Is the ad world changing as fast as the audience, asks Tarek Atia Click to view caption I was duped. After years of very careful ad watching, diligently taking note of all the new techniques used by Egypt's advertisers to sell their clients' wares, this one took me very much by surprise. It all started with an ad on the front page of the daily Al-Akhbar. Seemingly sponsored by the Astronomical Studies Society, it announced the expected appearance of the "star" Astra in the night skies over Egypt during the next few days. The world's eyes will be watching Egypt, the ad claimed, since this one of its kind star is rarely visible. It also said that an amateur had already spotted the star and sent shots of it to journalists. The astounding photo of outer space accompanying the ad was supposedly one of those shots. Several more such ads appeared in subsequent weeks, listing phone numbers in Cairo and Alex to call for additional information. The ads turned out to be a new campaign to arouse public excitement about the latest model of the Opel Astra sedan. The numbers printed in the ad were not, as one would have assumed, for the astronomical society listed as a source in the original ad, but were actually the numbers of a GM dealership. A call revealed the truth, as did an ad run subsequently in the daily Al-Ahram. The gentleman at the GM dealership, however, confirmed that I was not the only one fooled. Scores of callers, he said, had been inquiring about the alleged star. It was the most successful example I had seen of what is becoming an annoyingly familiar ploy --the surprise or series ad. Most of these teaser campaigns run in the papers for weeks on end and feature way too much hype and too little substance. A typical example: After weeks of teaser ads indicating that soccer star Hossam Hassan was about to announce some Spain-related news (was he about to be signed by Real Madrid?), we find out that he's merely the spokesperson for a new Northern Mediterranean coast resort called "The Spanish Village". The resort boasts that its scenic vista was the preferred spot chosen by both Hassan, and German military leader Rommel -- an odd gimmick based on the fact that Rommel's battle against Montgomery during WWII took place at nearby Al-Alamein. It is in the disparity between those two ads -- in style, concept and impact -- where the key question regarding advertising's future in Egypt resides: namely, do Egypt's ad-makers think the audience is smart or dumb? Numerous other examples of both world views abound. Compare the award-winning Mobinil TV ad featuring singer Hakim running late for a concert and singing into his mobile phone, which someone places next to the microphone on the empty stage till he arrives, with another celebrity endorsement, the one featuring actress Sanaa Gamil lecturing to us about the splendours of the Dreamland residential neighbourhood in a fake, syrupy tone. Which is more memorable and is the audience sophisticated enough for it to really matter anyway? Smart ads are not just about technical prowess -- such as the dynamic "close up" shots you see on ads for face creams and shampoos that mainly target the young and wanna-be hip -- but more about doing things differently, putting some thought into it and appreciating the audience's intelligence. Thanks to the humble dish, most of today's viewers are sophisticated enough to know a good ad when they see one, since they now have access to all the best ads from abroad. Ironically, this may actually be one of the forces occasionally driving local agencies into overdoing the slickness factor of their ads while neglecting to measure the ad's efficacy in selling the product. Perhaps another basic reason for the slow migration from dumb to smart ads is that sex sells, and, for many advertisers, dancing girls -- the longtime staple of the Egyptian ad -- are still the way to go. Even if it's done in a very modern way, like the hard-hitting, fast- moving Fayrouz Mango spot, featuring slick and sexy youth dancing it up on a tropical beach to a great soundtrack. Most of the time, as common knowledge will tell you, it is easier to keep with the old. That may have been the impetus behind the Gulf Royal Chinese Restaurants' recent ads in Al-Ahram featuring a picture of Bruce Lee along with an offer for a meal called the Kung Fu Express. It is hard to tell whether this chain of Chinese restaurants, which is trying to make Far Eastern food more accessible to average Egyptians, is earnestly using this standard cliché, or making fun of it in a post-modern way. In either case, the picture is not all bleak. On TV, concept ads have gained a foothold of sorts. Many are about longing and how a product can help you fulfil it. How else to interpret the Pert Plus ad that shows a mechanic shampooing his head in the sink after work then putting on a new T-shirt so that he can run after a girl who dropped her scarf at his garage? Then there are the crisp graphics on the new illuminated, large- format billboards lining bridges like 6 October that have given the city's skyline just the right modern metropolitan look to match its hopeful march into the global economy. On the pages of the papers, meanwhile, creative ads continue to creep into the tepid world of print advertising, gradually changing, in their own small way, how we view the concept of a product. A recent print campaign for the Oriental Weavers carpet company, for instance, used an interesting concept: that the carpets are so beautiful that strange things happen to people who see them. One ad had a young man fainting from the beauty of the carpet, another a guy so distracted by it that he didn't notice his pants have caught on fire from the fireplace. Another revealed a carpet in a museum so nice that one of the characters in a Greek mosaic on the wall is bending down to take a closer look. And in June, an ad on the front page of Al- Akhbar urged consumers to be "different" by buying a unique logo for their mobile phone screen. The natural result is that everyone ends up being the same -- it becomes "mandatory" to have a cool, mobile phone logo, albeit one that's "different" from everybody else's. All of these examples reveal that some ad- makers are certainly busy pushing the trends, concepts and ideas that should help drive the Egyptian consumer market closer to its Western model. What is actually quite telling, though, is that despite the unceasing efforts of people like advertising mogul Tarek Nour, the hoped-for buzz rarely seems to materialise in a significant way. A while back, a large ad in the papers indicated that Nour was the mastermind behind a new savings scheme involving coupons that you cut out and redeem for discounts on products at local stores. Had it caught on, we might have been one step closer to that brave new world where "Save LE1.50 when you buy three" isn't just a catchphrase, but a way of life. As it is, something always seems to stand in the way of the industry's, and the audience's, full maturation -- not enough interest from the general public, too many copycats and an inability to sustain creativity and management over long periods of time are three factors that immediately come to mind. Just look at the overwhelming number of ads for phone-in prize contests that you see everywhere you turn, and on every channel, all the time. By consistently aiming for the lowest common denominator, the sheer volume of these mindless, gimmicky marketing ploys are doing a horrible disservice to the industry as a whole. What they do provide, if anything, is ample evidence of an unfortunate societal bent: that, as always, those who are trying to make a quick buck today have the upper hand over those who are looking to make even more money tomorrow.
