Monday, July 11, 2011

Jammal Trust Bank: Ma tel7a2ne makhtoube....


Photo credit (for last photo): Houda Kassatly from her book "La poesie des cammionneurs"
What I like about certain topics is that they can be treated from so many angles. You can look at them from an academic point of view, or simply explore their Kitschy aspect - graffiti is one such topic that comes to mind, I always saw it from an anthropological stand point but it never stopped me collaborating with Ashekman to explore its street edge. Another topic of the kind is the words that truck drivers paint on their lorries. Houda Kassatly might have explored it brilliantly in her book "La Poesie des Cammionneurs" but it is Jammal Trust Bank that did a TV ad about it - which is actually quite cute! - the rest of the campaign does not capture the same funkiness (but the try is worth meantionning - specifically with the Egyptian movie mock poster)...
But just to give credit where credit is due, the theme of the lorries has been very recently exploited (or rather under-exploited) in Le Charcutier Aoun supermarket campaign - the same one where everyone personalizes his caddie, and guess who was on the helm on one such caddie which bore the usual paraphrenalia of good luck charms but a truck driver himself. Oh, and the Egyptian movie poster has also been explored by Intermarkets in their "Ana Hurra" (I am free) campaign to signify that they have no affiliation to any international agency.
Sorry, it turned out to be a bit of bashing for the campaign in the end, but I do think that the truck bit was quite cute (and if anyone is asking what the headline means - it goes - "just as the market is, you do your driving" which is a Lebanese slang idiom to signify that one has to adapt to the times).

1 comment:

Darine said...

I loved the campaign though a lot! Here's my review http://theidentitychef.com/2011/07/13/jtb-transforms-lebanese-streets-and-roads-into-brand-social-objects/