Y&R Dubai - Book

The One Show 2009 - Outdoor and Posters - First Cut

New York Festivals 2009 - Print - Shortlist

Via: CampaignLive

Agency: Y&R Dubai

Country: UAE

Creative Director: Shahir Ahmed

Copywriter: Amit Kapoor
Art Directors: Komal Bedi Sohal / Shahir Ahmed
Planner: Nadine Ghossoub
Photographer: Anuchai Secharunputong
Retouching Agency: Remix Studio Bangkok

You won't be doing any reading after you're dead, so donate your eyes.

I like the angle used here and the art direction. Don't know if I want to go and pledge my eyes though. Assuming I do live on to a ripe old age, I believe they be quite weak by then.

I would have seen a lot... Now there's an angle. 

Ear Torture by Timberland

The following are a few words of how I feel about Timberland's latest adventure on the Nile FM radio waves:

- I think the ad is for footwear but I can't be sure

- The spot boasts a particularly intelligent script, talking about how summer is hot, winter is cold, Spring is green, and so forth

- The voice over artist/fartist is apparently talking in English, however the understanding of anything is highly improbable

- If I was to summarize what I'd heard in two words: ear torture

If anyone else feels similar symptoms to what I'm feeling, please feel free to let it out by clicking on the cobweb covered comment tab below this post.

Thank you

LOWE MENA - Chewing Gum

Dubai Lynx 2009 - TV - Gold Winner

The One Show - Public Service - TV - First Cut

Advertising Agency, City: LOWE MENA, Dubai 
Country: UAE

Creative Director: Mark Lewis/Sanjay Mathur 
Copywriter: Bianca Bernstein 
Art Director: Layal Chuman/Shanon Waugh 
Account Supervisor: Tarek Miknas 

Producer: Shane Martin 
Director: Hadi 
D.O.P/Lighting Cameraman: Oriol Villa 
Editor: Omar Abbas 
Music: The Elder Scrolls 
Sound Design/Arrangement: Bkp Dubai 
Post Production: Boomtown Post Production

Absolutely fucking Basha. Love it. 

Grey Dubai - Colors of Life Campaign

The One Show - Outdoor Campaign - Silver Winner

Clio Awards - Print - Bronze Winner

Advertising Agency: Grey Worldwide Dubai, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Danny Higgins
Creative Director: Alisdair Miller
Art Director / Copywriter: Jay Furby

Simplicity always wins. At least the people at Yellow Pages get that.

JWT Dubai - Nicola Finetti Campaign

The One Show - Magazine Campaign - First Cut

Advertising Agency: JWT Dubai, UAE
Executive Creative Director: Chafic Haddad
Creative Directors / Copywriters / Art Directors / Typographers: Peter Moyse, Adrian An
Photographer: Tejal Patni
Illustrator: Adrian An
Art Buyer: Emily Haddad
Account Supervisors: Francois Kanaan, Prabhakar Iyer
Advertiser's Supervisors: Leena Harazeen, Nicola Finetti

Great line. Debatable art direction.

Female Empowerment...for a change

The 'Khede Kasra' campaign for the Hariri Foundation created quite a buzz in Lebanon. In contrast to a lot of blatantly sexist advertising we've been seeing lately (*cough*birellandcokezero*cough*), Leo Burnett Beirut helped create a female empowerment movement. The thing I love most about this campaign, other than it's simplicity, is the fact that it isn't just pointing out womens rights but it is also calling on women to take a stand. A worthy winner of the Gold Dubai Lynx Award in the integrated category.

Stop the Suffering

Ambient bathroom stickers


The hair memorial on the Pert Plus website

Via: TheInspirationRoom

Client: Pert Plus
Agency: Leo Burnett, Beirut
Creative directors: Bechara Mouzannar, Ghida Younes
Art directors: Areej Mahmoud, Yasmina Baz
Copywriter: Rana Najjar
Account director: Jad Jureidini
Account executive: Sarah Ezzeddine
Regional account director: Haytham Dayeh

Combining, TV, ambient, and interactive this integrated "Stop the Suffering" campaign won silver at this year's Dubai Lynx Awards, and for good reason. It was a standout campaign that displayed a large degree of creativity and fun. It just made hair fall personal...very cool stuff.

Ya3ni eih Coke Zero?

Agency: FP7 Cairo

I like the idea a lot. Same taste, no sugar. Get more than you're expecting.
Only one thing is bothering me. All the ads have guys drinking Coke Zero. Isn't that weird? I imagine there is a huge market for low calorie soft drinks in women, don't you? Not just that, some situations might actually be offensive to them.

For example, "You're engaged to Yasmine, and going out with Dina".
Hmmmm.... Would this work the other way round in Egypt?
Ladies, start your engines and load your guns. First Birell and now this.

But I have to give it to FP7 Cairo here. I love the Molokheya one. Haha, I was laughing all the way to Basata last week, thanks to that and to some Chris Rock comedy.

If only it were that easy...

Advertising agency: Leo Burnett Jeddah, KSA
Art director: ZorZi Hoyek
Photographers: Roger Moukarzel, Steve Kozman
Illustrators / Retouchers: Mark Calina, Julien Lions
Account Group Director: Georges Maktabi

Via: AdsoftheWorld

I kinda like the simplicity behind this idea, it gets to the point. Though I guess it could apply to another brand that slims and can be consumed through a straw. Either way it's nice...one little issue I have is the weird glow behind the man's head, don't get that part.

Hamed Rege3 Gamed

Loling. Found this on youtube. Had to share it.

Viagra and Virecta

The last post reminded me of the Viagra nail ad. So I dug into youtube and found it, as well as another. If anyone knows the agencies involved, would be helpful.

Enjoy.

Market Penetration for All

Agency: Talent Creative, Kuwait
Creative & artwork: Saif El Degwi

Via: AdBlogArabia

Ok ok, bear with me...I'm trying to visualise the situation where such an incident would happen (pentetrating the wall that is). Maybe it's some super complicated and exotic position I'm unfamiliar with. But I always love advertisers playing with the million and one innuendoes they can find for an erection without directly addressing it. Entertaining stuff.

MASA: Rat Residence

Dubai Lynx 2009 - Direct & Sales Promotion - Gold Winner

Via: DirectDaily

Advertiser: Masa Pest Control

Agency: TBWA\RAAD

Country: Saudi Arabia

Creative Director: Saadi Alkouatli
Art Director: Namood-e-saher
Senior Graphic Designer: Akram Al Amoudi
Copywriter: Walid Kotb
Account Executive: Zeina Tabbara

You open the mailbox, take out the letter, look at it. 

It's your address, your home, only one thing: it's addressed to a rat. Hah. Classic.

Reflection of Taste??

"Everything we own is a reflection of taste."

Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI, Kuwait
Creative Director: John Oldfield
Art Director: Peter Al Hajj
Photography: Romeo Productions

So cheesy. A reflection of mediocre taste if you ask me. And with a concept like this you'd expect the visual to be stunning but it isn't even that. Waste of money.

Mixing Pleasure with Pain

Agency: DDB, Egypt
Creative : Mohammad Salah
Copy writer: Ahmed Selim

All I see when I look at the sushi one is the amount of injuries I'd end up sustaining to my mouth. I get that as a concept they're combining two things in one place, but implementing it visually is a disaster. The golf ball one looks like it could be used as a weapon. Art direction is awful (particularly those random circles around the visual). So yeah its quite disappointing, the copy is generic and the visual in no way implies the convenience behind the concept. Consider it a draft and make a fresh start...

Sunsilk: Straight Hair. Strange People.

Advertising Agency: JWT, Casablanca

Country: Morocco
Creative Director: Nicolas Geahchan
Art Director / Illustrator: Sirine Sabbah
Copywriters: Sirine Sabbah, Elias Yata
Other additional credits: Ghizlane Amouzai
Published: February 2009

Via: AdsoftheWorld

I don't know if this works or not. The illustrations, although not amazing, do catch my attention. I like the play on drama, desperation and pain, however I'm not a fan of the copy.

Final verdict: Weird and not wonderful.

Positives: Weird does not necessarily mean bad. 

Keep em coming Morocco.

The FP7 Doha Saga Continues

Another FP7 Doha Ad Disowned...this time by Aramex

FP7 Doha is already in deep trouble, but it looks like it's only going to get worse. Investigations launched by both Lynx organizers and FP7 Dubai are already underway regarding the Samsung, Higeen and Nissan campaigns. Now another client has been added to this list of disgruntled non-existent clients, Aramex.



Ad Agency: FP7, Doha, Qatar
Creative Director: Fadi Yaish
Copywriter: Mohamed Diaa
Art Director: Maged Nassar
Photographer: Allen Dang - Wizard Photography
Illustrator: Karen
Account Supervisor: Charbel Mizher

Via: MediaME

According to Gulf News, Aramex apparently had not commissioned this ad by Fp7 Doha and had nothing to do with it (it's unfortunate then that this won Gold in the Dubai Lynx Awards). So far the Agency of the Year along with seven other awards have been withdrawn from the scamming agency. It was not enough that they created campaigns unbeknown to their 'supposed' clients, but they also went a step further with the Aramex one by copying an ad that had been executed, not once, but TWICE before. You'd think that one agency can't be that stupid, but there you have it.

Agency: FP7 Doha

Agency: DDB Brazil

The issue with this scandal is that its repercussions won't be limited to FP7 Doha, but it will create a ripple effect throughout the region. This is due to the simple truth that the region is always grouped into one entity by the rest of the world for some absurd reason. This is simply thoughtlessness on the part of Fp7 that will end up casting a very dark shadow on all advertising professionals in the Middle East. It's beyond disappointing to see this amount of irresponsibility, all just to get an award. It all horribly backfired, and it has gotten from bad to worse to downright ridiculous.

Lynx strips FP7 Doha of its crown

Dubai Lynx strips FP7 Doha of its Agency of the Year title and withdraws 7 of their awards.

After weeks of controversy, accusations, finger-pointing, lawsuits, client-approvals, pigs, nuns and Jesus Christ, the Lynx has decided to withdraw 2 Gold, 4 Silvers and 1 Bronze, as well the Agency of the Year award from FP7 Doha. 18 submissions in total were disqualified including work for Samsung, Higeen and Nissan.

“Even before the awards night, we had withdrawn a number of pieces of work from the competition but subsequently our investigation has found other pieces that were presented to the jury that infringed our requirement that all work presented must represent the client who approved it. Our rules are very clear with regards to this, and we have no hesitation in withdrawing these awards,” said Philip Thomas, CEO of Lynx organizers Cannes Lions, in a statement.

“The Dubai Lynx awards exist to celebrate and raise the creative bar of genuine work of the region. Activities like this show a disregard not only for the awards but more importantly for the juries who work so hard judging the event,” he added.

“Due to the scale of withdrawals we feel it inappropriate to honor FP7 Doha as Agency of the Year and so will be withdrawing the prize. I hope that this swift action makes clear our determination to build an award with true integrity for the region,” said Thomas.

Lance de Massi, president of the UAE chapter of the IAA, said: “In taking such swift action the Lynx organizers have demonstrated their understanding that in order to fulfill the purpose of incentivizing and rewarding creative excellence in the region, Lynx must safeguard compliance with the stated conditions of eligibility. To do otherwise would be to undermine credibility.”

Although the Lynx was at fault at first for letting in all these scandalous ads, I believe they’ve made up for most of it with what they’ve done today. This is a lesson to the whole industry.

Good riddance I say. I still believe the outdoor category needs work though. What works in print shouldn’t just be turned into a poster and thrown into the outdoor. Whatever happened to getting your message across in a few seconds? Look at last year’s Koleston Grand Prix winner and look at this year’s? There’s no contest really.

And then there’s still the Kwik and Aramex copycats.

And justice for all…