Monocle: Ashrafieh/NTSC

International affairs, style, business and culture magazine "Monocle"has place Ashrafieh (My neighborhood in Beirut) on their front cover.I have just been to the launch party (Sadly was boring as all hell),but this goes to all those who keep nagging me about "safety" issues and whatever have you ... Ashrafieh is praised as a model of exceptional architecture, cohabitation between faiths and a mix of eccentric and hard-headed individuals who just won't give up! (No wonder I live here). The downside is that bulldozers seem to be threatening this landscape making it perhaps Ashrafieh/NTSC.

From A+ to C-

The above is a round up of ads plastered on various media (unipoles, billboards, or even annoucements boards). Some of them work, others much less so. The top of the class is the new TNT courrier ad to celebrate their new agent. Just a few unipoles were taken and a box with the usual "fragile" sign (A broken glass which represents shipping) transformed into one full of wine (Or some other liquid (Not broken one has to emphasize the safety) with "congratulations:" underneath.
Next in line comes "Cortas" the canned food company which is trying to emphasize its global presence with a slogan that roughly translates into "You mean the world to me".... The blue color however is too "medical/pharmaceutical" to be correlated to food.
Exotica follows up its brilliant mother day ad with "Balconies" - a double entendre between women's cleavages and the actual architectural structures. Works to a varying degree.
Nescafe Gold Blend attacked the market - simultanuously with Maxwell house - on the "savour the moment" with the headline "Shine" (Above is the Arabic version). I found the ad not to shine and not to sparkle.
One last amusing photo was taken at a university where Holcim a major cement company (And a polluter if one is to be honest) had an open day with the slogan "Holcim waits for you" underwhich a student (who most likely did not want to end up like his father working there for the rest of his life) scrambled - "Let it wait".... So much for corporate communication!

Hungry? Grab a Snickers (And throw it across the room)

So if "hunger hits you", "hit it back with Snickers"... No, to be more spencific "b-snickerseweh" (With a piece of Snickers as written in the latinized Arabic commonly used for chat on internet.) With one of the most annoying radio campaigns to support this campaign, Snickers has managed to transform a very punchy "Grab a Snickers" selling line into one of the most boring adaptations in Arabic. Whereas this ought to convey strength/toughness/resilience, it ends up being over the top, trying too hard and just not working.

Has the diamond lost its sparkle?

Almaza (Translated into "The diamond") is our national beer - actually, one of the two national beers we have.... Some of its ads have already been covered in Beirut/NTSC but it is their 75th year commemoration which is subject to this post.
The idea is that they took four key dates in the history of Lebanon - accompanied by four changes in logo on the bottle - and umbrella-ed everything under the concept of "celebrating."
First they go back to 1933 (2008-1933=75!) with the line "We now have a beer... We celebrated", then moved on to 1943, "we now have independance... We celebrated." Then came 1971 when Miss Universe was Lebanese Georgina Rizk (Later to be elected the Miss of "Miss Universes"!) with the copy "Miss Universe is Lebanese... We celebrated." Eventually, they fast forward all of the Lebanese war and then go back to 1991 "It has calmed down... We celebrated again."
The four visuals were all across billboards as "teasers" - then the revealer was "2008, whatever happens, we will still celebrate." Which actually is an embodiement of that Lebanese defiant spirit.
Thomas Friedman said that "hope in Lebanon is like a weed" - just give it some sunlight and it will grow.... So in all objective terms this campaign hits the target, except for one thing: It is boring!
After so many years now of seeing the same layout, the same grid, the same poor art direction, the same typography, the eye grows lazy on the "Almaza" ads. Maybe their messages are right on the spot (translating into respectable sales), but then, maybe no one is looking on that spot anymore (On the advertising front)!

Paleofuture....

I have just been forwarded the address of www.paleofutre.com a website about "the future that never was".... Mostly I was handed over the baove illustration from Henry Grant Dart in Life magazine in 1909... Actually, this looks so much like Times square, which makes me wonder if this is "the future that ever was" rather than "never was."

And that's 33!

In pure cinematographic talk, "And that's 33" refers to the famous scene between Andie McDowell and Hugh Grant in "Four weddings and a funeral" whereby she admits she has had her "fair share" of sexual partners. In this week's installment of Lebanese politics, it simply marks 33 years since the civil war has started. With more than 17,500 people whose wherabouts are still unknown, with some people living with endless physical pain or psychological scars, with deaths by the thousands and injured by the tens of thousands... The civil society is waking up because the dreadful act ought not be repeated. Even though the war officially ended in 1991, I wonder if there was any "peace" since then. Yesterday, the media landscape in Lebanon did a very praise-worthy initiative... Several newspapers (Not all of them sadly) carried out a main "manchette" that said "All of Lebanon refuses another 13 April (With a X on the words) and hangs on to the country's unity in a republic that preserves peace and harbors human rights and freedom of citizens." It is a small step, but if the press that is seriously divided among political fractions can find this statement as a common intersection then maybe the whole war hasn't gone to waste. Maybe we did learn something. Even at 33.

Little Miss Daniela

Seperated at birth? Well, sort of! The new Daniela Tobler campaign (A Lebanese (?) brand of denim which has entered the market only a couple of years ago and which is making a killing in terms of sales) is very close to the theme of "Little Miss Sunshine." But instead of getting a "family at the edge of a breakdown" you get to have a bunch friends having a problem with their yellow VW Camper (What a coincidence) and who have to push it until the engine gets into gear (Again, what a coincidence) as those inside the van are giving their hands to those outside (At the risk of sounding repetitive: What a coincidence), which only gets the bond between the tribe closer. But in defence of Daniela Tobler, the campaign is a marked improvement from the atraucious photos they used to display and it even adds a zest of premature summer feel to the city - which is all welcome considering the weather is changing.