The Brussels meeting resulted in an affiliation agreement between TBWA Worldwide and Intermarkets, which instantly threw us into the midst of this international group’s arena. While sharing the history and success stories of TBWA, Keith Smith briefed us about Disruption, citing the example of Wonderbra’s 1994 UK launch campaign, ‘Hello Boys’. Featuring the Czech supermodel Eva Herzigová, it had run on billboards and poster sites rather than the usual women’s magazines. According to Smith, this campaign had been voted the best poster ad of the century and was on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and was also included in the Campaign Hall of Fame.
As Smith was the agency management representative on Wonderbra, and he knew the entire story inside out, I invited him in my capacity as president of the IAA UAE Chapter, to one of our gatherings. Following my introduction, Smith went up on stage and his shock of seeing many men in white national dress seated in the front row of the auditorium, just as he was about to project Eva Herzigová revealing cleavage on the screen, was instantly noticeable. The presentation began with hesitation in his voice, but as he quickly clicked to move to the third slide, one of the men asked him loudly to slow down, as the audience wanted to fully enjoy each ad.
As the affiliation with TBWA was organized, we were tagged to the Africa and Middle East region led by TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, which operated in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris had burst out of South Africa and impressed the whole of AdLand[1]. Within the international network, the efforts of this agency helped to develop Disruption into a globally applicable planning tool. Its world-class creative output led to its two founders being granted added responsibilities that extended beyond the management of their own South African agency group. Reg Lascaris was named regional director for Africa and the Middle East, which made him our direct coach and the main contact with TBWA Worldwide. In fact, Reg was the first to visit us, arriving in Jordan from Israel via the Allenby Bridge. Bassem Dajani, the boss of Intermarkets Jordan, accompanied me on the 57-kilometer drive to the southern Jordan Valley, where we met our regional director for the first time. Reg was driven to our meeting by Shlomi Avnon, the managing director of TBWA’s affiliate agency in Israel at the time, Shalmor Avnon Amichay.
On 1 February 1999, Reg invited me to a regional meeting in Cape Town. I flew in from Dubai on the Sunday, arriving in the late afternoon. After checking in to the hotel, I took a taxi to the beach location where the group were gathered for a sunset drink. On arrival, I was met by a lady who introduced herself as Jacqui Friedlander, Reg’s personal assistant. Jacqui turned out to be familiar with Lebanon because she spent her summer holidays in a kibbutz near Israel’s northern border. From Jackie, I came to know that most of the other participants at the conference had arrived in South Africa before the weekend and had indulged in some sight-seeing tours, including safaris and visits to the Cape of Good Hope –the tip of the African continent.
At the conference the next day I was introduced to many TBWA executives who belonged to the worldwide group, as well as those agencies within the region covered by Reg. These markets included Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, and Israel. During the morning coffee break, I noticed that the TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris chief financial officer, a Jewish South African by the name of Alan Teeger, didn’t stop chatting with Shlomi Avnon, who like me had arrived on Sunday night. I soon found out that Teeger was arranging a helicopter tour for Avnon to make up for the weekend sightseeing that the visitor had missed. Having heard of the loving relationship that existed between the South Africans and the Israelis, I took Reg aside and, in a polite way, questioned the favoritism that his people had failed to cover up. This resulted in me being offered the seat next to the Bell 206 Long Ranger pilot, while Shlomi and Alan took the back seats. The scenic tour was out of this world. We flew over the Atlantic coastline, the Twelve Apostles, Chapman’s Peak, the Cape of Good Hope and continued to the Aquila Private Game Reserve, where we saw herds of zebras and antelopes running away from the sound and shadow of our helicopter.
On the way back, we flew via Table Mountain, where the pilot wanted to demonstrate his flying skills by crossing the mountain top at very low altitude. This made me jerk my feet up every time we crossed a rock boulder, as the all-round glass cockpit was making me feel like we were going to hit the rocks. Suddenly, we reached the edge of Table Mountain and the very close ground under the helicopter instantly vanished to reveal the very deep canyon leading to Cape Town and the ocean. All three passengers gasped for air because of his flying stunt. My personal reaction was a sudden leaning on the helicopter door, which opened under my weight. Luckily, the seatbelt saved me from falling out. The pilot stretched his hand to hold on to the door handle, which he kept pulling in his direction until we landed. For the past 21 years, I have never stopped thinking what could have been reported on the front pages of the Arab media had I fallen out of the helicopter that day, which happened to be during the peak of Lebanon’s civil war: “Lebanese man falls from an Israeli-packed helicopter in South Africa.”