Le Chef in Gemmayze takes a Michelin Star... Sort of!

The cute ads of La France Au Liban come in three versions. My facvorite is the one done at Le Chef restaurant in Gemmayaze simply because Charbel (the son of one of the co-owners and the head waiter in addition to being all around entertainer with his (trademarked) "Welcoooooooooooome") just simply could not miss the point. Charbel is a phenomenon and one of the legends of the Beiruti scene. Naturally, this does not take away any of the merits of "B" the agency that apprently coined the movies. The overall kitsch ambiance (and I use the word with a positive conotation), in addition to the predominately 70s colors only adds to nostalgia-meets-the-present mood they wanted to induce. The use of Lebanonized French idioms and expressions is also a masterstroke in terms of concept. Actually, in the storyboard could have ended up daft (can you imagine a girl holding an Eiffel tower coussin being drawn on a storyboard) had it not been to the masterful execution of the ad. I suppose this is the kind of refreshing ads that made people like me and join the profession.