I saw this caricature by Armand Homsi in Annahar Newpaper on Sunday April 18th.
Illustrating what is happening in Beirut and various areas of Lebanon, this caricature is worth a thousand words. We don’t need skyscrapers with apartments that we cannot afford, just keep our beautiful Beirut as it is!
Few days ago I got to drink a Bonjus (aka Bonjiss) for the first time in 9 years! I salute them for preserving their original taste. It still feels like you’re having a chemical solution, but good nonetheless!
After Exotica got heavily criticized for their Mother’s Day campaign both on the Lebanese blogs and on twitter (although I did find it catchy).
Photo from Joe’s Box
They responded yesterday by replacing the old billboards by the ones below, delivering a new message in the same context.
Photos taken by Maya Zankoul
They either INTENDED to create a controversy with their first billboards to get people to talk about them OR they simply got convinced through the feedback they got that what they did is not right and so they created the new billboards. In the first case they proved to be smart, while in the latter they proved to be listening to what the public is saying online! Either way, they’re doing a GOOD job!
I was heading towards Gemmayze last Friday when I came across this red truck. Everything appeared normal from a distance until I got closure, there was a bathtub in that truck with a girl sitting inside and apparently enjoying it, at least her seductive legs movement said so!
The whole thing turned out to be a promotion for Stolichnaya’s Stoli Gala Apple, which explained the use of a girl (eve) enjoying the forbidden fruit (an apple), it is just the bathtub that I couldn’t explain!
Anyway I think it was nice, although some people might claim Stolichnaya crossed the line, but you should have seen the traffic around the truck, they definitely succeeded in grabbing the passengers’ attention. Another proof that sex sells!
Update:
In addition to the two photos I took above, I found these photos on twitter from @fadisabbagha. (Special thanks to @MayaZankoul)
What to do when you’re just fed up waiting for something to happen? Best thing is to take matters into your own hands! And that’s what fellow blogger Mustapha did while waiting for the Daily Star IT people to renovate their website.
Few days ago Mustapha launched the Better Daily Star Project (BDSP), a website that he built on his own using the WordPress CMS and a theme to fit the content (newspaper style). The new version created a buzz on twitter the day it was published, and while a lot of people welcomed what he did and admitted it is way better than the current DS website, others just accused him of doing an illegal work (copying the articles) and to which he replied by writing this FAQ page inside the project’s blog.
But isn’t this Illegal?Probably. But I’m not making any money out of it (in fact, I’m paying some in effort and hosting fees), and I promise that as soon as they do something about their site, I’ll gladly bow out. Besides, it will cost them more to sue me than to actually fix their site and let me off their back.
Why am I doing it. What’s the point?Well, I am trying to say this: If one guy (yours humbly) can use freely available opensource software (wordpress if you must know) to create this alternative, arguably better website in two weeks, why can’t a newspaper with an actual IT department do it? In other words, I’m shooting down the argument that it would be too expensive to do. Listen to me well: They’re just being lazy.
Have you heard of Ivy? She has been blogging for 2 months now rebelling against some of the Lebanese society standards by motivating single girls to make the first move and hopefully have a good valentine this year instead of just waiting for guys to approach them!
Ivy's Mission
In no time, Exotica felt excited about supporting Ivy’s cause, and they were ready to team up with her in organizing a Valentine related event called “Decode My Rose!” which consists of distributing roses to single girls to give to the guys they like!
Two girls from Exotica distributing Ivy's roses at Gemmayze
So I decided to go with my fiancée last night to Gemmayze to check on the Decode My Rose campaign, and yes she made a move on me (as if she needed to do that!) by handing me this one.
The rose I got
And now I just have to decode it…
How to decode your rose
Two days ago I went to the newly opened Beirut Souks, Beirut’s new largest shopping area, which was rebuilt by Solidere according to the original grid plan and location of the old souks that were destructed during the civil war while maintaining the landmarks and street names.
To my disappointment, the new Beirut Souks look nothing similar to the image I have in my mind for the old Beirut, and I’m pretty sure the new image defies the memories that old people who knew the old souks have in their mind.
Souk El Tawileh (via yabeyrouth.com)
In my opinion Solidere did a horrible job at preserving our heritage there as the new souks no longer reflect the real identity of Beirut, in fact the new souks have no identity at all! Nothing inside that big mall makes you feel like you’re in Beirut except for the “decorative” street plates of course. Be the judge yourself by looking at the photos I took below, it can be Dubai, Paris, or whatever other city!
Add to that the fact that the old souks were a destination to almost all society classes prior to the civil, while right now Beirut Souks is another destination for the snobbish people in Lebanon, I really cannot imagine a low income individual being able to spend a day there. Once again, Solidere probably had the Arab tourists in mind when they designed this place! Just like what they did when they were rebuilding the other parts of the central district.
To me, the Hamra street is a much more authentic Beiruti street than the new Souks of Beirut, though it is full of new restaurants and outlet stores but it has at least maintained its spirit throughout the years.
At the end, I will leave you with this comparative video between the old souks of Beirut and the new ones.
Never thought we would see similar ads in Lebanon, but I got this lovely ad for the Nokia E72 in my e-mail today and it really made my day!
The ad is part of a global campaign by Nokia to position their new device as an alternative to BlackBerry, I’m glad Nokia Lebanon had the guts to use it in Lebanon.
This actually reminded me of a couple of video I saw last, where in the first video BlackBerry literally shot Apple, and in the second video Apple responded with a cool line.
Lebanese chefs, minister of tourism, people of Lebanon, I beg you not to respond back with another silly world record, instead try to really work on a plan to penetrate the world market with our traditional Mezza dishes!
An Arab-Israeli village is planning to make the world’s biggest hummus, a chickpea dip that stirs passions across the Middle East. Lebanon may not like it.
On Friday, residents of Abu Gosh, near Jerusalem, will mash up 4,000 kilograms of chickpeas, sesame paste, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.That is twice as much as the Guinness world record set in October by chefs in Lebanon, Israel’s neighbour and rival.
Late in November I started following Exotica’s campaign for Christmas 2009 titled “My Different Christmas”, the campaign is apparently targeting internet users, because I haven’t yet seen its supporting video on any local TV station. And no we’re not used to that in Lebanon!
The idea behind the campaign is helping people to think and celebrate differently this year via a special blog by the “cool” Christmas activist “Lucie”. As you will see, Lucie is a funny grandmother posting about Christmas DIY gifts, recipes, and decoration ideas, and that’s exactly what I need in this period as I am participating in the secret Santa game at work! The blog can be found here.
I believe the purpose of the blog goes beyond just providing ideas, Exotica is actually doing a good job communicating with internet users in a way that is much different and more efficient than the classical newsletters we get on a daily basis in our mail boxes. I salute those who are behind this campaign!
