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The plot
thickens
Is the ad
world changing as fast as the audience?
Text and
photos by Tarek Atia
 I
was duped. After years of very careful ad watching, diligently taking
note of all the new techniques used by Egypt's advertisers to sell their
clients' wares, this one took me very much by surprise.
It all started with an ad on the
front page of the daily Al-Akhbar. Seemingly sponsored by the
Astronomical Studies Society, it announced the expected appearance of
the "star" Astra in the night skies over Egypt during the next
few days. The world's eyes will be watching Egypt, the ad claimed, since
this one of its kind star is rarely visible. It also said that an
amateur had already spotted the star and sent shots of it to
journalists. The astounding photo of outer space accompanying the ad was
supposedly one of those shots.
Several more such ads appeared in
subsequent weeks, listing phone numbers in Cairo and Alex to call for
additional information.
The ads turned out to be a new
campaign to arouse public excitement about the latest model of the Opel
Astra sedan. The numbers printed in the ad were not, as one would have
assumed, for the astronomical society listed as a source in the original
ad, but were actually the numbers of a GM dealership. A call revealed
the truth, as did an ad run subsequently in the daily Al-Ahram.
The gentleman at the GM dealership, however, confirmed that I was not
the only one fooled. Scores of callers, he said, had been inquiring
about the alleged star.
It was the most successful
example I had seen of what is becoming an annoyingly familiar ploy --the
surprise or series ad. Most of these teaser campaigns run in the papers
for weeks on end and feature way too much hype and too little substance.
A typical example: After weeks of
teaser ads indicating that soccer star Hossam Hassan was about to
announce some Spain-related news (was he about to be signed by Real
Madrid?), we find out that he's merely the spokesperson for a new
Northern Mediterranean coast resort called "The Spanish
Village". The resort boasts that its scenic vista was the preferred
spot chosen by both Hassan, and German military leader Rommel -- an odd
gimmick based on the fact that Rommel's battle against Montgomery during
WWII took place at nearby Al-Alamein.
It is in the disparity between
those two ads -- in style, concept and impact -- where the key question
regarding advertising's future in Egypt resides: namely, do Egypt's
ad-makers think the audience is smart or dumb?
Numerous other examples of both
world views abound. Compare the award-winning Mobinil TV ad featuring
singer Hakim running late for a concert and singing into his mobile
phone, which someone places next to the microphone on the empty stage
till he arrives, with another celebrity endorsement, the one featuring
actress Sanaa Gamil lecturing to us about the splendors of the
Dreamland residential neighborhood in a fake, syrupy tone.
Which is more memorable and is
the audience sophisticated enough for it to really matter anyway?
Smart ads are not just about
technical prowess -- such as the dynamic "close up" shots you
see on ads for face creams and shampoos that mainly target the young and
wanna-be hip -- but more about doing things differently, putting some
thought into it and appreciating the audience's intelligence.
Thanks to the humble dish, most
of today's viewers are sophisticated enough to know a good ad when they
see one, since they now have access to all the best ads from abroad.
Ironically, this may actually be one of the forces occasionally driving
local agencies into overdoing the slickness factor of their ads while
neglecting to measure the ad's efficacy in selling the product.
Perhaps another basic reason for
the slow migration from dumb to smart ads is that sex sells, and, for
many advertisers, dancing girls -- the longtime staple of the Egyptian
ad -- are still the way to go. Even if it's done in a very modern way,
like the hard-hitting, fast- moving Fayrouz Mango spot, featuring slick
and sexy youth dancing it up on a tropical beach to a great soundtrack.
Most of the time, as common
knowledge will tell you, it is easier to keep with the old. That may
have been the impetus behind the Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurants' recent
ads in Al-Ahram featuring a picture of Bruce Lee along with an
offer for a meal called the Kung Fu Express.
It is hard to tell whether this
chain of Chinese restaurants, which is trying to make Far Eastern food
more accessible to average Egyptians, is earnestly using this standard
cliché, or making fun of it in a post-modern way.
 In either case, the picture is
not all bleak. On TV, concept ads have gained a foothold of sorts. Many
are about longing and how a product can help you fulfill it. How else to
interpret the Pert Plus ad that shows a mechanic shampooing his head in
the sink after work then putting on a new T-shirt so that he can run
after a girl who dropped her scarf at his garage? Then there are the
crisp graphics on the new illuminated, large- format billboards lining
bridges like 6 October that have given the city's skyline just the right
modern metropolitan look to match its hopeful march into the global
economy.
On the pages of the papers,
meanwhile, creative ads continue to creep into the tepid world of print
advertising, gradually changing, in their own small way, how we view the
concept of a product.
A recent print campaign for the
Oriental Weavers carpet company, for instance, used an interesting
concept: that the carpets are so beautiful that strange things happen to
people who see them. One ad had a young man fainting from the beauty of
the carpet, another a guy so distracted by it that he didn't notice his
pants have caught on fire from the fireplace. Another revealed a carpet
in a museum so nice that one of the characters in a Greek mosaic on the
wall is bending down to take a closer look.
And in June, an ad on the front
page of Al- Akhbar urged consumers to be "different" by
buying a unique logo for their mobile phone screen. The natural result
is that everyone ends up being the same -- it becomes
"mandatory" to have a cool, mobile phone logo, albeit one
that's "different" from everybody else's.
All of these examples reveal that
some ad- makers are certainly busy pushing the trends, concepts and
ideas that should help drive the Egyptian consumer market closer to its
Western model.
What is actually quite telling,
though, is that despite the unceasing efforts of people like advertising
mogul Tarek Nour, the hoped-for buzz rarely seems to materialize in a
significant way. A while back, a large ad in the papers indicated that
Nour was the mastermind behind a new savings scheme involving coupons
that you cut out and redeem for discounts on products at local stores.
Had it caught on, we might have been one step closer to that brave new
world where "Save LE1.50 when you buy three" isn't just a
catchphrase, but a way of life.
As it is, something always seems
to stand in the way of the industry's, and the audience's, full
maturation -- not enough interest from the general public, too many
copycats and an inability to sustain creativity and management over long
periods of time are three factors that immediately come to mind.
Just look at the overwhelming
number of ads for phone-in prize contests that you see everywhere you
turn, and on every channel, all the time. By consistently aiming for the
lowest common denominator, the sheer volume of these mindless, gimmicky
marketing ploys are doing a horrible disservice to the industry as a
whole.
What they do provide, if
anything, is ample evidence of an unfortunate societal bent: that, as
always, those who are trying to make a quick buck today have the upper
hand over those who are looking to make even more money tomorrow.
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