All Entries in the "3.Blogs & Comment" Category
As plain as the nose on my face
Ramsey Naja is chief creative officer, JWT MENA “You have to love the ad industry’s amazing propensity to talk about the obvious. Indeed, it does so to the point where it practically turns it into a social media phenomenon and a key feature of the lecture circuit. One dazzling example of that – a winner [...]
Do we really add anything?
Phil Lynagh is managing partner of LightBlue “I was out for dinner last night with an old friend and mentor and he said something which was infinitely brilliant in its simplicity. Let me paraphrase: “What we must do is add something, doesn’t matter what exactly, but we must add something, something that wasn’t there before.” [...]
Why groupthink is creativity’s biggest enemy
Ismail Al-Ghussein, manager – business development, TBWA\Raad “Groupthink is the concept of having many people go along in agreement with a discussion, essentially because either someone in authority has spoken and others are afraid to contradict their idea, or because in the silence of a discussion, each individual believes that others won’t agree with the [...]
Hard luck BB users
Jeddah-based Ghassan Kassabji, managing director, TBWA\Raad\Saudi Arabia “I am a BlackBerry user, most of my colleagues are and certainly, the majority of Saudi youth carry the device. The suspension of BlackBerry services in the UAE came as a surprise. And today, everyone woke up to read that Saudi Arabia will follow suit. BlackBerry offers a [...]
You can win at Cannes without playing the game
Mohamed Hamdalla, executive creative director at Leo Burnett Cairo and winner of a silver and bronze Lion at this year’s Cannes Lions festival “I learned something at Cannes this year. Something that I would like to tell to every talented young creative in the Middle East that dreams about winning at Cannes: you can win [...]
‘A momentous year for Egyptian television’
Ali Ali, creative director of Elephant Cairo, talks about this year’s Cannes festival and winning two Lions Well, it was an unforgettable week. The 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival was good for the region and groundbreaking for Egypt. We haven’t won a single Lion (nor a TV shortlist) in 56 long years. My silver [...]
UAE print media is lost in the dark
It’s been an uninspired and depressing couple of weeks for traditional media in the UAE, with both magazines and newspapers floundering in the midst of declining adspend and the rising influence of digital. It won’t come as much of a surprise to many to hear that Emirates Business 24/7 will cease publication next month, leaving [...]
Three magazines suspended
So, Dubai-based publishing company ENG Media is to stop publication of its titles, according to the Kippreport. The magazines are Media Week, Insider, and men’s title IQ. The Kippreport article states that the ‘temporary suspension’ of the titles has been implemented while ENG fights a legal case with Fujairah Media, the free zone through which [...]
Cannes Lions glory could be out of reach
If I were a betting man and someone had offered me decent odds, I would have placed a wager on the winners of this year’s Dubai Lynx and made a tidy sum. But I didn’t. And no one offered me odds either. I’m not going to bet on the Cannes Lions festival either – the [...]
Less of the stupid and less of the pretension
By Ramsey Naja, chief creative officer, JWT MENA “Stupid; and pretentious to boot”. As a means to sum up a person, this Lebanese phrase is one of the most insightful you can find. It’s the kind of thing that military personnel should wear as a badge, along with anything connected with pomp and circumstance. But [...]
