The Ramadan ad bonanza is not without controversy. Niveen Wahish examines the money and ethics involved in big-time TV promotional campaigns Floor tiling, TV sets, potato chips, cooking oil, ovens and calling cards are but a few of the products being advertised these days. With an estimated 55 million people watching television during the two hours following iftar -- according to Tarek Nour, one of Egypt's top advertising moguls -- it's only natural that the snazziest and most innovative adverts are often launched during the holy month, when viewer numbers are at their highest. Nour says that on a global scale, that kind of sustained huge and captive audience is comparable to events like the US Super bowl, with the added advantage that here, it goes on for an entire month. While it may cost more to air ads during Ramadan, Nour said, the net gain is cheaper due to the fact that the ads get more exposure. With this in mind, advertisers often take advantage of the huge audience and carry out brand building for the whole year. Amgad Sabry, managing director of Ama Leo Burnett, explained that the bulk of companies' advertising budgets are often spent during Ramadan. Products like cooking ghee, he said, might use 50 per cent of their annual advertising budget during Ramadan, when food is at the centre of attention. TVs and durable goods like refrigerators and ovens also have the bulk of their advertising budgets earmarked for the holy month. Sabry pointed out that a lot of people buy new TV sets specifically to watch the Ramadan shows. The many couples who plan to get married during the feast following the holy month also tend to buy their household appliances needs during Ramadan. Statistics from Ramadan ad campaigns two years ago indicate that cooking oil and ghee manufacturers spent around LE9 million to promote their products, said Soliman Abaza, who heads Al-Ahram's Marketing, Advertising and Research Centre. Telecommunications companies paid a total of LE8.4 million. Advertising for soft drinks saw LE5 million spent. The ad expenditures of televisions, milk, yogurt, tea and coffee followed at around LE3 million each. Amongst the most noticed of this year's adverts was a MobiNil spot entitled "How to get a Mercedes." The ad is meant to be a comical comparison between someone who works hard all his life and is finally able to achieve his dream of buying a Mercedes, and various lucky Mobinil subscribers who win a Mercedes just by sending five short messages using their cellular phones. The ad stirred controversy; with opponents claiming that its pitch is a clear stab at the values of hard work. Fearing a backlash, the ad was edited, omitting the part with the comparison, and just featuring the lucky winners. A pre-Ramadan ad promoting Egypt as a tourist destination for Arabs was also the target of intense criticism for showing bikini- clad beauties. It too has not been aired recently. Tarek Nour does not see why such ads should be considered offensive. He said that the concept in the MobiNil ad is "absurd, and that nobody is going to stop working," just because they've seen the ad. "It was just an attempt at a clever joke. But apparently," he said, "society is not mature enough." Nour defended the advertising industry's commitment to ethics. "Certain things like religion, alcoholic beverages and nudity are avoided," he said, adding that advertising agencies supervise their own work and that television authorities also view the ads before they are aired. Abaza admitted that Egyptian and Arab ads in general had recently been heavily promoting similar luck-based concepts. Other commentators said it was only normal for advertisers to use every possible method to let consumers know of the existence of some product or another.
