Emotional Blackmail, A Lebanese National Sport

OK, we get it, Lebanese are emotional people. You can tell it by the way they talk loud, get angry fast, kiss an make up faster, love a lot, hate even more and all the picturesque descriptions you can muster up.
But in the midst of all this feelings fest we remain most and above all masters of emotional blackmail.

It starts with kids at a very young age. I have seen them over and over manage to get their way just by faking a cry. You know those tearless cries where the eye muscles don't even twitch? Well, parents are suckers for those and their over-protective nature makes it so they fall for it every time.
But hey, parents are not the only victims here. Flash-forward many years into their old age, and parents will whip out any excuse they have, in order to keep that kid nicely attached to their waist.
From the traditional "wait until the war is over and you will see how great Lebanon will be", to "neighbors don't even say hello to each other abroad", down to " I have a few years left and I want to see your kids grow", they have everything you can imagine up their sleeve.

Recently, brands and official entities have also decided to ride the same wave of shaming/manipulating/arm-twisting/blackmailing targeted at ...yes you guessed it...the Lebanese Diaspora...inviting them into "staying connected" *cough* send us more money*cough*.

Here, check out this collection of ads for yourself:



As unpopular as what I am about to say might be, I will say it: Leave the Expats Alone.

Stop showing them their friends back home with the iconic "I miss you bro", stop showing them weeping mothers to "my heart melts to see you once more", lonely fathers sighing to "I wish my son can come and settle in his village".
They can do well without that single road where there are a few nice trees left (before the latest real estate project took it down *wink*fire*wink*), that sunset that you can catch only from a certain angle (because private resorts block the view most of the time), that Lebanese dish that I am sure they won't miss once they realize they live safely where they are or the plethora of jumping, wiggling, boob-dangling masses at a rooftop bar which have nothing to offer except occasional self-indulgence to forget that we live in total chaos and anarchy.

So before you start humming a pointless melody to make them nostalgic, how about you stop for a second and think why these people left in the first place?
In a country so well oiled like ours they could not have left because of job favoritism due to family ties or other. They definitely did not leave because they escaped death by explosion a few times and they did not leave because someone humiliated them at some random official or unofficial checkpoint. Did they just get up and pack because they realized that every trip in a car is like playing Russian roulette? Or have they just realized that slaving to make ends meet is somehow not that attractive under the Mediterranean sun while some fanatic from either side is sharpening the tools of his trade in some shed.

No, expats left for a reason, and I am pretty sure that if you lay off the emotional blackmail for a while, they will no longer want that "Goat barn in Mount Lebanon", and settle for the comfort of the civilized places they have moved into.

For those who argue that the expats are those keeping Lebanon afloat economically I say: Maybe it is time for this country's economical model to fail instead of always hanging by a thread. Perhaps then, and only then we will really find out if the story of the Phoenix rising from its ashes is true, or just a sorry excuse to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over!

Wooden Bakery Aces Flour Art With David Myriam [Updated]

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a new TV commercial for Wooden Bakery that clearly stood out from the usual, "good morning neighbor", mushy feel-good sort of ads that we've grown accustomed to on the Lebanese scene.

The ad featured creative live animated work depicting the art of bread making using, what else, flour!


I tried locating the ad but for some reason it was not available neither on their Facebook page nor on their YouTube channel. So I reached out to them and I got notice the video was available now (Published on June 29th)



The TV version I saw did not show the opening credits so my initial reaction was that they got inspired by a highly viral video of an Kseniya Simonova's Sand Drawing on Ukraine's Got Talent and was wondering if and how did they find a local talent that was able to pull this off.

Things became clear when the intro provided special thanks to David Myriam renowned Sand Artist who has been doing amazing work since 2006. You can see some of his work here:





The only thing that seems a bit off is the loaf of bread shown at the end. Shot from above it just looses all appeal and depth. Perhaps an additional frame of with a bit more perspective would have improved this.

Wooden Bakery and their agency really deserve a lot of credit for breaking out of the mold. This is truly creative advertising that is leveraging artwork and introducing a bit of the wow factor we have been clearly missing.

UPDATE (2014-07-11)

Shortly after I released my blog post, Wooden Bakery's Facebook page shared the video. Like any shameless blogger I plugged my piece in a comment under the video. Only a few days later I noticed another comment highlighting another piece of by David Myriam for a...wait for it...yes you guessed it...a Bakery.

Naturally as you see above there was an attempt at justifying this by someone whom I assumed was on behalf of the brand or the agency. Anyway, I let you be the judge of this yourselves by watching the video below. For my part, I can safely retract myself and say "No molds were broken during the making of this ad"

Audi: Not good enough for Admir 2

When a few days ago I caught a glimpse of the new TV commercial, for yet another real estate project about to set-up shop in one of the few green spaces left in Lebanon, I had the usual "meh" reaction. Yet just into the ad, something felt off, so I kept watching, until I reached a scene where two children were disembarking from their parents' vehicle. And then it hit me (the idea not the vehicle).

The ad executed by Adrenaline had repeatedly shown that same car throughout the TVC and in every sequence they had gone into great length to obscure the brand on the front grid.
This was an Audi A4 or A6 with its distinctive nose, as you ca see below from a random picture I picked up from a site using Google images.

Now, I am not debating their right to show or hide the brand of the car, but I find it a bit odd that they think the car is good enough to appear in a TVC that is supposed to promote a luxurious way of life, but not good enough to be shown for what it is.

Kettaneh Motors are Audi's official representatives in Lebanon. I don't know how receptive to such ideas they might be, but it would have been worth a shot for Sayfco to discuss product placement with them.
That would have been a welcome change from traditional advertising tactics we see all the time.

You can watch Admir 2 TVC below

UPDATE (2014-07-03):I don't know how related this is, but three days after I released my blog post, I managed to catch the TVC again on one of the local channels and that version clearly showed the Audi with its logo on the front grid... perhaps someone else also whispered the same advice or was it a limitation set by the broadcaster, I am not sure we'll ever know.

The Battle of the Digital Kimonos

A while ago, as I started actively using Google+, I came upon a list of agencies that I could import to create a circle of digital professionals to follow. I did exactly that, and have since enjoyed a lot of posts shared by digital marketing experts from around the world.
Surprisingly enough one post caught my eye. The logo of the person sharing it looked way too familiar. The post came from a Mexican agency called "Black Belt Brands" and it only took me a few seconds to realize why their post had sparked that reaction.
Their identity is highly reminiscent of that of "COM FU" a Lebanese digital agency headed by friend and fellow blogger Ralph Aoun.

These two agencies, thought completely unrelated and thousands of miles apart had managed to reach an identical concept without any of them being a copy cat of the other and I find this delightful.
So, without further ado..here's the head-to-head visuals from their digital presence:

The Mascots

I am rooting for the home team here, but the Mexicans do walk away with the more geekish award in this round although they do loose in mascot doodle vs real design.

Facebook

• https://www.facebook.com/blackbeltbrands
• https://www.facebook.com/comfu

I would call this one a tie, especially that none of the paid any attention to the overlapping elements on their cover page.

Twitter

• https://twitter.com/BlackBeltBrands
• https://twitter.com/com_fu

BlackBeltBrands loses points for not having any cover picture but COM FU also loses because their cover picture seems broken and is not loading so it's another tie.


I think this give you an idea on this Asian/Latin-American/Middle-Eastern digital martial showdown.
I really enjoyed checking both brands back and forth and watching how they both evolved separately but along the same lines. Who knows, maybe one day one or both brands will be big enough to compete on a common turf and then we'll really get to enjoy a Battle of the Digital Kimonos.

Meanwhile, all I can say to them is:  好工作

Busted: Boom Boom copies Japp

There's always a special flavor to the act of busting someone who has blatantly copied someone else's creative work without any attribution. Just ask Beirut/NTSC, he specializes in hunting these down.
Of course it's not always black and white like with the ad mentioned in my recent post Candia With A Chance of Meatball.
However, when my good friend Hady Chandler Chehlaoui (some of you might know him from his funny videos as part of To Dum Brothers) showed me this ad, by yet another energy drink manufacturer, there were no grey areas and no hesitation, that's plain plagiarism.
I am not a fan of energy drinks and prefer to stay away from them altogether and this is why I probably missed this ad but here it is for your viewing:

Now jump ahead and watch this ad for chocolate energy bars called Japp.

As you might have seen the original Leo Burnett ad was done back in 1995 as part of an original 4-ad series revolving around the same concept and characters ( You can watch them and more here).

As many have highlighted before me, it's amazing how some people still think they can get away with such flagrant copying at a time where everything is one Google page away.

Seriously, stop insulting people's intelligence!