Apology

An apology for the lack of posts for the last past days, because things came up and were out of my control. Hopefully will be back soon with more interesting posts, after settling down back in Leeds. And of course after facing the new year at university which its filled with challenges.

Good luck everyone and God help us all!!

Toyota Service 2

Another ad for Toyota Service by GMASCO advertising company in Dubai. I think its more powerful than the previous one that I added few days ago.

Using a fake care part and make it look like a gun is a genius idea that I mostly liked. Which the smoke from it shows very realistic as a gun shot. And the use of light of the second ad with the arrows to point it has horse power but with tiger's speed referring to the wheels. Not to mention the third ad that the human hand is painted as a cheetah saying the fastest car service.

This campaign is very impressing to promote for a car service better than the normal ads that we usually see.

Salvador Dali

I'm a huge fan for the Surrealist artist Dali.
But what we most didn't know that he was starring in some commercials.

Very lame and cheesy adverts, but it was something at that time.

SLR Power

I don't really have to add anything to it.

Everything you need to know is there.

Clear statement!

I like the car though.

Dark Cloud

WWF wanted to show how much carbon monoxide from a car can pollution the air. It is because of driving the car for one day or less. It was done by Ogilvy company in Beijing, the originality of the concept and the execution is great work by them.

Nothing like a visual depiction to cause an impact and awareness to the public!

Girls of Riyadh

Banat Al Riyadh "Girls of Riyadh" which was widely known among young adults through Internet groups at first. The novel unfolds as every week after Friday prayers, the anonymous narrator sends an e-mail to the female subscribers of her online chat group. In fifty such e-mails over the course of a year, we witness the tragicomic reality of four university students-Qamra, Michelle, Sadim, and Lamis-negotiating their love lives, their professional success, and their rebellions, large and small, against their cultural traditions.

While this novel offers a distinctly Arab voice, it also represents the mongrel culture and language of a globalized world, reflecting the way in which the Arab world is being changed by new economic and political realities. Riyadh is the larger setting of the novel, but the characters travel all over the world shedding traditional garb as they literally and figuratively cross over into Western society.

Only last year I read the book, when a publishing company tracked the trace of the anonymous author who sends the groups e-mails for people around the Arabian Gulf Region. Its had really captured me about reading it and how other girls from different culture are considered to be lucky not to be in Saudi Arabia. The novel is written in informal Arabic/Saudi. That I had few problems to understand it, although I've seen an article saying they had translate the novel into more than 20 different languages.

I recommend anyone who wants to know about the culture of Saudi Arabia to read it. In the other Middle Eastern regions is not as strike as there.

Toyota Service

Another advert by Gmasco company in Dubai. Presenting a new service by Toyota for regular check ups on your car. The modeling of the car parts and shape it as a human heart and spine is really good and creative idea to present the new service.

The background colors are alright but if it was without the texture; I think it will look much better. Maybe they were trying to use something new, but the shadow effects let us accept the ad without looking for flaws.

Images: AdBlogArabia

Beauty on Balance

How does one judge beauty?

For many, beauty is entirely subjective. To others it is something to calculate precisely. But beauty in all its forms can be described as the perfect marriage between balance and proportion.
Consider the 12th century mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. He discovered the beauty of balance in a simple sequence of numbers, each being the sum of the preceding two (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so forth). This sequence is also known as the Golden Ratio (1:1.618).

The Golden Ration is found throughout nature, from the symmetry of a nautilus shell to the proportions of our very own DNA. And ever since Fibonacci, it has stood as the benchmark designers, artists and architects have used for centuries to achieve aesthetic perfection.

As we will discover, wherever the beauty of balance is expressed, the result is satisfying, captivating and often seductive.

In the article by MSN "Open Design" remind me of the Design Theory classes that I had to undertaken a face I think it was beautiful of the opposite sex and try to equal it to the Golden Ratio. In this article you can learn about the human face, vehicle design and architecture proportion for the Fibonacci series.

The Scourge of Arial

Arial is everywhere. If you don't know what it is, you don't use a modern personal computer. Arial is a font that is familiar to anyone who uses Microsoft products, whether on a PC or a Mac. It has spread like a virus through the typographic landscape and illustrates the pervasiveness of Microsoft's influence in the world.

Arial's ubiquity is not due to its beauty. It's actually rather homely. Not that homeliness is necessarily a bad thing for a typeface. With typefaces, character and history are just as important. Arial, however, has a rather dubious history and not much character. In fact, Arial is little more than a shameless impostor.

I found the article very interesting considering the typefaces we use, it remind me of the brief we had to do in our first year. In the article they compare the usage of Arial on PCs and Helvetica typeface on Mac computers.

The rest of the article could be found in this website: http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html

BMW 3 Series

The ad of BMW 3 series is wonderful. It appears that they have spent a long time to film this advert.
They way that the car can save your life, from how women were seducing the groom by throwing their underwear is quite funny!

Maybe a man will think to buy a BMW hoping that he will get the same attention.

Intelligent wash

Found this ad in GMASCO website, a well known advertising company based in Dubai. Its an advert for a washing machine by SANYO, the thing which its quite creative is taking the piles of clothes and sheets to be shaped like a human brain to show the sense of intelligence for the washing machine. I most like the use of colors for the piles of clothes, not only that it shows that it can all fit there nearly 7 Kilos (15lbs).

Very creative, indeed intelligent!

Not Here But Now

Amnesty International in Switzerland launched an award-winning human rights awareness campaign, “Not Here But Now”, using outdoor poster s on walls in Swiss cities in June 2006. The aim of the campaign was to remind people that human rights violations were occurring within a few hours flight from Swiss cities.

Swiss cities are linked with troubled zones: Gaza and Zurich, Somalia and Geneva, Israel and Basel, Iraq and Basel, China and Geneve, Liberia and Winterthur. This poster here is Gaza and Zurich.

The “Not Here But Now” campaign won a Gold Outdoor Lion at Cannes International Advertising Festival 2007.

Rugby in Paris

Paris Ile-de-France, the French regional tourism committee, is promoting Paris as the venue in which rugby and love come together with a controversial print campaign featuring kissing rugby union players.

With the Rugby Union World Cup in France this September, the locals are gearing up to demonstrate their capacity for humour. The campaign, online at C’est So Paris (www.cestsoparis.com), shows front row members of a scrum locking lips. Other members of the scrum have their hands placed in what could be taken to be amorous positions.

The text: “Enjoy rugby in the capital of love”.

Virgin Money - Everlasting Love

Bill and Glenys Ferguson get friendly in their garden in Lawnton, north of Brisbane. “Would it turn you on if we trimmed your rates?”

"Our love can help you make a baby."

Aleme and Osman Gjolej in the shower using only the “hand bra” to cover themselves. “Once a year we’ll give you the once over.”

Virgin Money in Australia is encouraging loyalty in the mortgage market with Everlasting Love Home Loan campaign, a series of light hearted print advertisements featuring senior citizens in loving relationships. The campaign, developed at BWM, Sydney, promotes a new mortgage which gives customers a .01 per cent cut in their rate after three years and a further .01 per cent cut after five years.

The Daily Telegraph says: "THERE is nothing virginal about Virgin Money's new home loan campaign showing wild sex romps between elderly lovers."

More info: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22353903-5001021,00.html?id=

Cadbury's Advert

Cadbury had launched their new advert. Why not use a gorilla? When the gorilla feels the song and all in a sudden it comes to life.

So, chocolate, Phil Collins and a Gorilla...works more than perfect!

Thank you!

I would like to thank AdBlogArabia, MediaMe and I like advertising for their blogs and posts that I've been collecting from them. Not to mention all the other sites that I can't really indicate who they are; thanks for the search engine Google.

AdBlogArabia and MediaMe had posted many advertising and marketing campaigns that were held in the Middle East. That I was fascinated and had kept an eye on it to enrich my knowledge about the Middle Eastern advertising. Funny, how the Admin was looking at my own little humble student's blog, have no idea how he got here!

Thank you sir for enlightening me!

MTC - Zain

Few days ago, I had post about this new marketing campaign teasing the public in the media and not much people knows what is it. My friend who works for MTC Vodofone told me about the company changing their brand and cutting any official agreements with Vodofone in the world. By having a new company and name through the Middle East.

They had transferred the head quarters officially to Bahrain. And there have been ceremonies and parties by bringing singers for the new launch of the new company. Too bad I couldn't take pictures of the billboards around the country because I'm always driving through the roads.

Blog Tech

Blogs Make Tech Impact: 78% of Tech Journalists Read Them

Ten percent of tech journalists report that changes in social medial have dramatically impacted they way they work, indicating, "I feel as if I have a new job now," according to recent research from Fusion PR.

Seventy-eight percent of tech bloggers say they read blogs, 31% say they regard bloggers as credible sources, and 67% say they cite bloggers in their articles. Forty-nine percent read between one and three blogs, and the majority of tech journalists read blogs several times a day.
Other findings:

* 40% of tech journalists say social media has impacted their stories and the way they cover news.

* 35% of tech journalists say they maintain their own blog.

* The majority of tech journalists turn to search engines to research companies and trends.

Nike - Just do it!

Nike's adverts to show the real meaning of their slogan "Just Do It", an athletic with disability that beaten the world record to be the fastest thing on Earth without legs. The motivation to give disable people the opportunity to be a mark in sports history is excellent.

Nothing can stop someone from achieving their dreams. This is one strong marketing for a sport brand than using the usual sports icons.

It says on the poster:
"I was born without bones below the knee.
I only stand 5 FT 2
but this is the body I have been given.
This is my weapon.
How I conquer. How I wage my war.
This is how I have broken the world record.
How I become the fastest thing on no legs.
This is my weapon.
This is how I fight."

Oscar Pistorius, Paralympic World Record Holder.

Diesel - Global warming

Comment #1:
Diesel is exploiting global warming for for business purposes. It is ignorant of you to think foul of a company doing so if they are in fact working on reducing their environment impact. The real question that you should be raising is what is Diesel doing as a company to reduce their environmental impact? Are they using more organic material? In order for global warming to really be taken on, it has to be recognized as profitable. It’s not like all these business are just going to stop because of global warming. Would not it be a good thing if a company, like Diesel, saw an opportunity in global warming to reach an ever growing market of greener customers by reducing their environmental impact?

Comment #2:
These ads are awful. Diesel is exploiting the problem of global warming for advertising and business purposes. Its making global warming seem cool and fashionable - like hey, if we destroy the environment, then it’ll be like the Bahamas all the time! This is misleading and horrifying.

Do you agree on Diesel using Global warming effects when the whole world trying to reduce its impact by promoting their new range of summer clothes?

Well, its not called Diesel without a reason.

Ugly Betty

Ambient marketing to unleash the arrival of Ugly Betty on Channel 2 in New Zealand. Using a paper bag to hide it was really clever, so the public curiosity will tune on channel two Tuesday night at 8:30.

Its quite a simple idea but yet clever.

P- Mate, Pee Free

This stunt was for P-Mates a disposable, biodegradable product that makes it possible for women to pee standing up. To drive trial where the product was most needed (i.e. dirty public toilets), we reversed the men¹s and women's washroom signs at a local bar. Stepping into the washroom, women were met with signage on the floor, over the sink, the urinal and in the stall. With free P-Mate samples mounted on the signs and trial offer coupons printed on nearby toilet paper, it only took a few brave women to spark a chain reaction that spilled out of the washroom, onto the street and into neighboring bars.

Agency: Big House Communications, Vancouver, Canada Associate.

Animal

I found this picture without any title. I really can't figure out for what have they taken it or anything. And I am not sure exactly what kind of animal is it, could be a weasel though.

You can see the fear and terror in the animal eyes, as looking for help to get out from the cage he has been trapped in it. I guess this picture can be used for animal rights and protect these animals from killing for their fur.

Dancing Bird

I found another poster for the Design Awards events which will be held in United Arab of Emirates. It feels that they took the concept of the Yellow Pencil from D&AD and just transfer it to their Dancing Bird ceremony.

On the poster it says "Money, Fame, Career. One winning design can change your life."

I still think they could do better with the poster to promote it. Its not an eye catching poster and the slogan appears to be very direct than showing creativity.

Brand Camp

At term time, I'm very sure that everyone gone through this circle of not knowing what does the brief really wants or needs. Have you ever gone through various tutors with only one work of design you have done? And all of them had different opinions? That you had changed every single color, angle, background, idea, concept, type, font etc? Not having a clue who is right and which tutor you should follow his guidance? Which tutor that will take you to the Holly Path of Design?

I'm sure we all suffered from the various of opinions and the mood changes of the faculty.

Just a way to tell you: "You are not alone".

C3

Using 2 famous Optical Illusion images (changed original colors to match the company’s corporate colors), they tried to show that the conclusion people would chose as an answer, rely on how they see or conceive from analyzing these shapes. The Continuous Creativity Company believes that these different and various opinions generates results. How this apply to their business. Their motto is: "Since we are results oriented, we will come up with a work that might generate different emotions or opinions, but give the result that the client is seeking”.

“Advertised brand: C3 (Corporate Ad)
Advert title: Results Oriented
Advertising Agency: C3 (C Cube)
Published/Released: Summer 2006 - Cannes Lions of summer ‘2006 - Communicate Mag.

Zain

In the past two days, this advert is everywhere in the media around Bahrain. It appeared it wasn't only in Bahrain it is even in UAE and Kuwait.
Every newspaper and when I was driving today on the highway the only thing I saw in the whole way was continuous billboard of this advert. And I don't know what is it exactly!

Found the website which it is only teasing us the public.

http://zain.com/

Wild Wadi

Simple and neat ad created by Ogilvy One Dubai for Wild Wadi, an Arabian themed water park located in Dubai and considered one of the best water parks in the regions.

The ad features a floatation aid shaped like a "no entry" sign to communicate the fact that Wild Wadi will be closed for a certain period in September, nice one!

Design Event

This poster is for a Design Event in Dubai, thinking about it it doesn't really make any relevant to the event. It does not show any clear statement about the relevant of the subject of the Design Awards ceremony.

For something that matters, think they should work on it a bit more.