Joe Fish goes end of year with VIvad

 

End of year card 2024. #merrychristmas

And time for the annual greeting card!!... I know I know, 2024 was not easy for us as Lebanese so here's hoping for a better 2025 (that bar is too low though!). For a recap of older cards please check here.

About that Pimo end of year card

And that's a cool one! The end of year card by Pimo is indeed a nice one. I mean... Hey, they did not "stick to the script" and they write their own "blockbuster", and well, their alternate reality is certainly not real but I really really want to see Mondays being practically extinct, politicians riding on unicorns, flying drones raining good vibes, peace and love being the new world order, a (Lebanese) president generated by AI, where calories don't count (can we make that sugar instead, am diabetic :) ), drama being reserved to Netflix marathons and free speech being genuinely free. OK that's some tall order we all know if one is to dream might as well dream big. And get this whereas Pimo usually signs "welcome to the age of the real" the video's signature is "welcome to the alternate age of the real"... What's there not to like? So voila, this indeed was a rollercoaster of a year as the video says, but hey if Pimo is "embracing the chaos with open arms", why can't I? Vivement 2024!

End of year parties in Lebanon...

Back in the day, every other restaurant, hotel, resort had its own end of year party with artists ranging from A to D and prices conveniently. Actually, one time, popular singer Georges Wassouf was asked live on air if his party's tickets cost 100 USD by a certain lady, to which he quipped "if you want to sit next to washrooms, then yes". 

I have no idea how much tickets cost for the parties this year considering that the economy is completely cash-based and Dollarized at this point. But I do have a feeling there is nothing accessible in them to the average layman. Still, the fact that there are parties - and the above am sure a sample (meaning there are others whose ads I did not do a screenshot) - is a small indicator that there is a semblant of life creeping in on the Lebanese scene. Most A-list singers are ringing the New Year outside Lebanon where offers are more forthcoming and lucrative. Yet knowing that someone like Haifa Wehbe would be here is itself a nice booster. 

2023 has not been the easiest of years, as I said previously the second half was a complete nosedive on many levels and the situation in Palestine and the South of Lebanon did not make things any easier. A yet here we are so close to wrapping up the year and gearing for another one to come!

A Christmas - End of year pot pourri of ads around town

No, it not starting to feel like Christmas. I am not saying this to be the messenger of doom but no matter who I meet, I can detect immediately how crushed, tired and - yes - defeated everyone is. The advertising scene is not much better. There are no official figures that I know of, but am sure this year has not been a vintage one. I spoke to several people who own shops and all of them agreed that the second half of the year was a disaster. Still, there are some mild efforts being undertaken. Below is a mix and match of some of them - and even if some ads do not refer explicitly to Christmas/End of year festivities, I included them because their raison d'etre seems obvious:

ABC Mall went their usual upscale route inviting their customers to "celebrate their love" (the love of the nearest and dearest). Well, considering the prices, the treatment makes sense.

Beirut Beer went with building a Christmas tree from their bottles. I saw this installation in two places (Gemmayze and City Mall in Dora). Well, it does make sense I presume considering what they sell.

Bildits - which has a name that immediately tells you what it does - is a children's set where the kind can build a house like a "real engineer". Well, OK, the kid is male which is a bit anticipated, but well, who knows, maybe including a girl could have caused some social stir.

Bo Concept is having an up to 60% off sale. I do hope they do mark down items - several years back on a "clearance sale" I was offered 15% off a sofa.

File this under "I had no idea Bombay Sapphire was in Lebanon" also file under "I don't consume much alcohol to know it is in Lebanon". Still, it is interesting Bombay Sapphire decided to launch such a wide-covering campaign to celebrate their "premier cru".

Boss watches & Jewelry - OK fine you get a free bracelet with every purchase. Interesting, considering the first function of a cell phone is actually to tell the time.

GS went for a bit of a serious image for their end of year outing - I already spoke of their advent calendar online though (here).

Deco Sleep Comfort - with wishes of a peaceful Christmas. One cannot miss this ad. Obviously you know what they sell.

Cyber Monday? Make that Cyber Christmas for Home Tag. Well, many companies are already offering sales and offers - just to tell you how dire the market situation is.

Ixsir has a limited edition of bottles out enticing people to add color to their celebration. Usually the bottles are co-branded with an up-and-coming and promising illustrator. Not this year. Obviously due to budget restriction.

Beauty x Magic for Izzat Daouk gave birth to something akin to ugliness and black magic. I am sure effort was injected in this ad. But am truly not a fan.

A long long time ago, there was a Johnnie Walker ad which went "some gifts are too good to give away" (whereby a man is writing a card to accompany a bottle of Johnnie Walker wrapped near him, he ends up drinking the whisky and wrapping the gold pen). I talk of this ad because Johnnie Walker has an ad for Blue Label which can set you back more than 300 USD. At that price, take my pen.

Reva is gifting "dreams for Christmas". Considering my many many insomniac nights, yes please. Also it was belatedly pointed out to me that "reva" and "dreams" are one and the same words, I missed the double-entendre.

As a friend of mine joked - buy tights and get a car, or mostly, the other way around. A bit of a head-scratcher if you ask me.

Zoughaib & Sons have a new collection out - the boussole. Interesting they bothered to design and produce a collection at a time when the market is in such doldrums.

Swarovski - celebrate wonder.... Again, well am sure the ad has its target audience. Women who really long to shine - without the price of real jewelry.

As you can see, some effort has been done. Nothing to write home about, but there is a very shy activity going on. Nothing like the mega campaigns that used to be done in the past, but one can feel the budgets squeezed to the maximum, and since the whole country is not in top shape, I suppose the ad scene sort of mirrors that.

Aishti campaign, new but not so for end of year

This is what Aishti did for end of year in 2021, then 2022, then this for 2023. Look, maybe, just maybe, there was some sort of animation in those 2 years, but for some reason when I saw the above I gave me a distinct impression of deja vu (OK, no jokes about reloading the matrix, than you). It is indeed, very close, as in very, very close to the two former campaigns which also included window dressings for its various stores including the flagship which got damaged in the 2020 August explosion in downtown Beirut. But all this is to say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". But even the town's most upscale retailer is not immune to the catastrophe that befell on the Lebanese economy. Surely, it has its VIPs and big spenders, but knowing that the aspirational consumers are no longer there nor are they accessible must have hurt. But well, still, launching a small end-of-year campaign when all merchants are telling me that the second half of the year was completely abysmal is commandable.

Slowear Beirut: "No matter what" - a wonderful end-of-year missive

And to all of you trying to do meaningful, inspirational, yet also touching and personal ads, please read this email I just received from Slowear (the lovely store in downtown Beirut which was completely obliterated with the August 4, 2020 explosion). Here's the text below:

Dear Friends,

The past couple of years have been, to say the least, intense! 2021 had its share of setbacks, with smaller bumps perhaps but nevertheless a roller coaster of events and emotions for us all. We've seen some of you leave Lebanon, unfortunately, but as we grow apart in distance, we feel our ties are stronger than ever.

Stepping into the new year, we wish you 365 days filled with health, little and big joys, love, hope and ... style!

 

Cheers to that. We hope you have a great evening, and stay safe!

Happy New Year!
 

The Slowear Store team.

So here we are, a smart, emotional, yet very logical text. They are strutting their merchandise without flaunting it in your face, they are selling you their brands (Incotex, Montedoro, Zanone, and Glanshirt) without them being pushy or cheap. Honestly, if I ever needed a reminder that an ad can fulfill such functions at the end of year, this is it!

A small gem... and already a "little joy" as they said in their email! "No matter what" says the title of the missive. No matter what indeed.

 

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. 

Aishti/Aizone and the end of year campaign

And here it is, despite all the horrors, all the turmoils of the last year and the year before, Aishti and its younger sibling Aizone splash an end of year campaign centered around graphics for festive sentences "Always be merry" for Aishti and "Always give plenty" for Aizone. The campaign is displayed throughout some very strategic billboards and adorns the shops themselves. Aishti is a prime luxury destination and Aizone is hot on its heels as well (though caters for a younger or funkier crowd), so the clientele is well known, and whereas I had a strong feeling Aishti 1) lost its aspirational shoppers 2) was competing with itself with its many many branches scattered in malls not too far from its flagship stores, eventually the brand downsized astronomically what's with the economic crash affecting heavily its clientele (example, all the mono brand shops at the Beirut Souks closed down except for Camper, and that was several months prior to the severe explosion of August 4, 2020 - in addition many outposts for the brand vanished from lower caliber malls as well). 

Still, the campaign is very much in line with the post Leo Burnet handling on the brand (which is now in the hands of &Walsh but I stand corrected) - meaning heavy graphics or surrealistic takes.
 

ABC Mall goes for a strong concept for end of year campaign

ABC Mall is all out decking the halls, with a strong conceptual campaign for its end of year showing. The ads, whereas economical in copy, hit right where they should. Very well shot, with rather upscale tones, they delimit the target audience to an upper bracket (which is normal considering the prices), and entice the would be shoppers to get into the pseudo-exclusive environment. Oddly, they carry a strong whiff of the ads Leo Burnett used to do for Aishti (the multi brand store selling all those chic brands). Well, again, the campaign works for its intended purposes and is a nice visual for one to see on such large surfaces at the mall.