Wednesday, May 26, 2010

When an alcoholic represents an alcoholic brand


The rules of chosing a brand embassador, specifically a celebrity, are well known in the advertising world. Everything from charisma, to compatibility, to values, to whatever all else has been documented in eleven golden rules easily found on the net. Some of the most famous embassadors embodied the values of the brands so genuinely that their names have been associated with it forever - think Ines de le Fressange and Chanel, or Isabella Rosselini for Lancome - women who truly represented in a three-dimentional image everything what the brand was about.
A long time ago, I have decided to stop reviewing Almaza ads simply because they were growing sillier by the second. Now comes this! For the World Cup, Almaza goes even beyond the unthinkable - it recruited a celebrity known for its problems with addictions to alcohol to be its spokesperson.
I am not here to debate the artistic genius of Ziad Rahbani (son of Assi and Feyrouz, our national diva), but when a brand recruits him to sell alcohol - even if just beer - when he has been known to have had serious problems with alcohol (he admitted these issues on TV appearances) then I seriously have an issue with the message being broadcasted, which values the spokesperson is giving vis a vis the brand, and what effect this will have on the target audience- specifically youth.
I broke my own rule by reviewing the Almaza ad, but this is way beyond inadmissible!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you, i did not like this campaign

Anonymous said...

Maybe it will serve to show the dangers of alcohol. it turned a talented artist into a pathetic guy who has to do stupid ads to earn a living.

Nadia said...

so if the person who did the ad was other than ziad, it would have had more value?? chill people! the ad is clever. as for ziad,alcoholism is not the first thing that comes to mind when seeing, reading or listening to him, it's the fact that he's a genius!
shi marra ye3jebkon shi ya libneniyeh

Philippe Grondier said...

It seems that Ziad needs some fresh money. Hope it's not to refill his bar!!!

Chakib.N.N said...

we like"Ziad" but not the ad