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Lebanese Ad Scene
So Lebanon has always been at the forefront of the regional advertising industry, its creative minds paving the way for the gulf media boom, its university students majoring in para-communication fields- the brightest comparatively when it comes to their curricula- and its heritage rich in freedom of expression, which builds a thriving milieu for creativity… Right?
It all looks a little like the communist singing tomorrows, or like those dreams of capitalistic instant riches and fame, none of them proved true alas in the course of history. But that is the rosy picture everyone depicts about Lebanon and its advertising scene. But as the local proverb says, “The wife of the shoe maker is barefoot” – we have spent so much time, energy, talents and creativity trying to bypass some stringent laws about not showing faces and parts of body, supposed indecency in other countries, that at some point we have lost focus on the place where, as advertisers, we can use our creativity with little hampering from the powers that be.
In our quest to increase standards in other places, bring in innovative branding ideas, and build brands for transient expatriates and disinterested locals elsewhere, we forgot the country that has been a consumer society even before the word was coined: Lebanon. A ripe territory where enthusiasm, joie de vivre, consumption (and yes, even Conspicuous Consumption to go back to Thornton Veblen’s theory), and a need to defeat death through retail therapy cohabitate with a willingness – no, make that an eagerness – to spend.
In our annual round up of the Lebanese mediascape, ArabAd probed advertising executives – veterans and young bloods - about the state of the (ad) union.
(see ArabAd November issue 2008 p.6) |
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Ku-wait-and-see no more!
Yes, maybe the market in Kuwait was a bit roughed and tumbled in the last few months, but which market hasn’t been? From the US to Hong Kong passing through Dubai, London and Kuala Lumpur, all markets were shaken – and advertising being at the forefront of the market pulse is usually hit first, only to be the first to bounce back as well.
And bouncing back in Kuwait it is! Executives, managers, creatives, and newspaper men have all talked about the vibrant scene, have spoken of inspiration, new business models, versatility in talents and about clients learning to adapt to new environments, to navigate in new rules of conduct and target audiences with shifting moods.
(see ArabAd December issue 2008 p.8) |
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Awaken the sleeping giants, slay the dragons
By Naseem Javed
Behind every effort and every move of any company of any size lie a very simple and a powerful fact. That is, the outside world responds to the Name identity of a company before they part money. Customers are influenced by the personality of the Name identity, what it says, connotes, projects and what kind of secret or hidden messages it has embedded in its alpha-structure.
Here are the critical facts. Firstly, every business is already convinced that it has the best Name. Secondly, how wrong are they? Today, 99 percent of the business Names in use are dysfunctional for being over replicated with thousands of others, or outdated and no longer fitting to the current global e-commerce driven mobile cyber-trends.
Historically speaking, in the good old golden days, one could start a business and name it anything. Today, rather, every single day, one million new business Names of all kinds and shapes are being registered. Tens of thousands of new Names a second are attacking weaker names, further adding to the complexity of the issue.
(see ArabAd December issue 2008 p.92) |
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Political communication slam GWB, friends
An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoe at President Bush has been hailed as a hero across the Middle East, and is receiving so much attention. Wikipedia already has an entry for him.
Reuters reports that Muntadhar al-Zaidi will be given an award by a Libyan charity group called ‘Wa Attassimou’. Ten million dollars have been offered by a Saudi man to own one of the shoes that were thrown at Bush. The shoe attack has triggered a new debate about an old topic: the love and hate affair with the US of W. Bush’s popularity has plummeted to the ground like never ever in US political history. The nonstop stream of jokes, mockery, comedy shows, and the prolific advertisements hijacking George W. Bush’s image speak loud of how much the U.S president has ended up generating discontent and anger. Big international corporations like Daimler-Chrysler, Lipton Tea, or Scrabble (below), make big time fun of Bush. They have created messages that are instantly recognisable. Clearly, they seem pleasing to the majority, thus making of GWB a sure sell.
(see ArabAd December issue 2008 p.98) |
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Milestones, passions
When Filmworks Lebanon was presented with a story board for Château Musar wine brand, we were able to see the embedded potential of an ad that would, if properly produced, be a milestone.
The first thing that held our attention was that, from a creative concept point of view, it was the first time wine was not associated with heritage, lyrical scripts, traditions, and such clichés shots of soil, wine cellars, connoisseurs drinking, etc.
The concept was fresh and universal playing around the simple things in life that inspire Musar’s wine makers.
From a production point of view, this was a film that commended the passionate unconditional involvement of all players in order to deliver the vision in mind. And so
it was!
(see ArabAd December issue 2008 p.110) |
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Can sWEden?
It was my second visit to Sweden to attend a course under the auspices of the Swedish International Development Coordination Agency (SIDA), only this time it was with Fojo – the Institute for Further Education of Journalists, which is located in Kalmar, a city of some 70,000 inhabitants who surprised the whole country by having its local football team win the Swedish league and its architectural museum win the highest award in Swedish architecture – with both events happening while I was there.
The course, “Journalism and Democracy, Middle East and North Africa” was a pilot course offered for the first time for journalists from the region, whereas normally it is offered in an international edition and one for South American journalists. Some 22 journalists were accepted following 80 applications from all the region, of these 18 attended the course, with others cancelling their acceptance for different reasons – that ranged from not being able to get entry visas to Sweden, to not being able to get exit visas from their countries, and one even reportedly not having had the authorisation from her brother to be able to attend a course that, ironically, also tackled gender equality and women’s emancipation.
(see ArabAd December issue 2008 p.114) |
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