06 October 2006

BEIRUT: While Israel warplanes were destroying nearly all of Lebanon's bridges this summer, the iconic character of Johnnie Walker, with his top hat and waistcoat, was striding over his own destroyed bridge, rendered in gold, seemingly without a care in the world. While petrol was dwindling throughout the country during Israel's land, sea and air blockage, he was strolling next to a fuel gauge indicating "empty," oblivious of the implications.

And while foreigners and Lebanese nationals with dual citizenship were evacuating from the country in droves, a signpost with the names of the countries to which many were fleeing included one arrow that was marked "Lebanon" and pointed toward Johnnie Walker.

The advertising campaign was the second of its kind to respond to the 34-day Israeli offensive on Lebanon, after Banque Audi billboards reading, "No matter how many clouds accumulate, the sun will shine on Lebanon," which went up during the war itself.

The purpose of the first was to improve the country's morale, explains Farid Chehab, chief creative officer for Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East for Leo Burnett, the agency that created both advertisements. The second, according to Leo Burnett's marketing manager, was intended to send a message of hope.

A few days after the onset of these campaigns, all of Beirut's major advertising agencies entered the fray. New billboards spread quickly, conveying images of determination and promises of a better future.

Among these highly responsive ads is a poster of a broken bridge linked by a rainbow stretched over City Mall above the slogan "Hope is unbreakable," along with a line at the end of a TV commercial for Dewar's whisky that says: "Peace forever, Dewar's forever."

Only one major advertising agency opted not to join the competition to brand the war: Saatchi & Saatchi, the company partly responsible for swiftly creating the "Independence 05" logo that appeared on stickers, pins and posters in the immediate aftermath of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination last year.

Eli Khoury, Saatchi & Saatchi's chief creator officer, says there are two reasons why his agency did not advise its clients to do advertisements about the war. First, he says he and his team didn't want to do "me too's" after Leo Burnett broke the ground, although Khoury says he found both campaigns impressive.

Second and more importantly, he says he has doubts as to whether or not what happened in Lebanon this summer requires praise.

"It was basically a disaster," he says. "Deep down I had no conviction that we should celebrate or even encourage people to accept the fact that their country is consistently under threat."

Before telling people to be hopeful, Khoury says something should change. "Otherwise we will be telling them: 'Fine, so what? We will rebuild again,' which means it is going to happen again, and again we are going to rebuild. No. This is a habit which should stop. It is actually a redundant and stupid and horrible habit."

Instead of encapsulating the war in commercial imagery, Khoury spent his time during the siege drafting an anti-war campaign, which, much to his chagrin, has not been adopted by anyone.

"To celebrate the war or even to tell people [to] build and build again that was not something we could do," he says. "Instead came the anti-war campaign. I suggested it to many parties but ... I will be responsible for holding the torch against the war alone.

"If we want to fight the concept of war, we have to do it all together," he adds, "so any anti-war campaign has to be a collective campaign like 'Independence 05.'"

So why did the clients of creative agencies decide to advertise during the war and moreover, why did they decide to change brand imagery to one message related to a new and specific situation?

Dani Richa, a managing director and chief creative officer at BBDO Impact, the agency that developed the Dewar's and City Mall campaigns, explains that in his view, individual brands have a strong relationship with people, almost like a friendship. Therefore, they have to be there for them through thick and thin, for better or worse.

"A true friend is a friend that is there at bad and good times and asks about you and stands by your side all the time," he says. "For these brands, this was their way of expressing solidarity with their customers and showing commitment to Lebanon. They tried to send them messages of hope when people were in desperate need of news, good news.

"And having these brands speaking of the brighter tomorrow and of commitment when everybody was leaving the country injected a lot of optimism and positive energy in the country, in the economy and in people's hearts and minds. So there was a need to do that," he explains. "And together under the sound of the bombs, we were finishing work and delivering work. If [clients] want to ask people to be loyal to their brands, then they should also be loyal to the people."

For Abi Saleh of Leo Burnett, reacting to the war was normal because advertising is a reflection of what people think and feel at any given time.

"It is normal that we react along with our clients when we find a specific connection that we need to discuss or to put out in a certain message," she argues. "It is a reaction followed by an initiative."

She says that in the case of the Banque Audi advertisements, the client requested the campaign - a week after the war began - to send a message of hope.

Saleh acknowledges that the request took the agency by surprise, especially at a time when most people were looking to leave Lebanon, once again ravaged by war.

The following day, however, they started brainstorming the subject. The bank approved the idea and in three days the campaign was executed.

"It provoked a fantastic reaction, the kind ... we were looking for and so was the client," says Saleh, "a reaction of positivism, of hope, that despite everything there is still hope."

But not all ad agencies followed the same approach.

Sabine Abi Farah, a creative director at Grey, explains that unless a campaign translates into something concrete, there is no point. In fact, the only ads Grey produced that make reference to the war were the ones for Byblos Bank, after it announced it would finance the rebuilding of the war-damaged Fidar Bridge.

Abi Farah says she is all for campaigns that herald an effective contribution to a situation. "But if it is a message saying: 'We are here, we are all supportive,' I mean, how does that translate physically?"

While war-related advertising attracted considerable attention and generated mostly positive reactions from local audiences, many clients and agencies alike believe people are now fed up with them.

"Advertising mirrors the society, the country and the economy, and when these are hurting, so is advertising, and that is why some of the ads are emotional and sad. They have hope but they are also full of emotion," explains Richa.

"[The war] was a bad chapter," he adds. "From a business perspective, we would like to pretend that nothing happened.

"We want tourists to come back. We want confidence to come back. And we want

investors to come back," he says. "So if we keep reminding them about the war, we haven't done anything.

"And if you are trying to say that life is back to normal," he concludes, "then it should be back to normal."