As the production of TV commercials increased in number and spread out of Egypt to Lebanon and then to Dubai and Kuwait, the need for support services became a must. Identifying and hiring people to act in local advertising films became one of the priority services that the Arab communications industry had to find a solution for.
Film production companies used to manage the cast of the commercials they produced, but then specialized companies were established and took over this responsibility. As important as the challenge of identifying domestic actors was, an added dimension was the realization that scriptwriters and film directors could feature international celebrities in their films.
In a TV commercial we produced for Master Foods “Twix”, we built a story around a heated argument that erupts between the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmitry Medvedev. After the two sign an agreement, the North Korean leader takes out a two-fingered Twix from his pocket and starts eating it alone, frustrating his counterpart.
A newly established model agency in Lebanon helped us locate lookalikes for the two politicians and we flew them in from North Korea and Russia for the shoot, which took place at the Riviera Hotel in Beirut. The North Korean actor liked the taste of Twix a lot, so he purposely kept acting contrary to the instructions of the director, who insisted on repeating the filming of the eating scene. We were not aware that the actor was diabetic, so before the director could shout “wrap!” we found ourselves rushing the actor to the emergency room of AUB Medical Center to treat his critical hyperglycemia.
The advent of model agencies in the Middle East brings to mind my Saatchi-style birthday surprises and an incident that occurred in the early days of TBWA\RAAD. In January 2001, I received a fax from a young Australian lady claiming she was working with TBWA in Sydney on the Nivea account. She said that her boyfriend had found a job in Dubai, and she was planning to join him and wanted to know if we had a vacancy for her. We confirmed that we might have a position as we were actively working on acquiring the Nivea account. I then passed the exchange on to our HR department for follow up.
On 27 November 2001, while I was meeting with two Japanese clients from Nissan, my PA abruptly walked into my room office to say that my next appointment had been waiting for a very long time. The two clients jumped up to leave, apologizing in their timid Japanese style for having over-stayed. As soon as they left, I called Stephanie in to give her a piece of my mind. I asked her curtly about the person she claimed was waiting, as I did not remember having any other appointment, and it never crossed my mind that a day would come when we would treat a Japanese client in such a manner. Stephanie reminded me of the message I had received from the Australian job applicant earlier in the year, explaining that the girl had dropped in without a previous appointment and accepted to wait. Stephanie said that the poor girl had been waiting for almost an hour. I asked her to bring her in.
A striking, blonde Australian in her mid-20s walked in. When she greeted me, I sensed a strange dialect in her speech. As she settled down, she instantly complained that the room was too warm and asked if the air conditioning could be turned up. I asked her about the Australian agency and the Nivea account team, but she answered in a very vague manner and in a strange dialect that did not sound Australian at all. So, when I asked her about her original nationality, she made an act that she could not bear the heat in the room which made me dial Stephanie to ask for the AC to be enhanced even more, but I did not get any response. I stepped out to increase the cooling myself and by the time I came back, I noticed that the candidate had unbuttoned the two first buttons of her blouse. Up until this moment I had not been told about her exact responsibility on the Nivea account, so when I asked again, she answered that she was doing everything on the account and stopped to ask for a cold glass of water. So, I called Stephanie again but still did not get any response. I called the receptionist and even the receptionist did not pick up the phone. Furious, I stepped out from behind my desk and dashed to the kitchenette to bring my guest the glass of water myself. As I walked back into the room, I saw that she had picked up a magazine from my coffee table and was using it as a fan. Pretending that she did not notice that I was back in the room, she continued unbuttoning her blouse until it was completely open. My room had two glass windows that gave me a clear view of the open office, so I became very conscious of the staff seeing what was happening in my office. Then, in a sudden movement, she reached for the clip of her front-opening bra and uncoupled it to reveal her very large breasts. The left one was painted with the word “HAPPY” and the right one with “BIRTHDAY”. At that moment, my office door burst open, and all the staff walked in carrying a cake and singing “Happy Birthday to You”.
Twenty-one years after this surprise, I still cannot explain my rollercoaster emotions at that moment very well. From shock, to embarrassment, to wanting to be thankful, but failing to be so because of my exhilarating emotions. However, the memory remains vivid and funny, and I was later told that the staff had panicked when the first girl arrived because her breasts were too small to write the word “BIRTHDAY”. They quickly sent her back to the modelling agency, which supplied a replacement who was better endowed.
This funny story aside, one can no longer deny the quality upgrade that modelling agencies brought to the region’s communications scene. Not only did the domestic slice-of-life commercials become more natural, realistic, believable, and memorable due to the better choice of actors, a much-needed global image dimension was added to brands such as Emirates when Jennifer Aniston became the airline’s advertising spokesperson. Then Etihad Airways played the same game, hiring Nicole Kidman to become the new face of the UAE’s second flag carrier. Even Rowan Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean) was hired to star in campaigns for Etisalat, the national telecom company of the UAE.