Local ads which were done better eslewhere

 The news Kurban ad left Nagib from Blog Baladi way less than satisfied and whereas I shall be kinder to the ad than he was mainly because I need a vacation myself I could not but help thinking of...

 ... This ad which dates back to 2003 (at least) for Prudential savings plan and their line "I want to be in the other poster".... (with the fictional travel agency logo displayed).

Now let's move to this one courtesy of Khoury Home announcing their free after-sales services in 24 hours (the presence of a (*) in the ad is alarming that terms and conditions apply) but still the wrench and the screwdriver made me remember...

 ... The classic manifesto from Avis rent a car when they came up with their campaign "when you're number two you try harder".

Just thought I would share these two examples which are much better than the ads we are currently being offered.

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!

Beirut/SECAM at 392RMEIL393 press release

 Detail from "Barilla", 2013

 Detail from "Jabal Lebnan", 2013

 Detail from "Octopus", 2013

Detail from "Ring", 2013

Beirut/SECAM

An exhibition of works by Tarek Chemaly

When people are denied a future, they automatically look back at the past wearing rose-tinted spectacles, embellishing it and ruminating about the “good old days” – but underneath the candy floss there lurks all the disregarded monsters of the past that come crawling back to the surface haunting us in our romanticized recollections. Beirut/SECAM (Still Endlessly Changing Against Memory) is one such recollection, playing on visuals of stereotyping, gender bias, and kitsch images, it begs to challenge the recounting on the history through today’s skewed lens.

Beirut/SECAM

Une exposition d'œuvres de Tarek Chemaly

Quand les gens se voient refuser un avenir, ils regardent automatiquement vers le passé portant des lunettes teintées de rose, et commencent à embellir et à ruminer sur le «bon vieux temps» - mais sous la barbe à papa se cache tous les monstres méconnus du passé qui viennent ramper à la surface pour nous hanter dans nos souvenirs romancés. Beyrouth/SECAM (Still Endlessly Changing Against Memory) est un tel souvenir, en jouant sur ​​les visuels stéréotypés, de préjugés sexistes et des images kitsch, c’est une recherche pour contester le récit de l'histoire à travers la lentille asymétrique qu’on utilise d'aujourd'hui.

بيروت سيكام

معرض لأعمال طارق شمالي

عندما يَحرم الناس من مستقبلهم، يلتفتون تلقائياً إلى الوراء من خلال ماضٍ يرونه بارتداء نظارات ذات عدسات وردية، ليتذكروا جمال "الايام الخوالي" - ولكن تحت النظرة تلك تتربص كل الوسوسات التي تجاهلناها و تبدأ بالصعود الى مساحات الذاكرة مقلقة بذلك الذكريات الرومانسية التي ابتدعناها. بيروت\سيكام )سرد يحاكي كل اوهام مضت) هي واحدة من هذه الذكريات، فمن خلال اللعب على الصور النمطية والتحيز بين الجنسين، واللمسات الشعبية، تصبح محاولة للطعن في سرد التاريخ عبر العدسة المنحرفة التي نستعملها اليوم.

Beirut/SECAM my new solo at 392RMEIL393

Well, 2013 is full of news to share! Not only did my blog Beirut/NTSC do a strategic partnership with Cambridge5 - but I am about to have my new solo in Beirut which will be the inaugural show of the 392RMEIL393 project space - a place promoted by Alfred Sursock Cochrane and Nayla Bassili and curated by Georges Rabbath. It is located in the heart of Gemmayze right next to the Red Cross and two stores away from Ginette.

In case you are wondering Beirut/SECAM stands for "Still Endlessly Changing Against Memory", and like all my work, deals with remembrances, but also that delicate space between personal and collective memory.

The exhibition opens on Tuesday the 7th of May at 6 P.M., and continues daily between noon and 8 P.M. till the 26th of May inclusive. Those of you in Beirut, it would be lovely to see you there.

Seven bound ribbons (new series)

Rainbow Color was a film processing laboratory situated in Dora, famed for providing a bonus photo (the bigger photo cropped and made smaller on the side of the original). But what happened to the guardian of the memories? The title of this series refers to an Estonian riddle which composed of 7 questions to help children memorize the colors of the rainbow. 

Crepaway, they came as they were...

Lorem Ispum infused some freshness in a stale brand. Say whatever you want about this video (Brofessional review has a few mixed grills about it :) )... But it is kitsch, retro, blends, spaghetti western, with indie Tarantino (who is actually Roger Avary), with - heck - with practically ever cinematic genre invented. At 3:43 minutes it loses focus at the end, but the song according to the agency was taken from "insights from Crepaway customers".
One small advice to Lebanese food chains - would you please, for the love of God, stop rebranding? "Come as you are" by Crepaway was nice, fitting, and whereas it was not the signature of the century it was quite matching for the brand. Roadster has "there goes my heart" only to be changed (or not changed depending on which franchise you are in) to "together forever". Need I speak of the Zaatar W Zeit fiasco whereby half of the branches still sport the old logo and spirit? So now that Crepaway changed to "all good" - I don't think it is too good of a move. I am sure some leftover ad, presence, truck, napkin, toilet signaling will still have "come as you are". The movie might be cool (albeit a tad unfocused when it changes mood towards the end) and the credits are actually fun (with the disclaimers and all!) - but will "all good" manage to catch on every single item on the Crepaway branding remains to be seen.

Celebrity endorsements from years back.

Emprire Magazine ran a wonderful story years and years back,: They commissioned their writer to go to Rodeo Drive armed with just 5 Dollars and see what he could buy with it (the idea was inspired by the movie "Pretty Woman"). He tried several shops including a perfume store which was selling the Micheal Jordan perfume and the writer wittingly asks - "so when I wear it, I end up smelling like him?"... An exasperated shop assistant answers, "no, but you will be endorsed by him". So for those of you who think celebrity endorsement is new to the region, check these vintage ads.

Singer Magida is the face of Coca-Cola - I guess she must have been the Nancy Ajram of her day back when she was single and cute (Nancy not Magida).

Aziza Amir (dubbed as "the premiere star of the Middle East" in the ad) and Chadia (famed singer and actress) are sleeping on a bed from Mobilia Abbas. I am trying to fend off ideas of lesbianism, but I can't.

And even the Grande Dame of Oriental singing was not immune to this! She was selling "Naboulsi Farouk" (Naboulsi is the soap made from olive oil and originates from Nablous in Palestine)....
See? All of these are good reasons to end up buying the product. And if you must know, the writer from Empire Magazine ended up buying a cup of coffee (without tips!) with his money.

Selling cars (like we always have!)

Being someone who, during my advertising career, I happened to work extensively on cars (Toyota, Lexus and Mercedes), it is always fascinating for me to find vintage car ads. However, if the compilation below (which is extensive!) shows anything - it is that we have been selling cars like we always have. Compare any of these to today's market and you will find the same techniques and the same points of persuasion. Which says a lot about today's advertising agencies - that they are still stuck in the past - when the consumer changed and is way ready for something else.

Alvis, a defunct car brand promises (rather creatively) that "Comfort is seeking you"...  "an strength and beauty and security in your hands! if you put you hand on this car".

 Buick is saying that the Skylark 1966 model is "a work of art".

 The now famous 1954 model campaign for Cadillac (it was the first time the whole range was displayed creating "buzz" among the consumers way before the real models reached the showroom) was even displayed in Kuwait.

In 1963 Chevrolet was described in feminine terms (in Arabic it is easy to discern if talking about a male or female). By then I suppose the laws were not strict enough to dispute the male and female in the same image specifically a female who did not have her hair covered and who obviously was seductively talking to the e man.

 But a way earlier version spoke of it as "male"... I guess by the brand wheel personification had changed. But the car was "very big at a cheap price".

 The body copy of the ad could have stemmed from the stylish of any of today's agencies. Same terms, same sentence structures, same descriptive words...

 Chrysler, being "the stronger car in the world" is among other things "the conqueror of the desert"... We beg to differ when it comes to over promising.

Plymouth 1950... I guess the intrinsic characteristics of this car did not matter, but the ad played heavily on "limited number of cars which will arrive very soon".

 I guess since these ads are more in alphabetic order rather than in timeline, by the time the Chrysler Valiant came, people were seeking compact and more practical cars as opposed to the big ones which were previously modeled.

Hard sell advertising for Plymouth again... As ever, short texts accompany indicative photos. Not too far from anything you see in the market these days....

 Of course the smaller Citroen (at least comparatively smaller because by today's standards it would be part of a bigger segment) was bragging about being "fast, comfortable and economical".

 Dubbing it the "queen of cars" once more the same attributes give and take are being displayed for another version of the ad of Citroen.

This ad has already been reviewed previously, but it is one of the original "get the car you get the girl" and in this case, the girl did "not marry him (the old fat man), she married the Desoto"...

 Dodge 1959 was the "bride of cars" (cue Don Harper from Mad Men saying "I hear the fins are bigger next year").

 And in 1961 even Dodge was advocating economy!

 Trucks are samples in the Gulf, specifically in rural areas - forget safety measures - and concentrate on how much load it can take, how much torque it can procure, and how much it can endure in the desert.

 Have you driven a Ford lately? Well, if lately goes back to this stretch, then you were driving a car that was "always in the lead"...

 Hillman was a car for the family, at least that was a clear positioning with among other things "a wide front seat", "electric free air conditioning", and "oil breaks".

 Now think about the logic of International Trucks: If it is the biggest in demand, it must be surely the best. And notice the stress on the 6-wheel technology and other amply emphasized in the body copy.

 So "what walks on mud and water and could not swim and that climbs a mountain in eight ways? Your instinct is correct?" Well, this is a beautiful and creative campaign for Land Rover.

 Leyland Trucks go for the kill - 14 tones on top of the truck (beat that you suckers!)...

 The Mercedes 180 - note that the 180 was not a luxury car which is why the ad is interesting but does not contain any upscale features.

 Now this is a complete surprise! I did not know that Egypt manufactured a car called Nasr 128 - but there you go, they were already delivering the first batches of it according to this ad.

 Opel Kadett naturally branded itself 'strong and economical"... Words previously used and which by then were ubiquitous for small cars.

Peugeot 404 (did you even know it was styled by Pininfarina?) - "robustness,  economy, comfort, security". For some reason this was one of the hugely popular cars in Lebanon. Was it because of that ad? I wonder.

 Pontiac 1938 with the silver line is "once more the most beautiful thing on wheels"... Below you can find it is "the most beautiful, the best manufacture, and the greatest deal"....

 Hold on to your seats for this ad from Pontiac but can you believe it promises "FREE TEST DRIVE"? Yes!!! Even then the concept had been created - which is so infuriating as it seems we did not bring anything new to the art and science of selling cars.

 Skoda, which in the 80s was the joke of cars and which did the most incredible rebranding ever (with the campaign that mocked its own self "Skoda? No really! Skoda!"). Back then however, it was still advocating "large number of spare parts" - could this be a corelation to the woman next to it? (I am not being sexist, merely trying to understand why such a copy would go with a woman next to it).

 Toyota Corona was (it seems according to the body copy) suffering from what Camry was suffering from in the early 2000s. People were picking it because it was a dependable car but had zero "pride of the owner" which is why the whole ad is geared towards flattering the ego of the consumers and telling them about the new restyling while still having the great features people looked for in Corona.

 "Why is Toyota convinced that a car need to be more than just economical?" Read above about consumer ego flattering. It only confirms my theory.

 Land Cruiser, the cars that any Gulf resident worth the weight of his desert sand swears by was marketed in a rugged environment suggesting the great outdoors of the Gulf countries.

And here's a trademark infringement! A "Jeep" from Toyota. There you have it, a car that became a generic name for a whole segment of cars... But the above machinery is a classic though and people still own theirs from one generation to the next in Saudi Arabia.
And of course what is a care without a wheel?... There you have it - three different options available:

  Dunlop emphasizes its structure which is different than ordinary tires.

Nitto are the best for for the Arabian region.

And Yokohama relies mainly on its 45 years of experience.

All of the above, is just a small trying to tell you that "plus ca change, plus ca reste la meme" (the more it changes, the more it remains the same". Pick an ugly typo, put a 2013 car model above, and you get one of our current ads on the streets today!