Ottawa messes up in Arabic anti-pot ad

"Whatever they’ve been smoking up in Ottawa, Canada, it’s caused them to royally screw up the Arabic version of a billboard encouraging people not to drive under the influence of marijuana. 'The first time, I thought it wasn’t Arabic,' one Arabic speaker tells CBC News. The problem? Both the sentence and the individual words in it are written backwards—left to right, instead of right to left. (You can see the fixed version of the ad here.) 'This is an embarrassment for the city,' a councilman points out. The city says it used a professional translation firm to create the ad, and tested it on a focus group. The error, says a spokesman, occurred during production. Where have we heard that before?"

(corrected version)

Trying to find the messed-up version of the ad - will post it if/when I do.

(credit: adfreak.com)

Horny Goat Weed

They look happy, don't they? A friend of mine (thanks Omar!) spotted this wacky poster at a pharmacy at the Crowne Plaza, Dubai. I had to share it with you. Now you know where to go when you run out.

If anyone's in need of a brand naming consultant, Horny Goat Weed would be it. Jokes aside though, I did do some more research on this thing and apparently there's quite an interesting history to Horny Goat Weed.

"Horny Goat Weed is used in traditional Chinese medicine and is native to China. Hundreds of years ago, a goat herder noticed incessant sexual behaviour in his goats. He observed the goats and noticed whenever they ate certain weeds, the goats promiscuous behaviour became even more noticeable - hence Horny Goat Weed...[it] has been used as an aphrodisiac for hundreds of years and research has also proven its effects in improving sexual desire and performance."

A good ad for a change

(Credit: Partners, Portugal)

This just goes to show that not all Mitsubishi ads are as bad as the one in the previous post.

Who comes up with this stuff?!

I almost got retinal detachment when I saw this ad. Sorry to have to share this with you. Please note the details in the visual (sand on her designer shoes) and read the inspired copy (this line cracked me up "Pajero was not created for adventure. Adventure was created for it"). Who comes up with this stuff?!

Not quite right

(photo taken at Emaar Business Park)

Kinder boy now a man

Here's a story I missed from last year. Still, found it interesting enough to post.

“Guenter Euringer, whose dazzling smile has helped sell millions of boxes of chocolate bars, is now 42 and ready to talk about his secret life as an icon. His autobiography, The Chocolate Child, was launched in Munich on Tuesday. The question he is always asked is how much he earned for the advertisement - and the answer, he says, is just 300 Deutschmarks (150 euros or £100). Curiously, Mr Euringer's face has begun to be replaced on Kinder chocolates in Switzerland in recent weeks”

(credit MIT Laboratory for Branding Cultures , BBC)

Anything else is just pants...

I was flipping through an old magazine at my brother's place the other day and this ad just leapt out. It did one thing right - it's so horrifyingly bad that you can't help but notice it.

Here's the copy:

"HOM is not just anybody. The target is the active man whatever his age.
He’s a winner!
He succeeds and is seductive in both his professional and private life.
HOM overturns and changes habits in underwear, homewear and beachwear
HOM forces respect as a leader and sets the trends for tomorrow’s fashion
At the age of great ambitions, HOM’s dynamism and expertise means that best is yet to come!"

I don't know what's sadder - the ad or this mental image I have of the copywriter adding it to his portfolio blissfully unaware of just how bad it is. I won't even comment on the model's "come hither" look.

What exactly are you trying to tell me?

(Spinneys, Dubai)

This is obviously a store sponsored promotion not approved by the Kraft brand team. Bad news: not sure this is really going to get sales to peak. Good news: the alternative prize the sales force had considered was a session of liposuction - the overwhelming majority, however, felt the treadmill was more "aspirational".

Next month check out the snacks aisle where you've got a chance to win a free cholesterol check with every Butterlicious pack of microwaveable popcorn you buy.

Brand torture

I'd like to propose a new measurement tool to evaluate brand power from a consumer perspective. It has to do with determining the following: How much suffering are you willing to endure in order to get your hands on heavily discounted items of brand X? Take today for instance: Diesel has a massive 80% sale at its warehouse in Al Quoz, Dubai.

Temperature outside: a sizzling 40 degrees.
Temperature inside: a cool 39.5 degrees (this is Celsius btw for our friends in the States).
# of people in queue to get into store at any given time: 100.
Frequency of people getting into store: 5 people every 20 minutes.
# of people in queue at dressing room: 15
Frequency of people getting into dressing room: 1 person every 30 minutes
# of people in queue at cash register: 80 people (starting from ground floor and snaking their way up a spiral staircase onto 2nd floor)
Frequency of people paying and leaving: 1 person every 20 minutes
Temperature halfway down spiral staircase: 45 degrees
Last had a drink of water: 3 hours ago
Last straw: when word got out that the cash register was no longer accepting Visa and only taking cash

Considering all the above, I start to think to myself "would I ever put myself through this for just any brand?" which is when I realize that the Shit U Put Up With is directly correlated to the power of the brand. The SUPUW factor for Diesel in this case is a very high-pitched "bring it on!"

Do your eyes need 'moist'? Her eyes apparently do.

(spotted at Mall of the Emirates, Dubai)

VW Beetle

This is exactly why I don't drive a Beetle - I just take things too seriously. This campaign's just brilliant. I've yet to see a VW print or TV ad that I haven't found to be atypical of automotive industry advertising in general. Their ads always seem to break new ground. If anyone finds a chink in the armour of VW advertising, please send it across. Until then, VW I worship you...take me to your planet!

VW Beetle

VW Beetle

credit: Fallon, Singapore

A Fajita and Tabbouli to go please

(photos taken on Diyafah Road, Dubai)

What have we got here? A Lebanese grill restaurant with a twist as evident in the poster at their entrance. I personally don't know the financial situation of the owners of this place, but I can confidently say if you're after customers this certainly isn't the way to go. Want to make a difference? Then how about getting back to basics, relooking at your brand proposition and actually living up to it. Not a single Lebo restaurant I know here has been able to really capture the vibe of Beirut nor get right the amount of garlic and pickles in a chicken shawarma. With a restaurant named 'Beirut' I'd think that's as good a place to start as any. So spare us the Fajitas for pity's sake. I'll pass by in a month's time and I hope by then that poster's down.

Who says falcons don't like fruit?

I got caught in some serious traffic near the office yesterday. Thankfully, this Capri-Sonne van provided some much needed entertainment as there was nothing good on the radio. Note the two falcons - one perched on the grapes (of course) and the other on the apple stem. Funny juxtaposition isn't it? Brief to creatives: "Show how Capri-Sonne appreciates local culture." Bravo.

Lego adds some colour

Won Eurobest Silver 2005
Credit: Advance, Copenhagen

85% off

We don't just slash off the prices during the Dubai Shopping Festival. The spelling is also 85% off!

(pictures from Rigga Street in Deira)

Michael Jackson spotted in Bahrain

There are just too many things to say about this picture. So for once I will refrain. I give you MJ, dressed in a woman's abaya in Bahrain with his son. Words just fail.

Fancy a ride on the Freij Wheel?

You don't see enough Freij Wheels these days (not to be mistaken for the Ferris Wheel, invented by George W. Ferris). I spotted this one at a parking lot in Deira - part of the cancelled shopping festival activities, no doubt. Mr. Freij, wherever you are, thank you.

Happy New Year Happy New Year

It's that time of year, around Christmas and New Year when a familiar sound fills the air. Not xmas tunes in shopping malls, nor fireworks or champagne bottles exploding - but that all too repeated sound of 'beep beep' signalling yet another SMS.

I have never received as many SMS's as I have in the span of the last 1.5 weeks. I've got nothing against a nice warm message from friends, mind you, but when it's the typical mindless blurb of a corny holiday card that appears on my phone...then I really start getting annoyed. It's amazing that people have become so lazy and uninspired that they end up just forwarding the same cheesy lines to the rest of the people on their address book. So do us all a favour, for next December - try to be a little more creative, a lot more personal and a lot less lazy. That should be number 1 on all our New Year's resolutions. Write a card, phone your friends/family, and at the very least write your own darned SMS message instead of relying on someone else's cheesy uninspired lines.

I leave you with an SMS message I received from a total of 5 different people, who all took time out to forward it to me - personalizing it of course with their name at the end - so heartfelt it brings tears to my eyes.

'may the coming new year bring all the happiness and peace to the world'