The ruling family of Kuwait had a soft spot for the Al Maktoum family of Dubai, even before the union between the Trucial States was announced. The Kuwaitis were more advanced amongst the oil-producing Gulf states, so they kept renewing all their government services and facilities. When they decided to build a new hospital, they donated their old one to Dubai, which still operates the Kuwait Hospital, now known as Al Baraha Hospital. In 1968, Kuwait also presented its old black and white television station to the Al Maktoum family.
To manage this new TV station, the Government of Dubai hired a Palestinian journalist, Riad Al Shouaibi. This gentleman had the vision and the business flare to operate the station as a commercial venture and not as a government subsidized medium like the other TV stations of the region. Al Shouaibi appointed his brother-in-law, Abdel Hakim Totah, as the station’s advertising manager and, realizing that all the regional advertising agencies were headquartered in Beirut, invited all their owners to the launch of Kuwait Television from Dubai.
The moment the group of Lebanese advertising leaders walked into the lobby of the hotel, a noisy argument began when the guests approached the reception desk to check-in and were told that they had to share rooms. Shouaibi and Totah failed to realize that their guests were successful and proud Lebanese who liked to show off, and nothing could convince them to share rooms with their competitors. The invitation turned into a disaster that was not fully resolved until the early hours of the following morning, when the last guest finally retired to his hastily arranged room while his swears still echoing in the lobby.
In fact, these echoes continued to reverberate until long after this TV station became a dynamic communication medium that was well sought after by most multinational advertisers. In a bid to mend bridges, Intermarkets’ boss, Erwin Guerrovich, and his close friend Nabil Kazan, a partner and joint managing director at Éclair Kazan Advertising, invited Riad to dinner at The Rib Room in the Carlton Tower Hotel, since they all happened to be in London at the same time. Like all Lebanese, Erwin and Nabil found it difficult to have two words of conversation without a French word slipping in. Riad cautioned them at the beginning of the dinner, asking them to avoid speaking French, as he did not understand the language. However, on more than one occasion during the long dinner, French terms were exchanged. Every time this happened, Riad let his dissatisfaction be known. Halfway through the dinner, the two hosts entered a long exchange in French, forgetting the sensitivity of their guest. At that moment, Riad suddenly stood up, threw his serviette over his partly filled plate, and abruptly walked out.
Far away in Dubai, I received a call two days later from my Unilever client Phil Cooper, who sounded very agitated. Phil was extremely annoyed because senior visitors from his head office had come to his house on the two previous evenings to watch the new Lux soap commercial, which we were supposed to have launched that week. Phil and the guests sat waiting until a very late hour, but the commercial did not run. Immediately, I called Abdel Hakim Totah and was surprised to hear his sarcastic statement that I shouldn’t have enquired with him, as Erwin Guerrovich and Nabil Kazan had the answer our client was looking for. It took time for all of us to find out that Riad Shouaibi had walked out of the dinner and dashed to his hotel room to call Totah and instructed him to stop all campaigns booked by Intermarkets and Éclair Kazan. We then had to make up many excuses to Unilever before I managed, using all my skills of persuasion, to convince Totah to resume the Lux campaign. Nabil Kazan was not as lucky and ended up having a very serious problem with one of his key clients.