Wake up and dream/Triangulated city (Archewallogy press kit 19)

Srilankese (Archewallogy press kit 18)

A Srilankese is different than a maid. Reminds me of a my student who once said "Our Srilankese comes from Ethiopia" equating the nationality with the position.

So what - I love him (Archewallogy press kit 17)

One of the openly homosexual stencils... "So what? I love him"

Sick girl with IV (Archewallogy press kit 16)

Intifada (Archewallogy press kit 15)

Inspired from Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at former United States president George Bush a call to arms for an intifada using shoes.

Before this used to be an ordinary wall (Archewallogy press kit 14)

Mickey mouse (Archewallogy press kit 13)

Stenciled during the parliamentary elections and says "we are behind you".

Keep walking (Archewallogy press kit 12)

Hand of Fatima perverted (Archewallogy press kit 11)

Haifa for president (Archewallogy press kit 10)

When the Lebanese could not agree on a president to be elected someone sprayed "Haifa for president" in reference to pop starlet Haifa Wehbe.

Grendizer (Archewallogy press kit 09)

Gaza rockets (Archewallogy press kit 07)

Foreigner (Archewallogy press kit 06)

A foreigner is different that someone loaded with money (Another stereotype fighter).

ET - Blue and yellow (Archewallogy press kit 05)

Eastern European (Archewallogy press kit 04)

Eastern European (Is different than) slut (An efficient way of combatting stereotypes)....

Bous el wawa (Archewallogy press kit 03)

This one requires an explanation: The stencil is about dead pan-Arab diva Oum Koulthoum but inside the bubble is "bous el wawa" (Or "kiss the booboo") a very lightweight song by Haifa Wehbe - a very famous current pop starlet.

Bareback (Archewallogy press kit 02)

Bambi (Archewallogy press kit 01)

Home is where the heart is.

Agha Sarkissian, opening its new showroom in December, launched what probably is the only campaign worth commenting on right now in the market. By splitting the word "Hab-baytak" which originally means "I love you" the second fragment "baytakat" means "House", the statement becomes "I love your house" which for a household appliances showroom is quite fitting. The visuals portray a love affair of home owners with various merchandises which could be acquired from Agha Sarkissian.

Let's sheep in touch!

These beautiful artworks are found in the Frankfurt Museum of Communication and are formed from discarded telephone chords and old landline phones. Beautiful examples of recycling and creativity.

Sights and sounds from around the city (With a little help from youtube)

It is always impressive for me when an ad company manages to top an earlier excellent campaign as is the case with Lowe Pimo for lifescan. After several excellent installments, now they manage to adapt their line "so for the diabetics not to "play" with you" (i.e. remain fixed) with a combination of playing cards and tarte au limon....

Then Picon - the ubiquitous spread cheese - makes a comeback in the world of advertising courtesy of Saatchi and Saatchi. Whereas the line is boring, the visual hits the spot. But it is the TV spot that makes the most impact by rewinding back to the mid-80s with the very famous jingle by Picon (Now part of the collective memory of the Lebanese) being played by fragments by different people (As a whistle, or as a lullaby, etc...). The problem is that advertisers have such a short memory (And an big ego) so much that a Saatchi creative told me that whatever they did was "different" for Picon whereas it was the only way to get it back on the advertising bandwagon!

And then Spinney's, capitalizing on the formation of the new government headlines with "Congratulations, they offers have been formed" which also means "the offers are now many and varied"... Another example of how advertyising is so impregnated with the whole political scene in Lebanon.

Reality even more strange than fiction!

I kid you not! This shot is not in any way a photoshop toyed-around snapshot. It exists in Zouk Mekael and you are only able to spot it if you're going through a bus or a very high level vehicle.... And, disturbingly, it does offer a very raw and ironic glimpse of the state of many things - including religion and commercialism, fast food glorification, and the overall juxtaposition and contradiction that only cities know how to orchestrate.

While you were sleeping....

OK, so maybe you were not sleeping, but I was. I feel it has been a while since I reviewed ads around town chiefly due to my heavy schedule, but also due to the success of Archewallogy (Thank you for that) and that there has been almost nothing of interest for a long time... But now, here goes:

The tobacco control initiative come up with this ad about second hand smoking... Whether it is appealing or not, or creative or not is not the point, I just hope that stupid parents will understand what they are doing to their infants and children not just with the cigarettes but with the narguileh as well.

Then comes the BLF "fixed" interest rate with the Arabic headline that goes "our interest rate does not play" (Which translates into "fixed"), cute, informative and not over the top creative (Which is just as well because people would understand it, feel smart that they understood it, and get to explain it to the next guy over because they are oh-so-smart for understanding creative ads).

Then the very, very Lebanese Nissan Sunny commercial. In terms of oriental semiotics, this one hits the jackpot. It blends traditional Arabic folk singing (Zajal) which starts with "ooof, ooof, ooof" with the French word "Offre", features a guy in traditional Lebanese clothing (Quite popular in the restaurants wanting to portray a "mock" or "touristic" Lebanese feel but no one would wear it in real life) and damn, it takes a Lebanese to understand this ad and find it humourous!.... It all reminds me of the Dabke (Traditional Lebanese dance) Techno concept which was launched by Philippe Araktingi in his movie "Bosta" - a mixture of everything to the point of dilution!

Reality, fiction and the fine line in between

Sometimes, reality is way stranger than fiction, sometimes it is way stranger to fiction!.... The above photo was take in the window of the Quicksilver of the ABC mall in Achrafieh.... Three mannequins later one can read the rest of it hanging from the neck of a woman (Somewhere between a slave's sale banner or a mug shot identification after a DUI): "Get your top for free".... I have seldom seen anything this derogative and insulting to women!

Because global is an equal opportunity destroyer.

(C) AES Group Islamic Project

Taken from today's Guardian:

For his latest disaster movie, 2012, the 53-year-old director Roland Emmerich had wanted to demolish the Kaaba, the iconic cube-shaped structure in the Grand Mosque in Mecca that Muslims the world over turn towards every day when they pray and which they circle seven times during the hajj pilgrimage. But after some consideration, he decided it might not be such a smart idea, after all. "I wanted to do that, I have to admit," Emmerich told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. "We have to all, in the western world, think about this. You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is.

It is to note that he ended up blowing the statue of Jesus the redeemer in Rio De Janeiro for the purposes of the movie. I just wonder though, should the global cataclysm ever come, will it distinguish between people belonging to different religions?