La publicite qui fait le trottoir...

Yes, I do realize it has been a while since I have reviewed the ads which are in the town, but then - when you see the ads which have been rampant as of late then probably you would excuse me. But here we are this is the current crop on the market!

I realized that the above Al Wadi Al Akhdar is not not too special or creative (aubergine with a cap to indicate the freshness), but I do admit I have not seen anything so clean, visually appealing, and well done in terms of art direction for a long time and if the copy is not groundbreaking at least it is a great support for the visual.

Sure, few things are as corny as inviting someone to a prayer day, because simply "you are preaching to the choir" - only those already convinced so up. So it is interesting to see someone did the step of doing a creative visual for that. Sure, it is overdone at the edges with the anchor being in the shape of a cross with a heart in the middle and the logo everywhere and the "thabet ma3ak" (anchored by you) floating over the waves. But one cannot blame them - I can already anticipate that the original idea was cleaner but then the designer has to succumb to the overzealous ideas of someone from "the client side".

This ad has zero interest in terms of concept (what concept?) art direction (what art direction?) but I could not resist thinking of the sleeve of Nirvana's Nevermind album which contained the famous single "Smells like teen spirit" - but this being a pool with children so most likely it smells of uric acid.

The billboard for the 2nd exhibition of Iranian products make me smile for the reason that - if you look closely on the side of the billboard - there are the words "khosh amdid" which became a staple in the Lebanese conversation upon the visit of Iranian president Ahmedinejad's visit to Lebanon in 2010 (used either sarcastically or supportively depending on one's political stance).

Now this one, found on Al Masnah border between Lebanon and Syrian during a recent field visit to the Bequa'a is quite alarming - the ad is from Thuraya telecom and advises journalists and TV crews in addition to what appear to be international works and rescue agents to remain safe with the packages Thuraya offers. It is the placement of the ad which is mostly alarming (and therefore its significance to crews going to and from Syria).

Whereas I was one of the culprit behind all the Buzz inspired or not inspired storm, it is interesting to see that their "product of the year" ad is so interesting - because they went back to the idioms they were using in their TV ads to make a sentence belittling the "achievement" (do note that I still think the product of the year thing is a scam)... So the sentence reads "3adi (nomal) product of the year mich enno (not that it is worth mentioning)". Lovely!