I saw the below letter as a note on Facebook written by Mr. Nazih Sanjakdar criticizing BankMed’s latest advertisement promoting a car loan, and I thought of sharing it with you as it speaks my mind with every word.
The advertisement on TV shows a guy who feels embarrassed in front of a girl because he doesn’t have a car! BankMed then of course offers to help by selling him a loan to buy a car and therefore make him look like a real man!
Dear BankMED,
Without elaboration, because I believe that if you think it over just a little bit, you would find that this is correct. Your Car loan advertisement is stupid and disrespectful. I cannot believe how low a bank would sink to sell a service !
The ad is based on a social prejudicial assumption. The bank is directly and shamelessly adopting a social vice and a tremendous mistake in the way people are currently considering things. A car, by definition is a mean of transportation and not in any way a social or masculine instrument to attack success, or the other sex.
Your ad is incorrect, disrespectful and is a clear sign of the bank’s immoral approach towards its customers. I believe and I know that if you show such ad here in Europe people would laugh at your bank and boycott it.
Thank you. And have good day.
Nazih SANJAKDAR
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Thésard en droit international public.
École doctorale Sciences Juridiques – Grenoble.
Photo via Beirutiyat
Yayyyyy!! Another smear campaign… Let’s start tweeting and sharing on Facebook! :p
Oh and for the record, I TOTALLY agree with what he said… It’s a shame that the size of a man’s car is correlated with the size of his wallet and hence in the Lebanese mind the size of the bulge in his pants… FAIL…
Thank You for this!!
While I agree that the ad is in bad taste, poor judgement, and sinks pretty low, I would have to disagree with the feelings conveyed in the letter.
An important rule in advertisement is “Know your audience”. The Lebanese audience associates cars with success, and in that line of thought, the ad does precisely what it’s supposed to: It suggests that a person who does not have a car NEEDS it, by hinting to the reward of elevating his social status. This is True in the context of the Lebanese society. The Lebanese are shallow. It might be a vice, but that’s irrelevant.
All sorts of brands sell you all sorts of “cool” stuff, and we buy them. If you want to hold the advertisement community up to a high standard go ahead, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that things are any better “in Europe” or anywhere else in the world. Advertisers speak to their audience, and it they must recourse to a social vice, it’s never stopped them before, and I don’t believe it will anytime soon.
So yes, this ad might not particularly speak to me, or you. If I were in Lebanon and car-less it wouldn’t do much in terms of encouraging me buy a car. But you have to agree that it might have the desired effect on most other men in Lebanon, and that would make it a successful campaign.
Cheers !
again, whay do you expect from a bank that have destroyed one of the oldest libraries in beirut to make way for one of their branches?
at least, you don’t expect them to know something or two about culture!
I agree with both sides on this matter. I agree with Fadi in that Bank Med created this ad to appeal to their target audience, which in this case, are the shallow Lebanese youth who, unfortunately, equate their material items with their social status. However, I also think that Advertisers have a responsibility to society..and by running ads like this one, they are only perpetuating what is wrong with Lebanese society.
Lebanese people usually don’t have much money but drive nice expensive cars for the one and only reason “mazahir”.. So what’s wrong with this ad again?