On the deluge of bad ads I am seeing

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

I am honestly not sure what is happening but there is a deluge of bad ads I am seeing as of late. I cannot blame it on 2026 because these things take a lot of time to materialize and be decided and approved and even with AI which is making the process much faster in terms of execution there is always 17 opinions to cater for (including the CEO's wife or girlfriend or both). 

Of course my first reflex was "it's just me, little appeals to my taste" until a friend said (when I showed him one ad) "I didn't send it to you, I knew how viscerally you'd react". And then plugging a link to another friend with the line "how stupid can you be?" he sent back a voice message of how idiotic this whole campaign is, especially that we had seen that same scenario play on 18.578 ads since the 80s.

Does one blame the "creatives" (between quotes because they are anything but), does one blame those who approved the ads? I am not saying marketing department or what not because the level we are dealing with is anything from large conglomerates to smalltime companies where decisions are taken by owners.

Whatever it is, the result is the same, silly, forgettable ads, with no creative backbone to hold them or anything resembling strategy (considering one of the people who came up with one of the stupid ads I am speaking of said "come up with it yourself!" when I asked why there was not an Arabic selling line to an FMCG good in his student's final presentation). Of course what bothers mostly is the quantity considering the quantity is abysmal.

And here we are, a giant - and I mean giant - ad space space was booked for what is essentially something that is so horrific that it hurts the eye, Instagram is filled with AI ads that make absolutely no sense at all, but "haha" and "for the third year we are partnering with... (fill in the blanks)" - and worse comments filled with heart and fire and smiley emojis from - well the CEOs wife, girlfriend or both.

I am not sure how we got to this situation, but here are are.

"Now is the winter of our discontent," said the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) in Shakespeare's play. 

As I write this in the middle of a storm, I wish I was speaking about the weather.

Taj goes on the triple kitchen offensive

Taj is establishing itself as the kitchen brand if you are to believe their triple onslaught of outdoor blitz. OK, first the soup which is supposed to be be "atyab soup bi souk" (soup and souk are supposed to sort of rhyme - that was lame though truth be told), then you have the basmati rice and eventually the cream (or ashta) in Arabic.

The ads are not exactly super creative, but what is interesting is that the campaign is so ginormous it appears on every other billboard in town. Considering it is three different products, one sees the logo everywhere. Interestingly there's nothing "campaignish" about the visuals - they do not resemble each other or follow any kind of pattern visually or conceptually, but being concurrent in the market gives them an air of "unification". 

Takis Fuego - just because it is there!

If I am mentioning this ad (Takis) it is because it is there - which is no mean feat these days in Lebanon. So here it is: "Do you dare?" apparently the sub name of the product "fuego" implies that it is hot. Creatively it is nothing new, but what drew my attention was the Arabic line "face hardship" - well, this is not something to be said to a Lebanese today that's for sure, because every day is an uphill struggle. But I think this is some pan-Arab campaign because the type of language used implies more "Arab countries" than Lebanese idioms.