Chapter 128\ The early signs of culture conflicts

Time, geographical expansion, and acquisitions led to the old-timers at Intermarkets, such as Darwish Massoud, Raymond Nader, Salim Sednaoui and Raymond Accad, being replaced by Youssef Habbab, Eddie Moutran, Ramsay Najjar, Elie Khoury, Sonia Chaanine, Joe Ayash, Joseph Ghossoub and Fady Mouannes.

Most of the newcomers were graduates of different cultures and this started to reveal cracks in what used to be a shining mirror. The first sign was noticed in Bahrain after the American Express account was retained by Intermarkets. Eddie Moutran flew down to Beirut to seek Erwin Guerrovich’s approval to offer the American Express local manger in Bahrain a Rolex watch. Eddie claimed that he had promised this man the watch if we kept the business and I stood firm against his request, as I was convinced that our presentation (which was put together by Eddie while I was working on a Silk Cut cigarettes pitch) was far superior to the work of the Pakistani agency we were competing against. The winning of the Silk Cut cigarettes account was announced the same day that JWT confirmed the Winston cigarettes business to Intermarkets.

As the Arab cigarette market was still predominantly an American blend market, with British brands like Rothmans, State Express and Dunhill mostly popular in the Gulf, Eddie suggested that we attempt to keep the two advertising accounts by allowing him to establish a new agency to handle the Silk Cut account. Intermarkets would be a secret partner in this new agency.

I personally felt that such an unorthodox decision would pull Intermarkets down from the honest and transparent agency pedestal on which it had been perched since its establishment. Erwin Guerrovich left it to me to get us all out of this brewing conflict. I asked Eddie to meet me in Kuwait, as I was counting on Youssef Habbab’s support in this endeavor. This turned out to be a heated argument amongst friends, in which we failed to convince Eddie that secrets could never be kept in our profession. Before concluding our meeting, I had to be rushed to hospital as my kidney stone pain had become unbearable. Youssef’s maternal uncle was a doctor employed by the Kuwaiti army, so I was admitted to the emergency ward of Kuwait’s Military Hospital.

There were six beds in the ward and in the bed next to mine was a young soldier with high fever who was continuously moaning with pain. Before the ward lights were switched off that night the male orderly brought a tray with a jug of water and an aluminum cup, which he invited us to share when we felt thirsty at night. I had a drip of glucose that contained a strong sedative and when I woke up from my heavy sleep the next morning, I found the bed next to mine empty. My neighbor’s blood results were sent to the ward at night, and these results showed that he was suffering from typhoid. Luckily, my medical drip saved me from feeling thirsty and reaching for the common cup used by all the other patients.

Youssef had to accompany me on the flight to Beirut as I was still in pain. I was driven directly from the airport to the AUB Hospital where I underwent a kidney stone removal surgery at the end of that week.

Eddie Moutran flew back to Bahrain and – not before long – announced the establishment of Memac.