Piaget, the 1988 ad that whispers rather than shouts.

I miss those days. Heck I miss 2012 - back when, you are not going to believe it - but D&G came up with their last collection before shuttering their brand (and incorporating it in the mother company Dolce & Gabbana) with that spectacular show (here).

But no, this is earlier, much earlier - 1988 to be specific. "Magazine" - yes, the Lebanese publication (here) and no, we did not buy it (Sylvie, our neighbor's friend, whose husband was a dentist (Sylvie's husband not our neighbor's haha!) gave them to us) and in them that gem of an ad.

Piaget.

All right, truth be told I had never heard of the brand prior. But that ad, a small rectangle at the bottom of a page (on the right) arrested me. "La plus belle facon de porter une Piaget c'est de n'en rien montrer" - the most beautiful way to wear a Piaget is not to show anything.

Actually the ad I saw must be from the same campaign because it was of a man and a woman drinking champagne and - you guessed it not showing their Piaget. Because, unlike certain "other brands" (here's looking at you Rolex!) this is not for the show. But more the appreciation. The self-appreciation to begin with.

In an era where "the wheel that squeaks gets the grease" where everything is a shouting match and everyone is out there out-screaming one another, it is a comfort to know there was a time where whispering won out the shouting - this advertising being the ultimate proof.

Breitling appreciates time this Ramadan

That the Arab market is huge for men's watches is no secret, that the Eid is the ultimate time to exchange precious gifts is also a given, so Brietling came up with a Ramadan ad which nails the topic on its head. There individuals, one is in a plane, one driving a car in the desert, one a Riva-style boat in the sea - all three branded with the Breitling logo, the plane's tale, the side of the boat, the license plate of the car, and all of them speeding up. Why? Because as the campaign says it is about "appreciation of time" - ergo to be home by iftar time. Very very smart, and very very socially aware and very very Ramadan compatible.  

And during lockdown, time is elastic.

Well, you know how people are saying that all days feel the same during lockdown due to lack of measuring parameters when one does not go out to work, or knows when the weekend or when Easter is? Oddly, I do not face that problem. Yet, time is indeed elastic. My serious lockdown started way earlier than anyone due to a combination of trying to save money (you know capital controls oblige and all that....), to me quitting my university lecturing (nope, I will not be paid by head rather than by course!), severe winter (that Friday the 13th storm!), and an all-around other family factors. Meaning that to me - working from home is not a novelty. With work being so scarce to begin with, what's with shops/companies/institutions shutting down left and right.
Yet, the time I speak of during lockdown being elastic is a different kind. For a long time I hanged on to a useless past with its relics, objects, boxes, and dwindling emotional significance: Natural Born Killers soundtrack I used to listen to on loop, Red Hot Chili Peppers CD which I introduced as the agency's official sound to the creative department of the ad agency in KSA, my old university books whose info by now is quasi obsolete...
These objects meant something.  At least they were sent to the recycling which is being run by the municipality. Hanging on to these objects was perhaps a way to keep possibilities, a way to go back to a life that is now done with and too far back. Today I look around to a present that is too fractured and to a future that is as odd/perilous as ever (what will happen to my money in June 2021, will I get back the missing money that was supposed to come from Oman? Will this? Will that?). And yet, spring has come with its cleaning - make that springs and cleanings - considering what was thrown away.
Maybe in time we will look back at this period and say it was a new start or perhaps it will be business as usual when things go back on track. Whatever happens/does not happen, time proved to be elastic and disposable and getting rid of an economics book will not negate the person I am today.
"By the way, I tried to say, I know you from before".
No you didn't, but we will leave that to another post.