Britsh self-made elctroal posters

Respectively: Keith Mottram, Guy Denning, Martin Parr, Richard Wentworth, Sam Dahl, Tim Bradford.

Art lovers will only recognize one name here, celebrated photographer Martin Parr, the rest are amateur artists who submitted their own works to The Guardian newspaper which initiated a contest on alternative posters than those done by official campaigns. Parr et al, were asked in a different article what they would have done.

Without going too much into local politics in Britain I can say that Mottram was trying to draw attention that Britain still has an unelected leader (the monarchy), Denning took on the famous campaign "Labour isn't working" (By Saatchi&Saatchi for Margret Tatcher), Parr was trying to ask what happened to voting in favour of the whole country, Wentworth suggested that even by being born a person is already thrown into a political climate (with birth labour being also the name of a party), Dahl was lamented the whole "game show" ambiance of the elections, and Bradford was questionning the whole laid back effect of the electorate regarding the elections and taking the whole process for granted.

24/7 - for migrant workers' rights

24/7 is a campaign created by coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations and independent activists. One aspect of the campaign is the Twog Week initiated by Simba Russeau of Taste Culture and Nadine Moawad of Nasawiya. Our aim is to expose the poor working conditions under which migrant workers and refugees have to work in Lebanon. We also want to put pressure on the government to uphold their commitments towards migrant workers. And finally we want to bring people’s attention to the mistreatment migrant workers and all those who “look different” endure on the street and in their everyday life. Why 24/7? The Lebanese Government approved last year a unified contract for all migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, in addition, several Human Rights agreements, which are signed by Lebanon, and the Lebanese constitution supposedly protect human being in Lebanon from slavery and slavery like conditions. So far this has not prevented employers of migrant domestic workers from treating their employees as slaves. Perhaps the most significant example would be the fact that these employees work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are given a few hours of sleep, but even then they are on stand-by as employers reserve the right to wake them at any moment of the night for any reason imaginable.

Hawa Chicken copycat.

Not only was the Hawa chicken ad badly executed, it was also stolen!.... Ideas are not only ripped off, but killed in the process! Frankly, this shows no professionalism at all from whoever did. Thankfully, some people are watching and exposing (thanks Miled for this!).... Whereas the french version is full of charm, the Lebanese one is so trashily done! Pity their billboard (previously reviewed here) was good. One does not negate the other. Enough theft!

Jounieh pro and con

The battle for the municipality of Jounieh is reaching a "heavenly" showdown... Whereas major political parties have rallied behind one list which is called "the consnsual developement list" which is promising the usual array of enviromentally friendly stuff and all, the exiting current list is going all force ahead with "everyone is against us, but the Virgin Mary is on our side". Yes, litteraly invoking a heavenly ally, the visual shows the cable cars that go up from Jounieh to the Sanctuary of our lady of Lebanon in Harissa. Many cars seen going down, colored in Orange, Green, Blue, Yellow, etc... (to symobolize the colors of the parties of the Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanese Forces, Future Movement, and Hizbullah...) against one which is dark blue in reference to one of the Virgin Mary - which is seen going up (towards Harissa). Already there are screams about this one, but then when it comes to bold advertising, the sky - or rather heaven - is the limit!....

PS: At this stage I need to say that if the last elecitons proved anything, it was the there was no such thing as political advertising in Lebanon. Advertising is supposed to either create a need, or fulfill a desire or to change an opinion. Advertising related to politics does not do any of these missions, so the ads I am reviewing are simply seen from the esthetic/creative point of view. In this case, I think the ad invoking heavenly allies is actually quite bold. If it is annoying, so much the better, as it draws more attention to its message. Is it flawed? Yes, in certain aspects. But who hasn't seen it or spotted it? Of course, the end outcome will be determined by how these two lists approach people, bribe for votes, organise their leg campaign, what they do on voting day, if they assure busses to shuttle people or not, and all the other trivia that only Lebanese politics know how to do (and advertising doesn't!).

Mobilitop-down!

Photo credit: Karl Zeenny

Mobilitop has finally a selling line. Maybe that was not a wise move!... "Min el aleph lel beit" means "From A to home"... Confused? Pick a number!... Normally we say "min el aleph lal ye" meaning "from a to z", but never for the life of me did I hear that other form being uttered anywhere....

A quick round up.....

First, Beirut/NTSC is amazed that Smart has finally replied to Mini and to IQ by saying "Enough small talk".... Well, better wake up late than never.... Is the reply strong enough? Nevermind how belated it is?

And then with the elections coming up, women are once more invited to take initiative and participate either as candidates or simply by voting.... The use of words described as feminine in the Arabic language (as the language has "masculine" and "feminine" words) such as widsom, trust, etc.... are used in the billboars to highlight that all these values are associated with women and therefore their participation is required. Althouh frankly, the whole mood of the land is so nonchalant about these elections, that not just women, but also men are not intersted in voting.

Kurban tours actually pulls off a cute one about the "honeymood".... Even if the list of anwers is predicatable, at least they managed to venture where other people still put corny stuff.

By now, everyone has heard of the match between various politicians belonging to different political fragments with each team holding components of both rivaling entities... The team lead by PM Saad Hariri won due to goals scored by MP Sami Gemayel... But the bllboard goes "we are all one team" - well if this IS the case, then why the petty fighting in real life!

Exotica, after a log absence from the creative bit finallly nailed a lovely one with its new "balconies" execution - a couple looking upwards from their car onto.... an Exotica balcony of course! (I am not going to talk about the other execution simply because Exotica seems to be back on track so no need to say 1 out 2 ain't bad!)...

And if the apple never falls too far from the tree, then the ad about the one bad apple can rot the whole lot must be coming from... a nearby tree I guess!

Clement Tannouri - Lebanon seen from the sky

The above are a samply of Clement Tannouri's images of Lebanon as seen from the sky... Probably he found more poetry upstairs rather than looking on the ground. One can't blame him!... "On earth as it is in heaven" is the title of the works. But is it really that way?

Memory isn't what it used to be (2)

Remember the post: "Memory isn't what it used to be".... Well, I just found that the AUB archives have a poster of my first conference done in 1995... I was a thrid year student then (you do the math when it comes to my age!) "Ps:AUB:1995/83 “Lebanon Today … “Come Again?” A presentation accompanied by slides depicting various environmental and archeological issues in our country. Come & watch! by Tarek Chemaly and Karim El-Jisr. Monday , 13 November 1995, 17:00. AUB, FAFS, Room # 102”. 1 poster [with mounted leaflet]: photocopy, b&w : 22 x 30 cm." The scenography was signed by Natacha Kalfayan at the time.

The alter(ed) ego(s): Me, myself and I

What do Woody Woodpecker, Normal Rockwell, and Milton Gendel have in common? (along with thousands of spoofs - specifically one about Barak Obama)... A stunning triple portrait!... You can read the story about Gendel's photo (which was drawn on his shoes by Alexander Calder here). And for those of you who think I am detracting from the original format of Beirut/NTSC I can simply say that there is currently no interesting ads in town to review! So there....

Pour un coup d'essai... C'est un coup de maitre!

Oh my goodness! The race for the municipalities and the mayors is now open in all of Lebanon thanks to the invite of Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud.... The first poster I have seen is a masterstroke of genius!... Elie Meemary a young ambitious man running for Orthodox mayor of the Achrafieh district headlines: "Achrafieh takes pride in its youth" which has an immediate double entendre "Achrafieh elects its youth".... As the word "btitmakhtar" means both!!!.... People, if he's such an ad man, just rush over and elect him!

Easter card from Clementine

Not to be cruel, but at least their Easter card is good. Ya Rab Easter - means "lord gives us shelter from harm". The word play is lovely. This is what Sami Saab used to be best before.... Nevermind, I did say I was not going to be cruel!

"Archewallogy San Francisco"/"The Colors of Wisdom" on 7UPstairs publishing

After the smash success of "Archewallogy" (chiefly thanks to you), I am now back with another book-song-video, only this time straight from San Francisco. I am indebted to the talent of Alejandro Magyaroff for the exceptional layout, for Jeremie Regnier for giving life so masterfully (through music and interpretation) for my poem "the colors of wisdom" and for Celine Daccache for brilliantly animating it.The book (and my previous ebook releases) is found on: www.issuu.com/tarekchemaly (it is a large file to preserve the quality of the photos And the video can be found on:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvxxD0Wyiuo I am injecting money and time into doing these projects and you know I am sharing them for free, so I would truly appreciate it if you just give these endeavours the exposure they deserve by sending the links to all those who might be interested in them!....I count on you this time around to do what you did with the original "Archewallogy"....Sincerely,Tarek PS: Any press contacts are highly appreciated, specifically in San Francisco.....