Successfully producing Ariel’s “Voice of God” and Pampers’ “Dry Baby is the Happy Baby” commercials seem to have brightened the reputation of Intermarkets in Geneva. This we picked up from our regular copy reviews and the marketing managers who were always on the move in our markets. However, P&G was a very alert client. This is why they briefed us on new projects only when they were sure we had delivered all the work in the pipeline, particularly theirs. On our first visit to them in Geneva we were introduced to a value detergent brand called Yes, which was part of our portfolio in Lebanon. However, more than a year passed during which we continued using an old TV commercial that had been available to Lebanese TV stations since the days of Shamli, Saffouri & Partners.
Then one day we received a note from Bill Bowld instructing us to familiarize ourselves with the market for all-purpose affordable detergents in Lebanon, and to review all the Yes commercials that had been produced before. This pushed us inside the continuing characters space, which was new to most of us at the agency. Based on our recent experience, we were sure that Bill Bowld would bring along loads of P&G learning about brand spokesmen and continuing characters when he arrived in Lebanon. However, we all joined forces to demonstrate that we, too, knew about the subject, and specially about continuing character attempts in the Arab markets. Our efforts recalled the fact that I had been personally involved in the launch of General Foods’ Maxwell House instant coffee via the very popular TV personality Abou Melhem, whom we made the brand’s spokesperson. Abou Melhem’s memorable selling line, “Good to the Last Drop” – delivered in Arabic as “لذيذة حتي اخر نقطة” – helped introduce the concept of instant coffee to the predominantly Turkish coffee market of Lebanon well before Nescafé became known.
We turned this familiarization exercise into an agency-wide race. The outcome was a long list of brands that had their own ambassador or mascot: the Marlboro cowboy, Energizer’s bunny, Ronald MacDonald, Michelin’s Bibendum, KFC’s Colonel Sanders, and Tony the Tiger. We also learnt how these characters worked to make each of their brands lovable, popular, and well established on consumers’ shopping lists. Finally, the P&G team from Geneva arrived in Beirut and the orientation that followed added a new dimension to our brand character search. Continuing characters at P&G had often been an integral part of many challenging brand building journeys. They had even crossed borders and been made to speak different languages, but in essence each of these characters remained loyal to the brand it personified and its copy strategy. The visiting team told us that P&G’s experience with continuing characters dated back to 1923, when it pioneered advertising on commercial radio. Crisco’s cooking classes were all delivered by Janet McKenzie Hill, who became so popular that she ended up authoring many cookbooks.
When the story of Abou Fouad[1] was communicated, we concluded that P&G had an (unwritten) manual that was used to teach their own people and their advertising agencies how to create and groom the spokespeople of their brands.
As Shamli, Saffouri & Partners was not related to any of P&G’s global agencies, it was obliged to do all the creative developments on its own. After several unsuccessful attempts to introduce a creative route for the all-purpose, value detergent they had been assigned, Bill Bowld shared with them examples of different creative routes used by its other value-for-money cleaners in other markets. Mokhtar Shamli expressed his excitement at creating the first continuing character for the Lebanese markets, and immediately initiated the search. The selection was unanimous when the profile of Robert Helou was reviewed. Shamli’s choice was endorsed not only by Bowld, Kouraytem and Hawwa. The big boss Samih Sherif gave his blessing, and a contract was drafted. Experience showed that Robert Helou was quick in morphing into the role of Abou Fouad, and all along he kept adding and enriching the character of the Lebanese shop keeper.
Then the time came for Intermarkets to be introduced to Abou Fouad, and we instantly clicked, affirming the fact that he had always been very close to Mokhtar Shamli. The retired Robert Helou had intimately lived the role of the street corner grocery owner; hence his input was so convincing and led to a tangible addition to our already approved storyboard. P&G did not show any rigidness. On the contrary, they welcomed the changes. At that stage the casting began, and we jumped on the opportunity to present a case that we had prepared ourselves for the moment we were told that a Yes production was being considered. Our case was based on the limitations that existed in the Lebanese production market, which often led to overexposing the talented cast. A good actress might be seen as a caring mother in one commercial and a seductive bar tender in another or a pious nun, with the three shown in the same program and on the same evening. Our objective was to show the added value that Intermarkets could bring to the advertising material of all the brands in our portfolio.
Abou Fouad suggested we stop featuring panicky housewives running to his grocery to buy different cleaning material every time their in-laws visited. We agreed and did away with the housewife entering Abou Fouad’s shop, deciding instead to feature the housewife’s daughter, and went searching for one outside the available casting catalogues. It did not take long before we identified Caroline Samaha, the daughter of a young couple known to a member of the agency team. Caroline passed the acting test with flying colors and accompanied the production company’s casting lady to get an outfit for the shoot. The selected mother was an MEA air stewardess called Daad. She had not appeared in any film before and had no problem signing a contract that assured us she would not act in any other TV commercial for as long as the Yes commercial remained on air. Our commercial for Yes was the first to undergo the DAR test, hence there was no previous score to use for comparison. However, on its own, it scored high, which made the brand team very happy.
As we continued to handle our P&G portfolio, Abu Fouad’s diabetes began to affect his eyesight. P&G, which had provided him with a very generous contract, made sure that his annual trips to Geneva, where he used to stay with his daughter and her family, doubled. There they arranged for him to undergo tests at one of the best diabetic clinics in Switzerland. Then, as he aged, Bill Bowld called on us to start the search for Fouad, the son who is supposed to take over the running of the grocery shop from his father in Lebanese tradition. We were also briefed to plan Fouad’s introduction to the loyal buyers of Yes, which we did. Today, the hero of P&G’s Yes commercials is Fouad, who keeps pointing to the portrait of his father hanging in the shop. Fouad has also inherited the selling statement of his father: “Yes for laundry, dishwashing, and floor cleaning. Yes, is three-in-one.”
[1] Robert Helou – “Abou Fouad” commercial of YES – Classic Commercial – Yes (11) https://youtu.be/tC52DntK5yM?feature=shared