Saturday, April 28, 2012
Clearblue: For those who have more than two!
The Clearblue activation is an interesting move from Lowe/Pimo and targets women wishing to know their best ovulation days. They started from the expression "count your eggs" associated it with Easter chocolate eggs and distributed it to women, or clinics etc... It's a good thing when you're a man, you always know the number: It's two! :)
Friday, April 27, 2012
Nando's: This is a very peri nice spoof ad!
--
Research credit: Rachid AschkarThe question begs itself, is this a copycat? The answer is a resounding NO... The Nando's ad is a frame per frame PARODY of the Santam insurance ad, actually, it is so over-acted, so spoofed, there's no way to consider it a copycat. They just took a current ad on TV which apparently was functionning well and dipped in (peri peri) sauce and made so much fun of it - for their enjoyment and ours!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Rechech - the video!
And so here it is - less than 24 hours after posting the original poem "Rechech!" here comes the recorded song and video (I take NO credit for it, Miled Issa did the sound mixing following a home recorded take of my voice and Fady Chahine went kamikaze and delivered the video overnight). Enjoy! And spread, spread, and spread some more. If you believe that people must think and talk and express themselves (though graffiti among others), then do it!
رشاش
طارق الشمالي
هلّق مش وقت نتكتّف
هلّق وقت نتكاتف
هلّق مش وقت نتشارع
هلّق وقت نتسارع
على قصر العدل
مطرح ما قصِّر العدل
مطرح ما عدّلوه
فصًّلوه على اساس مرسوم
بس نحنا مرسومنا على حيطان
نحنا مش ضدّ الجبش
بس نحنا بدنا نجيّش الشباب
هبّو قومو قاومو تَ يعدلو
عن سوء العدل يلّلي عملو
الواننا الصارخة رح بتضلّ تحكي
بتسمعها حتى لو سدّيت اذتك
ونحنا مش ناطرين اذنك
تنقول يلّلي بدنا نقولو
بيقولو انو الفعل اهمّ من الحكي
كيف بعد اذا الفعل هوّي حكي
نحنا سلاحنا شعارات
نحنا الذخيرة الحيّة
نحنا الظاهر حيّة بتلذع الضمير
نحنا ما رشيّنا خراطيش
نحنا رشيّنا على الحيطان
بسّ نمسك القنينة
كل واحد منّا بصير..
.. رشاش
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Beirut (spring) and Beirut (NTSC) agree!
Just in case you missed the exchange:
___________________________________________________________________________________
Write This on your Hand and Read it 3 Times Each Day You Wake Up
Posted on April 25, 2012 by Mustapha
Tarek Chemaly:
Facebook and Twitter users, alongside bloggers and graffiti artists are influential but not that influential and we should know where our sphere of influence stops.
Wonderful things can happen when we completely understand this..
___________________________________________________________________________________
One Response to Write This on your Hand and Read it 3 Times Each Day You Wake Up
Tarek says:
April 25, 2012 at 3:56 pm
I think we credit ourselves too much for what we are doing, in the end for the average person on the street, blogging doesn’t exist, graffiti is “some guys scribbling on the wall”, facebook and twitter are for “ta2 el 7anak”… So whereas I am not a defeastist – otherwise I would not be doing what I am doing – I also know that we have limited sphere of influence (including preaching the converts as they say – meaning the people who already subscribe to our opinions are the ones who gravitate towards our sites).
And well, since I understand this completely, wonderful things have happened to me!
رشاش - طارق الشمالي
رشاش
طارق الشمالي
هلّق مش وقت نتكتّف
هلّق وقت نتكاتف
هلّق مش وقت نتشارع
هلّق وقت نتسارع
على قصر العدل
مطرح ما قصِّر العدل
مطرح ما عدّلوه
فصًّلوه على اساس مرسوم
بس نحنا مرسومنا على حيطان
نحنا مش ضدّ الجبش
بس نحنا بدنا نجيّش الشباب
هبّو قومو قاومو تَ يعدلو
عن سوء العدل يلّلي عملو
الواننا الصارخة رح بتضلّ تحكي
بتسمعها حتى لو سدّيت اذتك
ونحنا مش ناطرين اذنك
تنقول يلّلي بدنا نقولو
بيقولو انو الفعل اهمّ من الحكي
كيف بعد اذا الفعل هوّي حكي
نحنا سلاحنا شعارات
نحنا الذخيرة الحيّة
نحنا الظاهر حيّة بتلذع الضمير
نحنا ما رشيّنا خراطيش
نحنا رشيّنا على الحيطان
بسّ نمسك القنينة
بصير كل واحد منّا
.. رشاش
تمت كتابة هذه الكلمات بمساعدة اشخاص موهوبين لا يمكنني الكشف عنهم بمناسبة اطلاق كاتبي الشعارات من السجن
On the arrest and release of graffiti activists
The arrest and subsequent release of two graffiti activists has marked what can be seen as a major up the ante when it comes to taking graffiti and its effect and contribution seriously. NewTV eventually came to yours truly (considering not many people studied the graffiti movement) for an opinion as to the background of the matter and its implications on the visibility of the movement. I am sorry for non-Arab speakers as the report is in Arabic, but the points I was making stress basically on:
1 - Facebook and Twitter users, alongside bloggers and graffiti artists are influential but not that influential and we should know where our sphere of influence stops.
2 - The fact that the graffiti movement gained visibility and therefore credibility is both positive (because it means it is not being taken seriously, but also it entails with it enormous amount of responsiblity).
3 - Any image from my archive of graffiti could send its author to prison because political alliances have shifted since then (therefore what was permissible is no longer so) and because everything can be dipped in the sauce that whatever person in power wishes to dip it in which means that anything can become compromising.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Impact/BBDO and Wild Marketing: Honor among thieves borken?
Research credit: Fady Chahine
As I write this post, I am still abivalent about the above. It seems Impact/BBDO has been ripped of by Wild Marketing in Singapore. The BankMed ad dates back to 2009 and headlines "make your money work for you" whareas the newly launched ad for BTinvest site (in Singapore) titles "let money work for you" (both are frequently used expressions), but it is the visual that is sort of a copycat.
Then again, when you have such a headline (which is common) perhaps the creative interpretation visually is only too easy and therefore there has been no theft as it is.... After all "great minds things alike, and fools seldom differ".
And considering Impact/BBDO and its own score of ripping people off, I guess it is just a case of honor among thieves (whereby a thief does not steal a thief) which has been broken.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
"Blast" from the past (and with no bombs!)
Photo credit Lucien
So spoke so much about it, the "when it's love it never varies" so now I have found a visual for it... When was that? Definately early 90s. I cannot pin a more exact date on it. In the commenrcial from which this photo is taken, a woman is seen waiting for her boyfriend to show up to an intimate dinner. He is clearly very late, so she grabs her jacket braces the rain and drives over to where he is. We discover it is a theatre with a plays's rehearsals going on full-fledge. Upset she opens his hand and gives him.... Well, one would assume she gave him back the key to the house! But lo and behold, he open his hand to find a note that says "I missed you"... Isn't love grand? Well, at least in a Dewar's white label ad it was!
And then here's another - and it IS a comparative ad - albeit for cigarettes! Kent Golden Lights vs Winston lights and Marlboro lights! Well, as long as you remember the famous French anti-tobacco slogan: A la fin de chaque cigarette, toujours le meme filtre: Vos poumons (at the end of every cigarette, the same filter: Your lungs), then you'll know the winner of this contest is not you.
So spoke so much about it, the "when it's love it never varies" so now I have found a visual for it... When was that? Definately early 90s. I cannot pin a more exact date on it. In the commenrcial from which this photo is taken, a woman is seen waiting for her boyfriend to show up to an intimate dinner. He is clearly very late, so she grabs her jacket braces the rain and drives over to where he is. We discover it is a theatre with a plays's rehearsals going on full-fledge. Upset she opens his hand and gives him.... Well, one would assume she gave him back the key to the house! But lo and behold, he open his hand to find a note that says "I missed you"... Isn't love grand? Well, at least in a Dewar's white label ad it was!
And then here's another - and it IS a comparative ad - albeit for cigarettes! Kent Golden Lights vs Winston lights and Marlboro lights! Well, as long as you remember the famous French anti-tobacco slogan: A la fin de chaque cigarette, toujours le meme filtre: Vos poumons (at the end of every cigarette, the same filter: Your lungs), then you'll know the winner of this contest is not you.
On a billboard near you...
Is Beit Misk officially the most boring place in Lebanon? I am worried as they seem to be tampering with the basis of the social Lebanese fabric. Imagine a place where there's no satelite dishes (and in extenso no guy to collect the money monthly, no banterings about scrambled images, no visits the neighbours to check if it's your own reception or everyone else's), then image a place with 24 hours electricity (and again, no shoutings "is this dawle or moteur? I need to turn the heater on!" or no "accidental" brushings with the neighbours' daughter as you "accidentally" turn their button off and wait for her to show up), then imagine a place with no gas tanks (and ipso facto no single women needing the muscles of the man next door to help with installing the thing, and would you please stay for a coffee? "wallaw, it's the least I can do")... Hmmm, I am not sure this is a step towards the future as much as it is a place where people do not talk to one another!
McDonald's have several variants of this ad - the others were too patronizing (and scary) - so I picked this one out of the lot. At least it's inviting! And yes, prices are down from 12-3....
In case you were asking "what the fu...ck?" is that all about, it turns out - to quote Four Weddings and a Funeral - "fu...ckity fu...ck!" the new Nissan Juke. Well, frankly now that I think about it, I am not sure I will ever remember this campign as the Nissan Juke campaign, but rather the campaign with funk in it. After all it could have applied to any other brand, and any other car. Maybe a campaign with Juke-box would have been more fitting, or perhaps something with "joke"? Not sure.
Now when it comes to funk, this guy has it all!!!! I am serious, please look closely into the ad and you will find that Fadi Makdessi's logo is "MC F DC" F is (no, not for fu....ck!) but for Fadi and MCDC is the phonetics of his family name a bit a la Madonna's MDNA... And if this is not tops, then please remember the famous AC/DC logo while scanning inspirations.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Abir Ghattas - "In a place where nothing happens" now released on 7UPstairs Publishing
7UPstairs publishing is only too proud to launch Abir Ghattas' first book "In a place where nothing happens", a visual exploration of the memory as part of the "Devoirs de vacances" series, a trip to a geographical setting which has been anchored in history, where old dusty objects retell stories of lives gone by, of olden times and of reincarnations and mementos left to be explored, cherished, and ultimately exposed. Enjoy this book, we enjoyed making it!
Kalimat - stop the presses (yes, presses, that's for print!)
So Kalimat Magazine is now up for sale - not here in Lebanon - but well, that's an encouraging start. If you get a yearly subscription you will also have the tote bag designed by Faris Habayeb. Well, Beirut/NTSC cannot but encourage the Kalimat team and wish them luck and perseverance.
From A to Z(wan)
Bank of Beirut is trumpeting the fact that it is in Australia, it took me a long time to undestand that this is the Sydney opera house dressed in a Lebanese flag... Really, it took me forever! But then I to flip my head and view it "down under" and it all made sense.
If you can afford instlments of 755 USD per month, either 1) you are your father's son and do not need to work (and therefore have no boss) or 2) you already are the big boss... So no one is going to give you any parking space - get real!
Ah those positionings of products! For a long time now Coffee mate is being positioned as the ubiquitous partner in crime for Nescafe. In the absence of any serious competitors probably this is working. "Coffee? Do not forget the coffe mate" - last time I opened mine it did not contain a beautiful woman though!Meet the MaDTrix reloaded... The jeans that can make you do anything, anywhere, in futurististic landscapes - Neo will be jealous, all he had were those leather trousers!
So this is the umpteenth time someone uses "naturally" to indicate something healthy and to indicate of how obvious something is. "Naturally", this is corny and I cannot take it anymore! And I don't even care what the brand is. Stop the rubbish!
Jammal trust bank continues with its so-so tactical campaign that does not manage to get the mojo of the corporate back.... "when there's a will, there's a way" - says this ad - so how come there is no will to create a good following for a brilliant initial campaign?
Kunhadi are back - have they ever left? - and this time about reflective signalings on the road "even if you know the road by heart (in Arabic - blindfolded), it's still your right to see it."
Manchette claims it is the first "current affairs" magazine in Arabic. I won't argue as the definition of "current affairs" is... vague! The line says "the latest news, from the beginning" which is livable with.
Zwan claiims that "from one generation to the next, the Lebanese have returned the favor" - presumbaly for getting "elected" (mind you, it's paid for!) product of the year (in what? the easy-open luncheon meat category?)... But self-delusion is so easy....
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)


















































