "Because when visibility means livelihood, giving someone the right stage isn’t just design; it’s dignity."

Because yes, many people just want an honest income as opposed to resort to begging.

Pikasso d'Or finds its footing again

After last year's ho-hum crop of awards (save a couple - read here). Pikasso d'Or is back - as in back. The results this year do make much more sense. Marked under "the wave of the future" the 28th ceremony celebrates Out Of Home creativity. As I said very recently, an industry source told me that prices are so dismally low that OOH companies are practically begging agencies to book their campaigns.

Pimo rightfully bagged the Grand Prix award for their Lux ad (they also won the supersize category). Kefraya had a Pikasso d'Or - nice and clean art direction but sadly forgettable as an ad. The Pikasso d'argent went for Beirut Beer and their summer wave (many people liked this ad, I found it a little underwhelming). The Pikasso de Bronze went for Cafe Abi Nasr and their cute campaign by Bizaroob.

Mink won a Pikasso d'argent in the supersize category for a solid campaign for Ksara. Almaza is back on the awards scene for a negligible ad (they won big last year, and I still don't understand why!). 

Roadster and TBWA\Raad won the mall category with their lovely self-depreciating campaign, while Joe Fish won Pikasso d'argent in the same category for the consistently nicely art-directed Zarina, the bronze went to the potion kitchen (in a badly copywritten effort I must add).

The digital category saw Almaza again, Jordan Tourism Board and Sanita get the top awards. The public interest category went to Medco for their Dawi Chere3 campaign. Enjoy all the campaigns here.

Pikasso d'Or is back, sadly from a dismal pool of OOH ads

Self-ad published in Al Waseet newspaper in 2005

The good news is that the Pikasso d'Or - our local competition for the Out Of Home awards - is back.

The bad news is that it is back with such a dismal quality.

Sure sure, congratulations for all the winners and yes, the Milton by Pimo deserved its Pikasso d'Or and Ksara by Mink totally got its award with a Pikasso de Bronze (though it could have easily been Pikasso d'argent in my book). And I like the ABC by Joe Fish art direction of the ads. And this is where I shall stop.

Look, I am all for boosting the morale of the troops and telling them they did a great job, but a travesty is a travesty. Apart from the ethical considerations of people on the jury winning awards from the said jury (no names) which take me back to the backroom shenigans and barters that used to take place at the now defunkt Phenix de la Pub awards. However the overall quality was so dismally low they could have very simply withheld awards in categories.

Heck, I am on the Epica Awards and this year awards were withheld in two categories because the quality of the work was not good enough to merit one. No shame in that.

But again, whereas the idea goes that one does not need a mega budget to create a creative ad, there was a lot of ads created - with or without a budget - that simply do not merit a second look, let alone an award.

Once more, congratulations for the winners, but perhaps Pikasso d'Or could have merited of taking a step back, held its breath for a further year (remember the competition comes back from a hiatus of 3 years what's with the damage the economic breakdown and covid put together have done) to get more worthy winners (as I said apart from Milton and Ksara who much deserved their praises).

Picasso and the heroes of the Beirut blast

Pikasso does it again... In a campaign that spans six visuals, from the man sweeping debris on his wheelchair, to nurse Pamela Zeinoun holding three premature babies and running 5 kilometres to get them to safety, to the woman who would not leave her house after the blast, to the one praying, or the Red Cross, or the man standing in defiance in the rubble. Moving, proud images that encapsulate silver linings within that enormous destruction that occurred.

I know finding positive things is farfetched, but this seems to be a Lebanese specialty.

Picasso, Nadia Tueni and the rebirth of Beirut

 "Beirut: dead a thousand time, to be reborn one thousand more..." Nadia Tueni"

And this is how Pikasso the billboard OOH company celebrated Beirut, a city which has been documented to have been erased seven times in history already (excluding the 1989 anti-Syrian war led by General Aoun currently our president, and the inter-Christian war between the Aoun fragment of the army and the Lebanese Forces in 1990 - which both wrecked havoc in it), but which following the massive explosion on the 4th of August is truly beyond devastation. The initiative by Pikasso is admirable certainly, whether this is what the population needs is another matter.

How an advertising billboard tells the story of a post-explosion Beirut

Credit: Hasan Jaber

You can always count in advertising to tell you the story. Always. Lately there was a campaign spreading, for better or worse, to entice people to place ads under the tag #اانا_اعلن which doubles as "I declare" (for the centennial of Lebanon's creation) and I advertise. For personal reasons, I made it a point not to talk about that campaign which ran under the umbrella of the Advertising Association. One of the billboards, in the campaign which tried to remediate to an estimated 90% drop in ad revenue, said "I declare my faith in a better future" - what is left of that billboard after the massive port explosion, is something that is torn, broken, defeated, and humiliated, only shows what it feels like now in a bitter twisted (literally) irony. 

Better future? Which one? People are grappling with the magnitude of the devastation no longer riding under the wave of adrenaline. The loss, in souls but also in material elements, can only add to the strain of the many problems the country is living in. And please don't anyone say "pity the nation" it is rather "pity the nations" - divided, fragmented, with each fragment following its leader. "Deux negations ne font pas une nation" as George Naccache brilliantly put it in 1949. A million negations will not make a nation.