1989 was a year when the first generation of players were still the exclusive stars of the Arab advertising scene. Erwin Guerrovich, Samir Fares, Mustapha Asaad, Nabil Kazan, Antoine Choueiri, Sheikh Mohammad Saeed Al Tayeb and Abdalla Abdel Bari were the stars of Advista Arabia in its second term.
When attendees looked at the congress agenda and read my name featured amongst the first day’s speakers, many people thought this was just another Lebanese name that had been added at the last minute to strengthen the anti-Egyptian lobby. No one was aware that I had asked Tarek Nour to put me on the first day’s speakers’ list. He obliged, as he had been intrigued from the moment, I had requested his pool of TV commercials (called “Secret of Schweppes”) to screen as part of my presentation, entitled “How big are our big ideas”.
Tarek Nour, in further appreciation of my efforts in bringing such a large contingent from Dubai to Advista, contacted Dr. Yamada and assigned him the task of introducing me on stage. The fact that I was introduced by a Japanese in his polite and down-to-earth style added to the mystery of this unknown speaker. Dr. Yamada’s introduction was in stark contrast to other Lebanese speakers, who always insisted on pompous introductions.
To set the scene for my presentation, I questioned why, in all our MENA conferences, we always invited foreign speakers to address the topic of creativity and to showcase samples of campaigns conceived overseas. I quoted Philippe Danzig, editor-in-chief of Advertising Age magazine, to define the big idea, explaining that: “Creative people toil day and night at advertising agencies to come up with memorable campaign themes with no result. Then the big idea strikes like a bolt of lightning. At that moment, the money tills never stop ringing and the brand soars sky high.” Then to show my first example, I ran the launch commercial of the “Secret of Schweppes” campaign produced by Tarek Nour’s ad agency, starring the well-known comedian, Hassan Abdeen. I was told by colleagues who had participated in the first Advista Arabia Congress that participants tended to spend time at the hotel’s coffee shops rather than at the conference hall. This is why I was not surprised when I went up on stage and didn’t see many of the Egyptian and Saudi faces whose names, I had read on the participants list. The moment the Schweppes commercial went off-screen, I saw more people creeping back into the hall. With the second commercial, I could hear a murmur in the hall, and by the screening of the third commercial in the series, the applause became more animated and louder, until I had finished screening all eight commercials, which included Hassan Abdeen at the Changing of the Guards in front of Buckingham Palace, and meeting J.R. and Sue Allen at the Ewing mansion in Dallas. This parade of witty, humorous, and bright samples of Egyptian creativity rallied the Egyptian delegates around the anonymous new speaker. Many Saudis joined in as they were avid fans of Egyptian TV. The Lebanese crowd were clearly disgruntled, as they saw me as a traitor who was praising Egyptian creativity at a time when the war between Abdel Bari and Choueiri was still ablaze.
However, immediately afterwards I showed my second pool, which included mainly Lebanese commercials (Ray-O-Vac batteries, Nido Powder Milk, Arak Ksara and Al Wadi Al Akhdar canned vegetables), and the looks on the faces of the Lebanese group quickly changed into smiles accompanied by shy applause. Despite all these highly visible attitude changes, a puzzled look continued to prevail amongst the most of participants, whose numbers increased to the extent that no more vacant seats could be seen in the conference hall. From up on stage, I was able to see that the audience were wondering how a Lebanese speaker, who was about to conclude his presentation, had not beaten his chest by showing the creative work of his agency, and seemed to be content showing the work of others.
I felt that I had successfully delivered my subliminal message, turning the attention of the conference’s participants towards a celebration of our collective creativity, and building bridges amongst our nationality groups, instead of continuing to bicker. At that moment, I also felt the time had come to be fair to my creative colleagues. Accordingly, I ended my presentation by screening our own Nissan Patrol Falcon commercial. The auditorium exploded with cheering applause and a standing ovation.
An Egyptian media personality by the name of Mohsen Kandil then came on stage and presented me and Dr. Yamada with papyrus scrolls that featured the Advista logo and a message of thanks. As I walked back to the podium to pick up my presentation document and my new Citizen Moon-face watch, which I had placed next to me on the podium to ensure that I respected the allocated time, I discovered that my watch was no longer there. It had vanished in the split second that it had taken me to walk to the edge of the stage and collect my conference souvenir, even though this happened with hundreds of onlookers.
My session being the last before the coffee break, I walked from the auditorium to be greeted by many Saudis and Egyptians, which made me feel that my mission had been accomplished. “How big are our big ideas” turned out to be my opportunity to bond with Tarek Nour, Galal Zaki, Mohsen Kandil, Dr. Sami Abdelaziz and Captain Hassan Hamdi.