Ants in my soda!

I cut on soda the past week, today I decided to have a 7-up with everyone else, apparently we found some gifts in our sodas… guess which restaurant!

Complained on the phone, and got new sodas instead (that we threw in the garbage), the ants were in the ice cubes.

9 Comments » // August 21st, 2008 // Tagged & Archived in Food+Drink, Kuwait

Visual Communication in KSA or what’s left of it

It is hard when you work on a brand, that is related to women and will be expanded to some countries with restrictions, such as Saudi Arabia.

According to Hani Alireza, “There are certain things about Saudi Arabia that really make it seem out of this world.” I do not personally see it out of world, I see it weird and do not have a strong background.

Advertising wise, women are not allowed to drive or be illustrated driving cars (so this is one, cars advertisements die here). Shops close five times a day for prayer time (at least 15-20 minutes everytime so you can’t promote open all-time), you can’t advertise smoking, movies, alcohol or have nice restaurant visuals, unless you do them indoor and no faces, of course restaurants have two different sections (no, not smoking or non-smoking…): one for families and a section for single men.

Hani also says: In outdoor adverting showing the faces of people within ads is problematic because of its link to aniconism and the fear of idolatry (meaning that it is prohibited to graphically represent figures of people or animals). So in order to deal with this notion the solution most commonly used is to pixelate the eyes or cover them entirely. In previous years another solution used to tackle aniconism in school books was to draw a line across the necks in illustrations of humans and animals.

So, according to this… how do you actually advertise a make-up store? or clothing? or even charity… I wonder!

Here’s something I did to Madonna’s CD Cover (god forgive me!)…

I think I need to put some neqab or hijab on her head and maybe blur her eyes and hide a bit of her neck, thinking of it again… the clothes are too tight maybe she’d look better in an abaya!

4 Comments » // August 19th, 2008 // Tagged & Archived in Ads+Campaigns, Advertising, Funny, Personal, Portfolio

KTC awards Leo Burnett Kuwait creative account…

Leo Burnett Kuwait, a leading creative agency, was recently awarded the creative account for the Kuwait Telecom Company (KTC) - the newest telecommunications company in the Gulf state.

The creative account, which will begin with the company’s launch, comes in addition to the successful ongoing partnership between Leo Burnett in Saudi Arabia and KTC’s mother company Saudi Telecom Company (STC).The Kuwait Telecom Company, which will be Kuwait’s third telecommunications operator, will offer mobile services throughout the country.

Speaking about KTC’s selection of Leo Burnett Kuwait, Mr. Salman Al Badran explained;

‘As a creative network, Leo Burnett Middle East and North Africa has consistently proven its scope of innovation and expertise across all sectors, with client successes spanning the borders of the entire region. Most importantly, we were highly impressed with Leo Burnett’s knowledge and understanding of the telecommunications sector, and the agency’s demonstration of how to efficiently communicate our company’s messages in Kuwait’s competitive telecoms landscape.‘

‘Our ongoing relationship with the agency in KSA has proven that Leo Burnett Kuwait is the natural choice, and with the agency’s unique mix of enthusiasm and dynamism, we are looking forward to working with the team for creating a real impact in the country with the KTC brand,’ he added.

The award of the KTC account is a strategic development for Leo Burnett’s Kuwait agency in terms of its continued portfolio growth; complementing the agency’s broad base of existing clients and leading the agency to double the size of its operations within the country.

Kamal Dimachkie, Managing Director of Leo Burnett Dubai and Kuwait commented; ‘At Leo Burnett we passionately believe in- and are committed to- building brands, and we are very excited to be extending our creative prowess to building the profile of KTC. The company will be a very real contender in Kuwait’s bustling telecoms sector, and we look forward to the challenge of soon making the KTC brand an industry leader.’

Rasha Al-Azem, General Manager of Leo Burnett Kuwait added; ‘There is such high potential for growth in the telecoms industry here, and creative agencies have a very significant role to play in this battle of the brands. This is an excellent opportunity for Leo Burnett Kuwait to demonstrate each of the capabilities that form the heart of the agency’s work.’

Leo Burnett Kuwait has received a number of important wins since commencing operations in 2007, including international restaurant chain Nando’s, and Starbucks - one of the most famous names in the worldwide coffee shop phenomenon. The agency currently extends its brand building expertise to a broad range of clients including the Avenues Mall - Kuwait’s largest shopping mall, Mabanee, Philip Morris, Kuwait-based Global Investment House, and Alshaya brands Vavavoom and Milano.

+ Source.

1 Comment » // August 18th, 2008 // Tagged & Archived in Ads+Campaigns, Advertising, Kuwait, Press