Advertising awards should be a byproduct not the aim.

Recently for Saudi Day (September 19) Heinz went brandless and colored itself with the colors of the Saudi flag. The aim was to express "our irrational act of love to join our Saudi consumers in celebrating the Kingdom with its rich culture, heritage, and unity,” according to Passant El Ghannam, Head of Marketing at Kraft Heinz MEA. I can already see the case presented to advertising awards - "we allowed consumers to scan QR codes to share their own messages of pride, we hired in situ calligraphers to personalize the bottles so as for consumers to keep one-of-a-kind mementos, and sales grew by (insert impressive number here)". The whole thing reeks of advertising awards rather than a normal campaign targeted towards consumers.
A long long time ago (2003 to be specific), an agency in KSA I was working in was contacted by newspapers telling them that GMC was launching a massive campaign the next day. Since we represented Toyota they wanted to know if we were going to launch anything ourselves. That same day - a statistic fell into our lap: KSA was the second worldwide owner of Toyota Landcruiser per capita in the world after Japan. The client servicing threw it at us and literally gave us about ten minutes to get an ad done as he was off to visit the client. I raked my brains and came up with the Al Mutanabi verse:
وتصغر في عين العظيم العظائم
And the greater things seem insignificant in the eye of the mighty.
I asked if there was a photo of a Landcruiser in the Saudi desert at night and slapped a text that went - we had nothing to do with it, it was all because of you (the consumer) and went on profusely thanking Toyota Landcruiser owners for their loyalty, good taste, faith etc, etc.
To say that the ad took the kingdom by storm the next day was selling it short. The GMC campaign was simply not talked about while every Saudi was congratulating themselves for picking a Landcruiser. Maybe, in today's world this might be an "award-winning" ad. But who cares? The end clients loved it, felt pride in it, of course it does not hurt that the agency client (Toyota) approved it swiftly and was also incredibly pleased with it.
But this is what is happening these days - every other ad is thought of as an award-winning contestant rather than one aimed at the end client, who will buy, take pride, be faithful to the brand, and hopefully will propagate by word of mouth to people he/she knows or cares about. Because awards should not be the aim of an ad, or any ad campaign. Sure, if it does produce awards so much the better, but focusing solely on ads above the precedence of targeting the consumer is truly like putting the cart before the horse.
I said it again and will say it once more, every ad has three purposes no matter what brand it represents: to introduce a product, to entice the consumer to want it, and to tell the consumer that the product is available in the market.
Winning awards is not part of the initial plan.

BUMC has a legitimate warning

BUMC has a warning and a very legitimate one at that. "Avoid danger. Only electric and hybrid Toyota cars sold via BUMC enjoy warranty from the Toyota international factory". OK, so the idea is - do not buy electric or hybrid Toyota cars unless you get them from the BUMC official dealership. Now, if you do so, do not expect BUMC to fix them for free. Furthermore, if anything that happens to you while driving such a car not bought via BUMC, well - only you have yourself to blame. Well, not sure what prompted BUMC to buy such an ad space (whereas prices are relatively cheap, they still cost money) - maybe too many people are trying to get BUMC to get them to fix their cars which they got from private dealerships? Or from abroad (which I doubt to be honest, but still a possibility)? Whatever it is, BUMC makes it clear where they stand. 

Toyota and the customs' tariffs in Lebanon

OK here's a brief recap: The Dollar for import (one of many many different Dollar parities in Lebanon) went from 1500 to 15000 Liras at the end of 2022, then went up to 45,000 Liras in February 2023, only to increase to 60,000 in April and now 90,000 as of May. Well, this basically means that Lebanon with 139% inflation rate is going to see further increase in prices.

Which brings us to some companies selling older stocks with the previous customs import prices. Ergo - Toyota Lebanon jumping on that bandwagon. You might be surprised though that cars are not top priority for the Lebanese at this point (here) but no one can blame BUMC (the exclusive Toyota and Lexus dealer for Lebanon) for trying.

Apparently what Lebanese really do want are white goods (such as refrigerators and gas stoves), because at this point cars are exceptionally expensive - even with the old import prices, and they are seen as a farfetched relic from an older economic model that no longer exists.

The Toyota Building in Dubai gets its namesake sign back

Image of the "Toyota building" dating back to 1981

The Toyota building in Dubai got its sign back.

Well, here's the story - the official name of the building is Nasser Rachid Lootah building, one of the first high rises to be built in 1974 (three years after the inception of the Emirates). On top of the 15 story building - which offers cheap rents to expats till this day - was a sign by Japanese carmaker Toyota. Of course, throughout, many incredibly tall buildings have mushroomed in Dubai.

But Toyota building remained there, both a landmark and a relic in the past. Cut to 2018 when the advertising contract for the sign expired and it was taken down. You can see a photo of the building without the Toyota sign here. But old habits are hard to change, the building was still called Toyota building (much like Lebanon's "Chevrolet" roundabout refers to a long defunct dealership, or Cola bridge in Beirut refers to a long shut-down Coca-Cola bottling company). 

Well, here's the good news - the building seems to have regained its Toyota ad. Alfuttaim which owns the Toyota dealership for the Emirates decided to Reinstate the landmark banner. 

So the Toyota building is the Toyota building again.

Toyota Wigo - Banker's Check accepted

Right on the heels of Suzuki, it seems Toyota will accept banker's check for their Toyota Wigo. Interestingly, there is an for its Hilux model right at the same time which does not mention such check, so perhaps Toyota is trying to target a specific clientele with the Wigo. Interestingly usually banker's check is accepted for real estate, or buying plots of lands, as way for people to smuggle their "Lollar" outside the banks. But between Suzuki and Toyota (for their entry-level Wigo) it seems this applies too as a way for such companies to handle their loans to banks (an easy way to pay the companies' dues) and for people to release their long-stuck Lollars in the Lebanese banking system. 

That Toyota Christmas ad....

Hmmm I have no idea when this ad came out, could be this year, could be earlier, but - it is brilliant!! Yes, I know to wish a "Merry Christmas" while in Lebanon is hypocritical, and to say "count your blessings" is also nasty. But, there you go, we go on by hook or by crook. At least try to be safe.