Nestle "Egyptian Dolce"

This is usually what happens when you have a weak idea; you end up with a lovely case study.

Heineken 'Color Your Christmas'

JWT Beirut set up a huge unlit Heineken bottle outdoor made up of 400 neon bars, and encouraged people to log on to www.coloryourchristmas.com to help light up the bottle before Christmas.

Project: Color Your Christmas
Client: Heineken 
Agency: JWT Beirut 
Executive Creative Director: Iyad Zahlan 
Creative Team: Carol Chehayeb / Lea Khlat 

Sipes 'We Cover Everything' Ambient

Leo Burnett Amman, wanted to show the awards people that Sipes has a wide range of paint colours that cover everything. So they created real life swatches and placed them on 2 buildings, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a bus.

I have to say, the idea is pretty cool. The case study... not so cool. Slow VO, late and repeating imagery in the end. It's almost like they ONLY covered 2 buildings, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a bus.

Digital Republic shortlisted at the MENA Cristal Awards 2012

It's good to see Digital Republic making it's way into the awards. They were recently shortlisted in the Cyber & Mobile Category in the MENA Cristal Awards 2012, for their work for Axe and Birell.

In case you don't know them, Digital Republic is an Egyptian born digitally inspired ad agency. In only 2 years, they have managed to grow their team to 55 people cleverly head-hunting talent from the likes of JWT, Leo Burnett and FP7.

Today, Digital Republic interacts with over 2 million fans in the Middle East, fully managing the digital and social assets of huge brands including Mobinil, Coca Cola, McDonalds, Axe, Birell and Cadbury.

Below are the shortlisted entries in this year's MENA Cristal Awards:

MENA Cristals 2012

This year, I'm planning to visit Lebanon and the MENA Cristals for the first time. Although I am looking forward to the festival, I am also looking forward to some serious partying, and visiting my mates. I'm not going to mention Lebanese women, coz that's a given.

The MENA Cristal Festival is going to take place at the snowy slopes of Mzaar from the 21-23 February 2012. I have always had the impression that the Dubai Lynx was like the Cannes of the region, so where does that leave the Cristals? Or maybe it's like the Champions League and the Europa Cup..

Either way, am definitely looking forward to the whole thing. Some shortlists were recently released, click on the link to download:

- Media Cristal Shortlist
- Promo & Direct Cristal Shortlist
- Cyber & Mobile Cristal Shortlist
- Production Cristal Shortlist

Infographic: Egypt Elections Explained

In a bid to better understand the Egyptian electoral process, Al Jazeera have released an infographic, and because I love infographs, here we go:

Via: AlJazeera

Courage is Contagious - Grand Prix Winner at Gemas Effie Mena Awards 2011

Agency: Interesting Times Beirut
Client: Snowball SAL
Brand: Lebanese Brew

Happy Halloween

Yes it's that time of year again when you have to sit and decide which halloween party to go to, and what the hell you're gonna wear?

I went to the Nassimi Beach party in Dubai last Friday. Insane! One of the highlights was going into the men's bathroom and finding a nun, caveman, and a whoopee cushion lined up next to each other pissing away. I hope I see that again.

Anyway because it's halloween, I thought I'd post some inspiration from around the world, since I don't see any halloween ads coming out of this region anytime soon, unless they involve Gadafi whipping the devil.

Evolution of the Ad Executive

Advertising executives have come a long way in just the last 50 years. As our culture evolves, so do ad execs. They’ve got to stay on top of the latest trends, technologies, and taglines to remain relevant. We take a look at how ad execs have evolved over the last few decades in the infographic below.

Via: BuySellAds

Tired Creative Shoes

The latest 'Tired Shoe' ad courtesy of Euro RSCG Casablanca. #FAIL 

In case you weren't aware, here are two other tired shoe ads straight out of the Cannes Archives. The first is a commercial titled 'TONGUE' that was done by McCann for Stick Up Shoe Deodorant in Brazil in 1998.

The second was created by Leo Burnett Zurich in 2003 for AlpenArena.

Seeing all this doesn't only make the shoe sick, but me also. I have to agree with Euro RSCG's line in the first ad 'Enough Walking'....

Message from LG

So I just received a message from the PR manager of LG in Egypt. Although I was hoping for a massage, it actually turned out to be only a message.


Christine, the PR manager, informed me that the ads created by Mohamed Gaber and Media Marquee were not commissioned by LG, and she believes they are hurting LG's image. She also said that LG will be taking serious actions with Mohamed Gaber. Oh and she requested that I remove them from AdBasha.


Yeah... So Christine... Baby.... Let me first thank you for your email. I am happy that you have exposed these set of ads for what they are. Believe me it was pretty obvious they were scam.


Now about hurting your image..... what image?
These are probably the nicest looking ads I have ever seen for LG in Egypt.
Sure there's no real idea here, and there's a funny typo, and off course the fact you didn't ask for them. But to be honest,  these ads made me and everyone notice you. I mean I had never heard of the GW300 before these ads.

LG - Massaging Ads Of The World

If you didn't already notice, these set of pretty ads should read 'Messaging', not 'Massaging'. Although Massaging is definitely funner. But what's funny is these ads were sent to Ads Of The World with a typo, and then to MediaMe without. And that my friends says a lot.


This is a classic case of a creative trying to make it big. He'll come up with the idea, write the copy and design the art. He'll bang a logo in the corner and send it to all the blogs in the hope of making a name for himself.


The only problem is, he did them alone. In my opinion these ads prove to me that this Mohamed Gaber character is a great Illustrator and that's it.


I don't really see any conceivable idea here, and to top it off, there's a typo.

Agency: Media Marquee, Egypt
Creative/Illustrator: Mohamed Gaber

Cottonil - Your friends are like your underwear

Some provide comfort, some provide support, & some are just a pain in the ass. So when you come to choose, choose the ones you can reply on. Choose Cottonil. Our cotton speaks Egyptian.



Yes. Apparently Cottonil's cotton speaks Egyptian!! I don't exactly know what that line is supposed to mean. Do you? Hmmm... Maybe it means that their cotton has been through so much shit (literally), and so understands the needs of your ass. Their cotton can relate... It can speak to you... Yes... That must be it.


If the music in the ad sounds familiar, and you feel like you've heard it before, well that's because you have! The song is called l'apres midi by Yann Tiersen and was featured in the french film Amélie. This specific piece has been used in countless Egyptian commercials, so no marks for originality here.


Now apart from the 'line' and the 'music', I actually quite like this ad. It's refreshing and really stands out from all the garbage being aired this Ramadan. It's controversial; people either LOVE it or HATE it. A bit like Marmite!


It has dominated TV ad conversations in Egypt, and thus has really put Cottonil in the minds of consumers.


I guess the only question that remains to be answered is this:
What kind of underwear are you wearing or hanging out with right now?

Mobinil Ramadan Ads

Fi kalam mat7ebesh tesma3o law enta el taleb


"Esma3 ba2a ya seedi"





"Tab khaleek ma3aya"





What a very funny and insightful campaign by Leo Burnett for Mobinil's Ramadan offers. Featuring the late Hassan El Asmar, these pair of ads really make me smile. 

#VodafoneShokran thanks for teaching us a lesson on how to piss of tweegyptians

Vodafone Egypt have done it again. Really, I mean after the whole taking credit for the revolution video a few months ago, you'd think they'd learnt something, or maybe their advertising partners would have. Sadly they haven't.


This Ramadan, Vodafone is running a 'Shokran' campaign. As part of the 'shokranities', their official twitter account started it all with the following:

So naturally, everyone on twitter decided to thank Vodafone Egypt for their involvement in the revolution. Thousands upon thousands of tweets. Here are a few snippets:

Vodafone claim that they had no option but to comply with the government. That their employees were unhappy with what happened during the revolution, but if they hadn't done what the government wanted, they would have been shut down and it would have effected millions of Egyptians for much longer than the cut-off time.


Unfortunately for Vodafone Egypt, the people of Egypt know what you did do, and not what you didn't.

As the great Don Draper once said "During the Depression, I saw somebody throw a loaf of bread off the back of a truck. It was more dignified."