Every Monday morning, Philippe Hitti went to meet my uncle, Emile Baroody, at his Avenue des Français office. A couple of months after my joining Publicite Universelle, the boss asked me to accompany him to these meetings regularly. His routine was to walk all the way from the Bechara El Khouri district to Zeitouni, and when I started walking by his side, he spent the time chatting as if to set the tone and pace for the meeting that followed. On our first walk together, and when we reached the Azarieh Building, Philippe suggested we stop at Maatouk’s Shoe Polish salon to give our shoes a proper shine before going into a meeting with a key client. It was only on the third visit that I noticed Philippe’s shoes shining like a mirror as he was going into the salon. In stark contrast were my shoes. Although Ali the shoe-shine expert in my hometown of Aley visited us every Saturday, and although my mom made sure that my own shoes were second in line to get the best shine after my dad’s, I always needed Maatouk’s professional brush, as I had the habit of kicking stones when moving between the buildings and classrooms of AUB.
As much as I had enjoyed discovering the advertising man in me during those early years, I also enjoyed learning from my boss how the advertising man should look and behave. Wearing a suite and a necktie became my daily outfit, while shaving every morning developed into a sacred routine. These personal grooming disciplines were inspired by the assumption that one could never tell when he might bump into a client or a related senior officer. Even in later years, when black turtleneck shirts developed into a craze amongst British advertising executives, I stuck to my white – or light colored – dress shirts and my collection of neckties, which continued to grow by the day.
Our days in the late Sixties were the days of Roma and Alpha for suits, Arrow and Van Heusen for dress shirts, and Red Shoes for moccasins. Then, at the weekends, we switched to Levi’s jeans, Fruit of the Loom t-shirts and windbreakers inspired by James Dean in his “Rebel Without a Cause” role. For personal grooming we used Gleem and Colgate toothpaste, double-sided razors, and brushes to create a generous lather from Gillette and Palmolive shaving cream. Then, to finish the entire Sunday grooming ritual, we splashed our cheeks with Old Spice or Mennen Skin Bracer.