Tag Archives | advertising

Not Every Occasion Calls for Witty Slogans

By Rami on August 7, 2017 in Ads

It was cool around 2009 and 2010 when Almaza used to advertise witty phrases and taglines on holidays and special occasions, but it became really annoying nowadays with every single brand in the Lebanese market attempt to do the same. To be fair some are coming up with creative stuff, but the majority end up appearing like an assignment done at the last minute.

Below are some example (read disasters*) that were done on the occasion of Army Day last week and did absolutely nothing to convince me spend a lira on the advertised goods.

Almaza trolls Apple by copying Heineken

By Rami on September 26, 2014 in Lebanon

I know Almaza is actually owned by Heineken, but it is still uncool.

Check here to see how other brands took a jab at Apple for the iPhone 6 Plus bendgate.

Hallab 2 – Doueihy 1

By Rami on July 17, 2013 in Funny

I’m not sure if Hallab’s last reply is real and already on the streets, but it’s definitely cool if they did it!

Al Rifai ads for valentine

By Rami on February 14, 2013 in Lebanon

Am I the only one who found these ads by Al Rifai humorous rather than provocative?

All hell broke loose yesterday after they were posted on Al Rifai’s page on Facebook as people started accusing them of being sexist. Some time later, Al Rifai removed these 2 visuals and posted an apology.

Al Rifai would like to point out that the Valentine visuals were not, in any way, trying to belittle the role of women in society. These visuals are part of a campaign that highlights the beauty of every nut and not our view on the role of men and women in society. We believe in equality, not only among people, but also among all our nuts ;-). We hope that you will be able to see things from our perspective.

We thank all of you who appreciated the creativity of the campaign, your support proves that it was a successful one, but in order not to offend anyone and to avoid any further misunderstandings, we have decided to remove 2 of the posted visuals. Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!

I wish someone put the same effort into convincing Spinneys to remove their valentine ads instead. They’re so lame!

Anyway, make sure to check Brofessiona Review’s post about Al Rifai’s issue here.

Al-Rifai new packs

By Rami on July 18, 2012 in Lebanon

Regardless how ridiculously pricy Al-Rifai is, I loved their new ad!

Cheap advertising

By Rami on May 30, 2012 in Lebanon

And their food totally sucks by the way!

And the Vote for Jeita ad is a copycat!

By Rami on November 2, 2011 in What the fuck!

After all the talk doubting the credibility of the organization behind the New 7 Wonders campaign, here comes Tarek to show us that Vote for Jeita ad is nothing but a copycat! Way to go ImpactBBDO!

Update:
Under the video description on YouTube, ImpactBBDO indicated the format is inspired by “5 friends”.

Although the concept is based on a pure Lebanese insight, the format was inspired by “5 friends” renown film produced in 2008 by Steven Spielberg.”

Dahieh’s best pizza

By Rami on March 8, 2011 in Lebanon

Why in Dahieh specifically? Why not “The best pizza in Lebanon” instead?

And why don’t we see similar billboards in other places like Jounieh or Tripoli for example?

ArabNet goes live, and global!

By Rami on March 26, 2010 in Events

The long awaited and highly anticipated ArabNet conference kick started today, with over 500 participants attending the opening ceremony, including internet and tech leaders from around the world, investors, media, entrepreneurs, bloggers and professionals from the tech industry.

The opening ceremony and the conference activities that followed were broadcast live online, giving an opportunity for everyone who couldn’t attend to be part of this unique and first-of-its kind event to ever happen in the Middle East.

Under the direction of Samer Karam and a dedicated team of geeks and coders who worked 24 hours a day for the past week, a custom-designed, cutting-edge system was developed that allows for live broadcast of video, illustrations and tweets directly from the conference. The platform also integrates a voting mechanism to allow attendees to vote for their favorite startup or idea via the live website – live.arabnet.me

Throughout the past couple of months, ArabNet has been able to nurture a grassroots movement, an online community of enthusiasts through an outreach program intended to engage young entrepreneurs and techies across the Arab World. In less than two months, we have gathered over 1,000 followers on twitter and more than 600 fans on facebook.

40 top-notch speakers, 11 supporting partners, 18 media partners, 35 startups, 50 ideas, 25 ambassadors, 12 official bloggers, and over 300 decision makers, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the MENA, Europe, and Silicon Valley have come together gather today at the Habtoor Grand Hotel to network and discuss emerging opportunities in Arab web business. Even before the conference started, the #ArabNetME twitter feed was overwhelmed with tweets from all over the world from people who believed in ArabNet’s mission. And just a few hours later, following the opening ceremony, ArabNet was trending globally on the site!

A huge thanks goes to Beshr Kayyali and Mohammad Saleh Kayali from hyperlinkpodcast.com, an ArabNet media partner, who have helped in setting up the live micro-site, as well as Maya Zankoul, the famous Lebanese illustrator who is live illustrating the conference, as well as to official ArabNet bloggers and ambassadors, and the millions of tweeters and enthusiasts from the world over who tweeted, messaged, and voiced their support in more ways than one.
Without them, ArabNet could not have gone global!

Nokia E72 vs. BlackBerry

By Rami on January 9, 2010 in Lebanon

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.