LIGHT-BLOODED ADVERTISING
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Successful advertisers push the boundaries of taste, class, decorum and sensibility, while having fun with their clients’ brands. The key to their funny ads is thehonesty of these ads—diving deep into the core of their brands. Yet they achievethis success by having fun, instead of “working.” Navigating your brand safelythrough the new advertising media takes more than a good punch line. Meticulousplanning, thorough understanding and flawless execution are as critical to yoursuccess as they are in telling a joke properly. Or else you become the joke.
If good humor comes from great pain, then the Egyptians have got to be some of the funniestpeople in the world. They call it ad-dammal-khafif, or “light blood.” It ’s the Egyptianterm for a sense of humor. Everyday, I seeEgyptians’ light, acidic blood work its magic.And they love to turn it upon themselves! Takefor example, the local English-language musicchannel. It’s called Melody Tunes. They playthe usual MTV fare, and are fairly up to date.The best part of watching the channel though,are their promotional videos—hilarious 30-second spots, where ordinary Egyptians makecomplete fools of themselves with popularwestern songs, sung in their heavy Egyptianaccents, in everyday scenarios.
Leo Burnett in Cairo put together these series of real-life-meets-pop-culture spots for theirclient, Melody Tunes.
The effort goes in exactopposition to the hipster feel of iPod spots,which suggest your writing rendition of thesoundtrack in your head is actually sexier thanit is.
The parodies also touch lightly on culturalmisunderstandings that occur when pop cultureis imported.
This is something we can especiallyrelate to, considering our mom thought“Hit Me Baby One More Time” was an anthem for masochists.
These 30- second promos do more than make us crack up with laughter, they inform us thatadvertising in the Middle East has reached anew level where Middle Eastern ads are nolonger mere copies of foreign material. Peoplein the region are now willing to have a nicelaugh at their own expense and are proud oftheir different lifestyle.