Chapter 116\ Qatari, the language we failed to speak

My childhood hometown of Aley was called the bride of Lebanese summer resorts. Rich Gulf Arabs fled the heat of their own countries and came to spend their summers in its pleasant climate and to enjoy its vibrant nightlife. My father awaited the Kuwaitis and Qataris because they were the best clients at his pharmacy. I remember him saying that business during the three months of summer kept the pharmacy going for the remainder of the year.

The name “Qatar” had stuck in my mind in the cold winter of 1970, when Aley was covered with snow, because Fouad Joujou, an old boy scout friend of mine who had established a film production company, came to my house seeking help with directions to the summer palace of Sheikh Ali Bin Abdallah Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar. Fouad had been commissioned to film the palace covered with snow and to send the film to Doha.

My first visit to Qatar, however, didn’t take place until three years later, when I travelled with Bill Smallman of Gillette to Doha, where we were booked to stay at the Gulf Hotel. There I discovered that Qatar was not a dry country, as I had been told prior to my visit. At the end of our first working day, my client asked me to accompany him to the fifth floor of the hotel, where we walked to the end of the corridor to suite 520. Bill knocked on the door in a strange rhythm and soon afterwards a uniformed hotel employee peeped around the partly open door before inviting us to enter a bar that was packed like I’d never seen before.

In December 1989, we established the GCCAA and began holding quarterly board meetings in rotation amongst the member states. The Qatari members of the board – Yousuf Al Darwish, founder and CEO of Oryx Publishing & Advertising, together with Nasser Al-Othman, editor-in-chief of Al Raya newspaper – made sure we were exposed to the Doha of the Eighties, when we held the first board meeting in their city.

GCC Advertising Board Meeting in Doha

Qatar dropped from my markets of interest until TBWA\RAAD was established and the agency retained by Nissan Middle East. At that stage, the new client began questioning why we were not in Qatar and why we were not handling the dealer advertising there. Miyoshi-San recommended that we approach Hisham Al Mana, the owner and CEO of the dealership, who put us in contact with his general manager, Abdel Wahab Itani. Itani instantly responded, saying our approach was too late, since Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co had decided to establish an in-house agency in partnership with one of the leading regional players. He said he had reached an advanced stage of preparation for the implementation of this plan with the help of Publicis Qatar’s general manager, Fadi Chalhoub. We then had to go to Hisham Al Mana with the support of Nissan Middle East to remind the dealer that TBWA was Nissan’s global agency, and that it was to its advantage that it partnered with us. Itani continued to resist and the only way we were able to overcome his resistance was to take on Fadi Chalhoub as the manager of TBWA\RAAD Qatar.

Throughout the partnership, Al Mana did not trust his own agency to handle the advertising for Nissan, which they kept rotating amongst small local agencies. Then, after celebrating TBWA\RAAD Qatar’s major win of Qatar Entertainment City, the client shortcut us by going directly to the agent of David Copperfield, the famous magician, whom we had recommended, negotiated, and booked. This led to the termination of our contract to bring Copperfield to Doha for the launch of Entertainment City. TBWA\RAAD incurred a large loss as a result.

Fadi Chalhoub’s employment had to be terminated.