Baddy cool.....

In a survey reported by Communicate magazine, Pepsi was elected as the least loved Brand by Arab youth - Coca Cola scored second best loved after Nokia. The message is clear, Pepsi marketing executives had to refresh the image of the brand... So on comes "this".... By this, I am referring to all these ads plastered all over town, hitting every media buyable surface with messages such as surf, connect, chat, dance, play, listen, etc... Supposedly all messages to get the adrenaline of the youth - as someone who is way past hip, who is totally out of the circuit, who is incredibly depasse would see it!!!! "Express yourself (Insert pepsi round logo) more" they are all signed (As a spin off from the "Ask for more" usual signature)... Well, in front of such a faux-pas one cannot express himself - one is rendered totally speechless by this awkward move! In the end, Pepsi appears to be a wannabe, totally behind the curve, not a trendsetter or a mover/shaker... Simply someone who has waken up to the party as everyone else was leaving it! Bye bye baddy cool.... Baddy, baddy cool.....

Making ads out of nothing at all....

Few things are more difficult for an advertiser than to do an ad for obvious topics where the possiblity of maneouvering is almost nul.... Such categories include "timely ads" (How many new ways are there to say Merry Christmas?) or electronics with a niche target audience and the like. And yet, brilliance sometimes strikes and the results come out as nothing short of outstanding.

Above are a few cases in point... The Kenwood mothers' day ad (Mothers' day falls with the advent of spring in Lebanon) - Kenwood is offering a free scale with every purchase of a kitchen mixer and since women (Mothers included) like to watch their weight, it is only normal to offer one for the occasion, but it is the headline that transforms this ad from a banal offer to a nice piece of advertising: "Treat your mother on a grand scale"....

The second shining example is for a device for diabetics called "lifescan"... The Arabic headline reads "So as for the sugar level not to play up" and instead of the sugar cubes in the visual next to the coffee we see two backgammon dices!

The third comes from Midea air conditioners which used the Arabic slang idiom "forget the clippers" (Said when one is told to let go of something) and used it litterally to advertise that their air conditioners do not need maintenance.

Maybe, after all, there ARE new ways of saying Merry Christmas!

Tree-hugging

The above villa, located in the upscale Area of Kaslik on the coast of Lebanon, is an architectural jewel. I have to admit that I played the "lazy reporter" by not inquiring directly about its architect or history, but it still remains a stunning example of the modernist architecture which visited Lebanon in the 50s and 60s. Somehow it also reminds me of the famous "Schroeder house" - one of the emblems of the Bauhaus architecture. Sadly, the villa seems deserted now and its backyard filled with plastic rubbish.... But yet, with its quiet reclusiveness, its unflashy beauty, its minimalistic lines, and its perfect blending with the environment it is an incredible work which makes the two "centers" next to it look even more ugly and intrusive than they originally are.

One of its most stunning features is how the balcony on the first floor is actually build AROUND the pine tree.... Notice how the tree stands there phagocyted by the balcony in an act of total osmosis and harmony. Leaves one speechless....

Somewhere between living the moment and immortalizing it.

(Walk into the Paradise Garden by W. Eugene Smith)

I always wondered what was more important - to live the moment or to immortalize it. Nowadays, with the advent of digital photography, it is so easy to take a bundle of pix and just store them onto the hardrive of our computers. Photography isn't what it used to be - it isn't reserved for official occasions, it isn't a once-in-a-lifetime event like it was when it first emerged, and the limit between amateurs and pros is now blurred with what has been known as citizen reporting (People who with their mobiles are capturing images which are changing the face of communication forever).
This weekend, I encountered a moment I shall never forget, but which I can never share photographically. My nephew (Who will be 3 years old next June) and I went for a stroll - the weather was wonderful and he was being naughty inside. This scene took place at my village Daroun-Harissa where I go up for the weekend and where Youssef (His name) gets to spend the Saturdays.
As we were walking to the village's fountain, suddenly two donkeys pass by. Youssef's adrenaline went sky high and he insisted on following them. Which we did, only to discover that the donkeys were "parked" by the small boy who rode them on a rugged terrain.
But Youssef was so adamant at seeing them he wouldn't listen when I explained to him that there was almost no way for us to climb to see them. But climb we did, with his frail body attached to mine and me trying not to fall over with my ill-chosen Puma shoes.
Finally, we reached the two donkeys now taken care of by two boys. They were kind enough to let him play with the rope that led one of them, he inspected the donkey closely without touching him though ("J'ai peur" - I am afraid, he would say and cling on to my cargo pants)...
The colors of the donkeys were spectacular, and the field was such a lush green which contrasted wonderfully with my nephew's clothes - basically all the ingredients to make unforgetable photography. With just one problem: No camera in sight! I had left mine at hope as I did not expect anything so spectacular to happen.
Time elapsed and close to two hours were spent playing with donkeys with Youssef enjoying every second of it. My pleads for him to go back went unanswered until his energy dwindled and so I carried him back home - and in that ingratitude that characterizes children he answered when I asked him if he loved it: "Yes, but we should have played with the dog too...."
Back home he told everyone "I was playing with the horses" - when I reclified that he was playing with donkeys he said - "Yes, but we should not say bad words!" ("Donkey" being an insult in Arabic language as well).
All of this, without even a snap of a photo to remind him later of the day when he played with the donkeys... Will he remember? I wonder. Maybe the photo (Had it been taken) will fix a memory for him but also maybe he own remembrance will rework the details of the day (where the donkey would have another color and there would only be him and myself - not two other boys as well)....
To my only consolation, I can say that sometimes photographs do not depict real memories, the most stunning example is W. Eugene Smith's very famous "Walk into the Paradise Garden" - what looks like a casual photo of his children going into the garden in a moment of bliss was a photo that was rehearsed many times until the pace of the trot, the lighting and the angle of bushes was perfect.
Somewhere between living the moments and immortalizing them, we live our own mortality.