USEK students on the fast(ing) track!

 Marale Zeidan

 Georges Rahame

 Semaan Boulos

Nathalie Bechaalany

Dissatisfied with the current crop in the market for fasting meals that international and local restaurants offer, I have given a brief to my students in Esquisse I at USEK to create a new fasting meal, name it, and advertise it.

The results exceeded my best hopes - the students (within simply less than two hours!) had rummaged the Lebanese cuisine repertoire, came up with the most compatible finds: fattoush, tabboule, potatoes and onions, moujaddara, lentils and citrus (3adas bi hamod), makhlouta, hummus, baba ghannouj, kebbet batata (kebbe but done with potatoes and ground wheat or burghol rather than meat), etc.... Each student organized those finds into a meal the same way you can find it in restaurants (ex: you can upsize any one of those meals, you can take off the cheese if you are fasting on milky products)...

Above are some of the most catchy results:

Marale Zeidan named her meal "1,2 eat" because Crepaway would deliver this combo at 12 O'clock on the dot to your office. Naturally, "1,2" is a reference to noon but also to the speedy way the meal is going to be delivered.

Georges Rahme came up with a stunning mix and match of dishes that suit Zaatar W Zeit perfeclty, he invtes his customers to "tabella 3ala tari2tak" - "tabbil" is our local verb to add lemon, oil and spices to a dish according to one's taste. "3ala tari2tak" is very close to ZWZ old selling line "3ala tari2ak" (on your way)... The principle of the meal is that you pick it up on your way to work in the morning.

Semaan Boulos came up with this incredible find for Burger King - KeBe but done with potatoes or pumpkin instead of meat... The meal's name is KB/BK....

As for Nathalie Bechaalany, her McDouse or in full Arabic makdousé (stuffed and pickled aubergines) is a dish straight out of the "Mc" family it is a crime for it not to have made the marquee!

If you wish to encourage these students, please do not hesitate to tweet, facebook and whatever else you do for this post!! Spread the word!

Sobhiyye on a Sunday

Research credit: Miled Issa
I like this one! "Open on Sundays" for the 40% discount on the Alfa Sunday calls... I am still trying to find in my archive, that beautiful gem done for Al Moustaqbal newspaper "la ahad yakif fi wajh al moustaqbal..." and then in finer print... "wa la ithnayan, wa la thoulatha2" - since the word Ahad means person and Sunday the line doubles as "no one stands in the face of the future" and also "no Sunday stands in the face of the future... and no Monday, or Tuesday...."

Claws... Out to get you.

Photo credit: Georges Rahme

So here we go again - the fish-based menus destined to an "anonymous" target audience (refer back to Classic Burger Joint for more on that) - and this time it is courtesy of McDonald's introducing their new shrimp burger with the headline "what, Moujaddara every day?".... Hmm, frankly, yes, I wouldn't mind Moujaddara everyday!...

CHErbel Nahas...

Credit: Nadim Zgheib
As the tumult caused by the resignation of labor minister Charbel Nahas has is still stirring (and making waves even within the now baffled audience of the Free Patriotic Movement), in comes this small beauty from the desk of Nadim Zgheib as a tribute to the communist roots of Nahas and an aknowledgements of the left-wing policies he has carried with him... out the door perhaps!

Zahrat al mada2in: To Jerusalem and back....

Research credit: Geoanna Hobeiche
There was a time when not even the prouesse of Hizbullah was needed for Lebanese to go to Jerusalem! All you had to do was to be armed (pardon the pun) with you MEA ticket, show up on time for one of the three daily flights to Jersualem... My, it was a different world, thati s for sure!...

@abou_fouad now tweeting!

Having had his first taste of new media, Abou Fouad is now insatiable...So witht he help of P.A.S Ltd. for internet troubleshooting he has established himself a twitter account. Be the first to follow him and his daily pearls of wisdom at a rate of three/day on @abou_fouad .... You'll be amazed how much an old time can teach the new generation!

Classic burger joint... the truth is out.

Well, finally someone had the courage to say it as it is... We all know that during lent  or al siam (the period of fasting which starts today and last until Saturday before Easter) many Christians abstain from eating "red" meat and focus on "white meats" such as fish which is why international chains give us the fish menu - or the ads of it - during this time (this blog has reviewed them so many times that the matter ended up being "fishy") but finally, someone really said things as they are: "Only during lent" goes the Classic Burger Joint. YES, of course! Why suddenly there's a proliferation of ads about fish menus? Because of the above mentionned reason naturally. Somehow everyone is too shy to say it. And even went a bit further than expected visually and inserted the fish symbol as early Christians used to draw it (which has now become this):

Maybe that's one step too far but well, someone at least has the courage to reveal the reason behind their ad.

Kharif Beirut w rabi3 el cham (Autumn in Beirut and spring in Damascus)

Photo credit: Beirut Drive By shooting

First I joked about it, then I analyzed it marketing-wise, and now comes this! The recent commemoration of the passing away of Rafic Hariri and the ad that is connected to it.... First the ad in itself - well, at least here is some work over there as opposed to some of the blunders we have experienced in the past. Now the message: "if it wasn't for February, there wouldn't have been March, and if it wasn't for March, there wouldn't have been a spring"... Get it? If Rafic Hariri did not die on Feburary 14th, there wouldn't have been March 14th (the event and then the movement) and if it wasn't for that upheaval in Lebanon the whole Arab spring (and specifically the one in Syria) wouldn't have happened six years later (what were they doing in the missing years? How come they took six full years for the dominos to fall and for the impact to spread?)... What else? He also invented nuclear fission! People, stop overstretching the impact of something now stale and gone by.
Also, if you insist so much on a spring, remember the expression "autumn in Beirut and spring in Damascus" - so no wonder things are kicking on their side when ours has gone boring again!

ErAM-hEMA-AMEn....

The Eram ad has been a classic since the 70s - "no woman's body was exploited for the purposes of this ad" - and now here's another ad destined to go stellar for Hema (Dutch retailer for cheap goods), it features MALE model Andrej Pejic for their new push up bra and asks the clientele "if it can do this to a man, imagine what it can do to you". To use male models in female ads is way more shocking than the other way around (there are certain examples such as "Van Gils strictly for men")...

USEK student Andrea Bou Nader wins BLOM competition

USEK student Andrea Bou Nader has cashed - litteraly - the big prize of the BLOM design your own card award. Andrea scoops a debit card worth $2,500 after a jury of high caliber professionals decided it was her design that deserves the first place. Beirut/NTSC managed to get from Andrea the full development of the idea from something scribbled on a sous-plat in a restaurant to the finalized product. Congratulations!

"Yes 3 bi 1" by Abou Fouad now released on 7UPstairs

Welcome to the new release from 7UPstairs Publishing. Advertising legend Abou Fouad (from the "Yes, 3 bi 1" fame) gives us some social linguistic decoding by applying his famous "regle de trois" - one word with three meanings, three idioms to mean the same thing etc... But beware, some people might be offended by the ecclectic choice of the sentences, so read the introduction before barging in.

Fahed joins Walmart? Or simply rips it off!

Fahed supermarket (whose branch in Jounieh has one of the best slogans of all time with "thi2atkon mi ma7alla" - which doubles as "you have placed your faith in the right store" and "your faith is well placed") has unfortunately a branch in Furn el Chubak which signs "Always low prices, always" (sadly I could not get a good photo of the second "always" which they have added to all their new ads on the streets)... But, ahem, if I am not mistaking Walmart signs "always low prices, always". So, either someone thinks they can get away with it, or we have a hidden advertising genius in Lebanon (which I doubt). So Fahed, quit ripping Walmart!

Bertolt Brecht and shawarma orders

When Bertolt Brecht said: "But wouldn't it be simpler if the Government simply dissolved the People And elected another?" in one of his poems little did he know that he was going to be challenged big time by Shawarma Republic.... So now that the the world is head over heels, and that you can actually give orders in a new republic, which waiting for your wish to be fulfilled, you might as well wait for Godot...

Luna Park...ing

So there it is, the place that define memories for scores of Lebanese children is there no park.... Luna Park has been emptied and most likely to become a luna parking or whatever they do empty lots with strategic positions on Dora highway. Whereas Santa Claus came once a year, the Luna Park was there every weekend as a barometer for being good or bad. And now it has gone, for good. Or for bad. Who knows!

Abou Fouad to write a book for 7UPstairs Publishing

After long and laborious negotiations, 7UPstairs Publishing is proud to announce to its readers that legendary home-problems extraordinaire Abou Fouad (from the YES fame) has agreed to extrapolate his "3 bi 1" philosophy in a full book that will be issued as soon as the technical hurdles are out of the way. The book will center around the idea that one word can mean three different things, or that one word can be the basis of several expressions, or anything related to a combination of three things. We shall keep you posted as the possible release dates, so watch this space... and never forget, "yes, lal ghasil, lal jali w lal tondif!.....

Three thumbs up....

Why am I so in love with this ad? Simply because, according to the laws of the medical profession in Lebanon doctors are not allowed to do ads on a personal basis, which is why, by managing to circumvent this strict law Dr. Nader Saab (Lebanon's most renowned plastic surgeon) was able to issue his ad, make his target audience understand the product all while staying at the innocent side of the law. For those who do did not get it, the ad says "beauty is rare (which means Nader) and difficult (which means Saab)".... Genius! Golden caviar and champagne for everyone!

Three thumbs down

Welcome to the mismatch of all mismatches - Haifa Wehbe and the Breast Friends cancer prevention! How they thought that Haifa might embody someone altruistic, down to earth, close to people, humanistic and a la Audrey Hepburn is beyond me.... I sometimes hesitate is this is worse or Fady Raidy doing Khoury Dairy!
And then there's this dangerous promise - meat even a baby can eat - apart from how silly it is advertising-wise it is also a national hazard! There should be minimum common sense to forbid such promises!
And as for Rouba? Well,t o be honest, seeing dress and the attitude, far from thinking about a children's entertainer, I thought she might be someone for bachelor parties - you know, the kind that pops out of a cake!

Lara Fabian v/s Yusuf Cat Stevens - a wild world!

Following the polemic that seeped about Lara Fabian's visit to Lebanon and the fact that she has her own political opinions which are not compatible with a fragment of the Lebanese population (she supports Israel it seems, I was frankly quite shocked that no one mentioned that Yusuf Cat Stevens also holds certain political opinions which are not compatible with a those of a fragment of the Lebanese population, Mr Islam (he is known as Yusuf Islam) was known to support the death fatwa that was issued by the Ayatollah Khoumeini against author Salman Rushdie after publishing his book "Satanic Verses". In other words, Mr. Yusuf Islam does not mind killing people because he doesn't like what they write. No one seemed to mind in Lebanon though. Oh baby baby it's a wild world as a certain Cat Stevens would have said.

The aftermath of sensation

John Le Carre once wrote something to the effect of "people don't care about the aftermath of sensation"... The "sensation" (among other I am referring to) was the voyeuristic thrill of seeing the crumbled building in Achrafieh. Next to the MTV old headquarters there are now two billboards calling for help through donations sponsored by the TV station itself and the Bachir Gemayel Foundation... But, like Haiti and so many other sensations, does anyone still care about the aftermath?