Advertising and Creativity in the UAE on the 35th National Day of the United Arab Emirates December 2, 2006
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising, Advertising in Dubai, Advertising in the UAE, American Garden, Arabic Advertising, Copywriting, Etisalat, Home Centre, Leo Burnett, Marketing, The Classic Partnership, UAE National Day, du , trackbackThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) celebrates its National Day on 2 December. Occasions and celebrations like this one are a good time to check out and compare ads - the playing field being somewhat level even though each brand might have a different take on the same occasion. Here are a few ads from the UAE that caught my attention. Your feedback is welcome, as always, in the comments section of this post.
American Garden Ad - Way to this man’s heart
Credits: Face 2 Face (Thanks to Mohamed Somji who has supplied the credits for this one and explained why this ad was taken off the mupies in the comments section)
The ad above was my favourite this year. Fresh, relevant to the brand, and very tasty looking. If you haven’t already noticed, I have a weakness for appetising ads.
du Ad - Don’t you just luuurv these cute beoble?
Credits: Is it Leo Burnett? They’re handling du, but I don’t know if this was created by du or by the guys responsible for Freej - Lammtara Pictures.
It’s just amazing the way du has adopted these adorable characters - excellent strategy to win the hearts and minds, at least of the local community. Freej is a local Emirati animation series which made its debut this Ramadan and du is the new telco in town in the UAE, now competing with Etisalat which had been the sole telco operator in the Emirates till earlier this year. Ready made brand ambassadors for du, solid corporate support for the film makers - I’m a believer in such strategic partnerships.
I wish they’d translate Freej and introduce expat characters in there too - to make both the series and the appeal international. If that does happen, remember, you read it here first. Hey, if you think of having a weird Indian character in there, you know who to call for writing the dialogues!
So, what do you think of these ads? Did you see or make any other that you would like to see on my blog? Comment, email, call - our lines are open, now…
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Advertising, Advertising in the UAE, United Arab Emirates, UAE, UAE National Day, Leo Burnett, The Classic Partnership, American Garden, Freej, du, Lammtara Productions, Creativity, Dubai, Marketing
Comments»
I don’t care for Freej and don’t understand it. Nothing appealing about it to me.. but maybe because I am not into watching 3d cartoons of veiled women. Then again, I love the American Garden advert. Simple and beautiful.
Welcome DMO, good to hear from a fellow media blogger. You write good stuff on your blog.
I don’t understand what the Freej characters say much either - but I’ve always wanted to see local-flavoured creative output and Freej looks like it. I think the stories are set in a little villa in Satwa. Adding some expats will really add some fun
farrukh
Uff it has been ages! What are you doing? Salams by the way
Hope you are doing well. Do drop by although I shall be gone a while myself now. Wishing you an Eid Mubarak and a good and happy year. And kya bakwaas hai? Your other blog only allows comments from team members.
Salams to you Shaykha. Good to see you here.
Thanks for pointing out that thing about my writing blog - settings gone awry -I fixed it. Everyone’s invited to comment on my blogs.
Hi Farrukh,
I stumbled across your site. I was in fact the American Garden Marketing Director at the time this ad went to press. Face 2 Face were the creative agency behind the ad and we thought it was very good except the Municipality didn’t and ordered us off the mupies circuit fortunately towards the end - they thought it was not right for the flag to be depicted in the way it was which was odd considering we already had approval beforehand from them!!
Thanks for your feedback and appreciate the comments.