Bellvie, an ad so smart it left me confused

First the facts: Comparative advertising is banned in Lebanon (here and here as examples), so you cannot name the competitor directly (weirdly enough the links show it happened twice - it also happened directly with Brinol washing detergent when competitors were shown in the background clearly, but ad agencies reeled against this, this was when the law had just been immediately passed). The second fact is that I am smart - with tests to prove it. 

Now Bellvie: The ad IS very smart but it had to have someone else explain it to me. Why? Because "Salim" a lovely Arabic name, was featured in the ad. Except that Salim and Slim (as in Slim Oil, the main competitor of Bellvie was mentioned in the ad) are spelled in the same way in Arabic. I know, I know, very smart. And to top it all, they used an Arabic expression that went "ask someone who tried, but don't ask a doctor" which was detoured as "ask someone who tried but don't ask Salim/Slim" (do note in Arabic doctor/7akim and Slim/Salim rhyme). All this while pointing to a guy who is supposed to be "Salim"... Because... Tadam, comparative ad is banned.

Yes that's a lot of explanation for an ad. I was still asking who Salim is, if you wanted to know!

Beirut Beer preaches national unity

Beirut Beer has a good one (but as always one step forward two steps back sadly), the ad above is about "national unity". Well why not? My only gripe? This is NOT a comparative ad (please read my take on comparative ads in Lebanon here) so the logo of Almaza should not have been pixelated (again, Beirut Beer is not comparing itself to Almaza, but just saying that old and new should cohabitate... in a "national unity"). Now, at some point in the past Almaza was owned by Heineken (no longer) so perhaps Beirut Beer is riffing on that by saying "pick a "local one"" (which wehde watnaniye could also mean as a double-entendre). But I could be reading too much in a benign ad.

Ideas come from some place, no shame in that!

The Arne Jacobsen Chair? (here) The Ormond Gigli framing? (here) The fashion photoshoot which is clearly inspired by the Kasimir Malevich suprematism "the sportsmen series"? The Orbolu which obviously stems from the "blu(e) angel" by Marlene Dietrich and that incredible Milton Greene image which showed the actress as identified just by her legs?

Ideas come from place and there is no shame in that. Of course, there is a thin line between plagiarism or irony or tribute. Smart advertisers know the difference, cheap ones simply copy as is (no names but seriously, the idiocy had hit unthinkable treshold in Lebanon). All this without talking about some vague comparative/non-comparative ad which skirts the law without breaking it (here).

 Once more, I am blessed/cursed of having an enormous archive - both on my PC and in my mind. I can see where the ad generated, and sometimes (and here I go back to my own career) you just amalgamate 2-3 different inspirations, blend them, and voila, you have a "new" concept. 

Again, sometimes advertisers are too foolish, or have a large-ego. They refuse to admit that they were influenced by anything (some idiots say so about ads they clearly copied!). Well, nothing wrong with a bit of inspiration actually. You remember something and then dip it in a different sauce and there you are. I always go back to that example where, at the end of the egoiste perfume ad for Chanel, Jean-Paul Goude inserted the same type of Rolls Royce present at the bottom of the Ormond Gigli photo. Well, if there was ever a creative wink, this must be it!

So there is no shame if you borrow an idea and make it your own. As long as you don't stupidly copy.