Saint Gabriel, a wine of/for life and a brilliant ad

Now that is an upscale ad. St Gabriel, goes with a line that is cut above (even if the imagery is a bit standard issue for the wine industry) and - surprisingly - it goes in French (not that I have anything against it mind you, if they know their target audience, then French is it), "un vin de vie" - a very upscale line. Quite dignified when most other wines went the easy route. The English transposition is "a wine of/for life" (it remains a difficult exercise to go between languages when the original line is so subtle). Major points for the beautiful logo as well. A winner for sure.

Chateau Kefraya - let us long for a more legendary time

Apologies for the horrible image but seems that Chateau Kefraya does not keep up in its social media with what it has on the street. So the image is very blurred, not that it is creatively too excellent (the ideas is that the wine inside the glass is tilted enough to make some stars shine). But again, another wine showing right bang on time for the festive period - quite a few of them this year. We are far from its slogan which made us dream "Un terroir, une âme, un grand vin" which thankfully they still use to introduce the website. Come on Kefraya you can do better than "to your precious moments". Or perhaps they are drunk on their own wine.

Musar Jeune drowns in banal copy

Another wine entry now that the festivities are nearing, this time courtesy of Musar Jeune. The visual, once looked in detail is actually lovely (the bottles blending in the landscape) the problem is that banal headline "bottling the soul of our soil" - so first degree it hurts. This I think is either suggested by the client or the creatives taking the literal brief as is because, sad for me to say, I see no spark in it. Of course, the bigger question is, how do Lebanese pick their wine? Without even doing research I can say depending on the price more than anything else. I have said it a million times, brand loyalty has gone out the window when everyone is incredibly price-sensitive among the Lebanese.

Chateau Ka, let the good times roll

In a pretty unremarkable ad, Chateau Ka does a showing for the festivities highlighting "for our times together" - which is a little timid as a promise, not because I am encouraging people to drink solo but still, makes the whole promise too placid. Yet, show up Chateau Ka did. And obviously this is for the festive season where wine is drunk more than usual. There is also a free gift (again this being festive times) which a "wine kit" (no idea what that means). So again, Chateau Ka is there, not quite impressive but so be it.

Ksara - Independence Day

Yes, yes, it fell through the cracks yesterday but this is an Independence Day worth mentioning for the concept above all else (execution is minimal which I do not mind). So here we are: "It it very possible that, in 1945, independence was toasted with a glass of Chateau Ksara" - include a fez in the photo and you're home safe. Interestingly, this reminded me of a (very very) old Benetton ad "si en l'an 1 Benetton existait, les rois mages n'auraient pas hesite" (if in year 1, Benetton existed, the three wise kings would not have hesitated). But as I always say, this is a different story for a different day. Ksara almost never disappoints!

Ixsir, another wine, same summer

Along with Ksara (here), Chateau Musar (here), Ixsir is joining the wine summer fray - from what I have seen, a double ad. The first goes "revive every moment" the second "great wines are born to great heights", truth be told this is not a "campaign", how could it be? When there is no creative concept tying them - but then again probably this is asking too much from a summer campaign aimed to sell. Still, and again, not to spoil the Ixsir moment, I also found this ad in downtown Beirut.

The ad is for Go Cola, the line? Revibe the moment. Once more the occurrence of both at the same time is a bit funny. Ixsir went revive and Go Cola went revibe. Oh well, you know the line "great minds think alike" but do you know the other half? "fools sledom differ".

Almaza (r)osé (insert Pikasso d'Or)

Considering the track record of Almaza for winning Pikasso d'Or, with or without reason, with or without logic, with or without creativity, I am already forecasting the award just because. Still the campaign is not too shabby, but neither it is brilliant or anything. The play on words is (r)osé - with rosé being the wine (or beer in this case!) and osé being outrageous and avant-garde. As I said, not horrible, nor classic. Just Almaza doing what it does lately - throw ideas and see where things go. Meanwhile they get awards for it instead of "bonpoints".

Ksara and a personalized mother's day!

Well, drink to her health. No, better, drink to her health with a specially-labelled bottle from Ksara.

So how one-on-one can this be? Indeed, seems Ksara is launching this - understandably - a bit early (as logistically this might be a bit difficult to pull) and one can personalize their bottle of Ksara wine with the name of their mother's. Sure this might be a bit Coca-Cola throwback but the end effect is still neat!!

Ksara and Bokja excel this Christmas

And so here were are....

Brilliant as always - oh and it uses the product itself in the ad..... Truly a gem. 

Bokja does the unthinkable by distinguishing themselves in their festive greetings. The trick? Use a very timely (and excellent poem) by Mahmoud Darwish. Bokja went with litterature and won.

This is a short post, I know, as all of us are busy setting the Christmas table. Merry Christmas and best festive wishes from yours truly.

Chateau Ainata, an offer with no headaches

File this under the usual "I didn't get it" but also under "I want one (or make that two)". To explain the ad, for Chateau Ainata, says "Lebanese and doesn't cause a headache" which immediately assumes anything Lebanese does cause one. If this is a double-entendre for their wine not causing headache, or competitors' wines doing so, not sure it is working. The silver lining is that their offer is 7 USD for 2 bottles which is extremely cheap mind you. So again, not sure about the headache part but quite sure about the offer.

PS - it has been pointed out to me that perhaps the headache in question is "financial" - meaning that this being a local wine it is cheaper for the consumer.

Arak Touma, back when being expensive was a badge of honor

Ah I picked up this ad for Arak Touma from the front page of Annahar newspaper dated December 29, 1974. "Scotland is famous for whisky, and France is known for wine, and we are proud of the king of Arak, Arak Touma, the most expensive, the highest in quality and the best". 

Apart from the fact that the ad is well-written what struct me was that way before Stella Artois marketed itself as "reassuringly expensive" - being the most expensive was a badge of honor in the ad. The brand put it as a proof of what-you-pay-is-what-you-get. Note that the brand is - thankfully - still active in the market and as far as I know still owned by the same family (contrary to another landmark Arak brand which was sold to someone else).

Ixsir x Eugene Cavill - the story of Noha and Semaan

Artwork by Eugene Cavill

Ixsir, one of our local wineries which thankfully escaped the appellation of "chateau" along with the boring earth tones associated with it, has collaborated with artist Eugene Cavill on a new bottle. As is the tradition lately, it has to be done within the shadow of the August 4th 2020 explosion, thankfully Cavill finds a new unexplored angle which is not just "some story of resilience" but actually delves into the story of Noha and Semaan. A very beautiful story as a matter of fact which he tells in tender and very emphatic terms. Just because the story is so well told, I am simply copy-pasting it for you to enjoy.

Of course all this is done as a bottle which you can actually purchase from (very limited and select) stores. But the effort done is truly worth the while what's with Cavill's visual sensitivity.

NOHA: the love letter.
Under one’s pillow, in an ancient, most probably inherited rusty casket, perhaps behind a pile of forgotten old clothes or maybe in a timeworn shoe box, lies Hope. Memories and souvenirs sleep.
In Noha’s case, it was the shoe box, that bygone box she had always kept.
She spent her life in a one bedroom flat in Gemmayze.
The civil war took Semaan, her husband, away. And so she kept all what reminds her of him in that shoe box. The love letters he wrote, the pictures he took and the postcards he sent. Some music tapes and even a few petals of his favorite flower, the sunflower, the one looking for the sun. Always. That chest enclosed the memories of the beautiful past, the joy she had lived and the bliss of being in love and also loved in return.
Until that one hot afternoon, that devastatingly insane explosion. The one that wiped out not only the city of Beirut, but also Noha’s reality. The blast, the Beirut port’s blast.
Losing her house, furniture, belongings and jewelry was not what overwhelmed her the most. It was the box! She had lost the box.
She felt Semaan was then killed again, for the tangible souvenirs he had left were all gone now. Her sole connection to him was destroyed. And this time, absolutely nothing could hold back the rage in her eyes or lessen the pain in her heart.
Hope died. And so did Noha, a year and a half after the tragedy.
This artwork is dedicated to Noha, to her memory, and above all to her precious shoe box.

Ksara and a masterstroke of advertising copy

All right, everyone can go home. Ksara just launched its new ad. The visual is lovely etc... But it is the copywriting that completely left me taken aback. It. Is. Brilliant.

First it is French, which is reminiscent of the old Ksara language that it used to adopt in the 90s. But boom - inside there is Arabic "kes el ghiyeb" (a cup for the absent ones!) and "tilt b teltayn" (which is a nod to Ksarak the sister spirit of the wine produced by Ksara - which means "one third in two third" because this is how your "break" the Arak), now wait there's also "Sunday lunch" and "after work" too and that's English!.... 

Honest I was gob smacked. As I said, the visual is indeed nice and all, but when you ad such breathtaking copy whole thing goes to the power n!... 

Wait, am I jealous?

See the full beauty of the Ksara ad here.

Chateau Musar and the juggling snowman....

For a long, long time, Lebanese wine brands gave out indistinguishable ads all dipped in burgundy colors, making it impossible to even guess what the brand was much less memorize it. Thankfully that tendency decreased and now we can actually sense more and more which campaign goes for which brand. Now, for its end of year showing, Chateau Musar offers us this drunk juggling mitten-and-santa-hat wearing snowman. The line "Wonderful Christmas Spirit" seems to lack a verb (such as "enjoy" or "welcome to the") making the ad even more peculiar. Here's to a more consistent one next year. 

Chateau Ksara, a warm ad for Mother's Day

Chateau Ksara is at it again for Mother's Day which falls today. A lovely warm ad (I admit not up to the level of their incredible Army Day, but one cannot get lucky twice so soon!), still, this is not to tarnish their "unconditional love" outing - yes, look closely on the negative space in the wine and you will see what I mean. Actually, isn't this influenced by the UNICEF logo? But with the mother and child kissing? No matter, a good ad is a good ad, and Ksara has been hammering hit after hit.

Ksara - it ain't broke and they didn't fix it.

You remember the Ksara campaign from earlier this year? Well, it ain't broke so they didn't fix it. Actually they retooled it for a bit more into a winter scheme. Interestingly, it could have become a second degree touristic postcard thing (because it mentions many Lebanese areas) but thankfully, including the bottle so prominently saved it from ending up so. Naturally, enticing the Lebanese to "hold their cup" in a gesture of patriotism really requires a lot of guts, which sadly is quasi empty right now in the land. But then again advertising is now inspirational for nothing. And well, if we can dream a bit at the end of this year, then why not?

Ksara plays the optimism card.

Ksara just played the optimism card with an ad that goes "keep your glass raised" (khalli kesak marfou3) a riff on the typical Lebanese resilience, pride, and upbeat thinking no matter how bad the situation - and this situation is indeed incredibly bad. Whereas I am not questioning the timing of the campaign which is an essential morale boost, it did remind me of a campaign in the 90s for Almaza beer whose teaser was "rfa3 rasak"- keep your head high - and the reveal was "Almaza bterfa3 el ras" (Almaza keeps the head high (because duh you need to raise your head to drink beer) - or figuratively, "Almaza makes you proud"). 

I know, I know, this is not the same slogan but at some point the figurative analogy came back to my mind. 

Muse du Liban, a new wine from the heart of the cedars

Lebanon has a new wine, and it is - thankfully - not a chateau. Muse, "was conceived by none other than France’s Michel Rolland, one of the world’s most revered winemakers and award-winning consultants, with a palate renowned for its penchant for inimitable". The name and logo - much like Ixsir which broke the mould of "chateau" brings a refreshing change to the scenery. Apparently muse is available as "Rousing Red", "Rebellious Rose" and "Wanton White" (oddly they could have named the three varieties after women since they are going for the feminine concept). Still, Muse seems a much welcome novelty in the land of chateaux.