In this post, I am going to put in all the end of August ads that I couldn’t make separate posts for.

1) Mobile War – Lower end market

GN, 24Jul06

KT, 26Aug06

KT, 27Aug06

KT, 28Aug06

Sony Ericcson, Motorola have recently been advertising a lot of mobiles for the lower end market with contemporary features (colour screen, polyphonic ringtones) and some even with FM radio and camera…all this for AED.300/- or less! I know of friends who had splurged Dhs. 800/- t0 Dhs.1500/- on high-end mobiles. Within one year, the price of these same mobiles had halved! I still use a very basic Nokia 1100 and now wouldn’t mind switching to a Motorola C168 or C261 or even a higher-end model if my work and usage warrants it.

2) Back 2 School Surprises – The Last week of DSS 2006 (Dubai Summer Suprises) – KT, 25Aug06

Dubai Summer Surprise draws to a close this week.


3) Rodeo Drive, Abu Dhabi – Sale – KT, 27Aug06

A Sale ad with a visual twist – quite a rare sight among the numerous plain & straight SALE ads here in the media.

4) Monster.com launches in the UAE – KT, 27Aug06

Monster.com has been on a monster roll in many countries and now they are in Dubai… notwithstanding the cliched desert sands backdrop in their ad.

5) AADC, Al Ain & JSS Academy, Dubai – KT, 26 Aug 06

The AADC recruitment ad (above the JSS Academy ad) is a good piece of information for job seekers on the justified Government recruitment policies (the bodycopy reads “Priority shall be given to UAE nationals then Gulf Cooperation council citizens, Arabs & other nationalities who meet the visa transfer rules.”)

The JSS Academy ad uses a twist in the headline (”The Launch pad….”) to go with the straight visual of the mousepad.

5) HP Inkjet Printers – KT, 27 Aug 06

HP advertises their new range of home deskjets with a full page splurge targetted at parents, maybe because this is the ‘Back to School’ season?

HP Injet printers, from what I’ve been hearing, have a larger market share in the UAE. The view is that HP has a bigger marketing budget, while Epson spends more on developing a good product. I’ve been using HP inkjet printers – the home versions for the past 4 years…the original HP ink cartridges were too expensives – almost 2/3rds the cost of a new printer! You get replacement cartridges (a different make that is compatible with your HP inkjet) at half the cost of the original with the same quality output. Imageplus in Dubai was a good source for HP replacement cartridges.

6) Sharjah International American School – KT, 28Aug06

At last an educational institution ad with something interesting in the headline and visual. The institution now has registrations open in Dubai….notice “Dubai” on the kid’s t-shirt?

7) ‘Drive Safely’ Print campaign

KT, 21Aug06

KT, 28Aug06

Good idea! Would it have been better with the visual of the car smashed in the front?

Al Rawabi Milk – KT, 27Aug06

At first glance, I thought that you get a free notebook and pencil with every purchase of an
Al Rawabi 1 litre can.

Al Islami (Dubai Islamic Bank) World’s first brokerage service for Women – KT, 27Aug06

The World’s first exclusive brokerage service for women! Lots of creative routes and opportunities here.

9) Air Arabia – KT, 28Aug06

Air Arabia launches flights to Jaipur at prices starting at AED.299/-. Jaipur is known for its precious stones and hence the creative route.

10) Ras Al Khaimah Bank (RAK Bank) – Loans for SMEs – KT, 20Aug06

Could have been art directed more powerfully with a close up of the syringe.

11) Etisalat – Greetune – KT, 20Aug06

An Etisalat ad with humour and a story? Is Etisalat’s advertising approach changing after its rebranding? There are many naysayers…but the approach in this ad is seems to go with the youthful nature of the service. Hope it is extended into a campaign with ads about the business applications of the service. Entrepreneurs and Corporates can have Greetunes – jingles of their product or service.

12) Dubai Summer Surprises – Kids Olympics – ET, 20Aug06

‘Kids Olympics’ is translated visually. No headline. Bodycopy gives the rest of the details.
More drama could have been added to the visual.

13) Emirates – Flights to Forbidden City – 7Days, 20Aug06

Emirates flights to Beijing. The “forbidden” in the headline is the hook.

14) Rajiv Gandhi Award – KT, 19Aug06

Why is the Mumbai Congress Party advertising the winners of the Rajiv Gandhi award in Khaleej Times, UAE? On a closer look, you find the Founder-Chairman of the Lulu chain of Supermarkets in the UAE, his photo is the second from left – he’s a winner too.

14) Royal & SunAlliance Insurance – KT, 19Aug06

The creative execution uses illustrations and ties up the visual with “all round” in the headline. Maybe the ad would look better with actual photos of the icons .

15) Moissanite – Derived from Meteors? – City Times, 24Aug06

Just read the bodycopy – it reads like a historical thriller – lFrench Nobel Prize winner Henry Moissan’, ‘particles derived from meteors’. My first thoughts were – if people still fall for Nigerian scam emails, then these ads must make a killing. Then I googled up “moissanite”and.. !!! – Moissanite, How Stuff Works-Moissanite, Wikipedia.

16) Spinneys, Onam Specials – KT, 24Aug06

Spinneys supermarkets, primarily European, but now goes all out to attract the affluents among the large Indian community.

17) SAS Radisson – Teaser Ad Campaign – KT, 24Aug06

Full page and double spread…can you miss them? In 1998, when I had come to Dubai, the famous SAS Radisson was visible from Shk.Zayed Road, after you passed the Burj Dubai. Even enjoyed a complementary day’s stay there once. Later, I heard that they had been bought over and. now they are back!

18) K-Corner Shoe Sale – KT, 24Aug06

Headline dominated ad…using a pun….I only wonder if this has already been used before…as this is a pretty obvious pun.

19) ICICI Bank – KT, 24Aug06

ICICI uses Bollywood Superstar Shahrukh Khan to attract NRIs (Non-resident Indians, once cynically called Non-Returning Indians and today – Newly-Returned Indian .

20) AlAmeen Help Service – Teaser campaign -

KT, 19Aug06

KT, 20Aug06

KT, 21Aug06

KT, 23Aug06

The Al Ameen Confidential service – Toll free 800-4-888 helpline to “Prevent Problems before they occur.” Email alameen@eim.ae.

21) Learning Curve – Dubai Autodrome, Race & Driving School – ET, 23Aug06

Good idea and headline-visual metaphor! A more dramatic visual would have added impact?

22) Babyshop – KT, 23Aug06

Life insight! Brought me back memories of my younger brother – when he was hardly 3, grabbing my school bag when I getting ready to leave and crying that he wanted to go to school too! That little tyke in the ad resembles my little bro very uncannily! The headline could have been better?

23) HP Laptops – 7Days, 23Aug06

Laptops on instalments! Now everyone can have one….of course, the banks have to find you credit worthy first.

24) Sun & Sand Sports – Russel Athletic Sportswear – 7Days, 23Aug06

Like the imagery in the ad. They could have customised it with the Dubai SHk.Zayed Road skyline.

25) Igloo Ice Creams – City Times, 23Aug06

Subliminal Advertising?

26) GO Sport – ET, 23Aug06

Good association here.

27) The Aviation Club Pub @ The Irish Village, Dubai – ET, 22Aug06

80 different varieties of beer….sample till you’re ample…illustrated perfectly.

28) Conserve Water – KT, 22Aug06

Bodycopy reads – Water is the lifeline of survival. Conserve water for life. A very ‘cutting-edge creativity’ kinda ad.

29) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) – ET, 22Aug06

The longest running comedy in London. Like the Shakespeare illustration with the clown nose.

30) Lego – ET, 22Aug06

Now this is one sale not to be missed!

31) 7Days Newspaper INBOX Campaign – 7Days, Aug06

Good branding in terms of design and layout.

32) Echolac Schoolbags – KT, 22Aug06

Tough enough for the Jurassic age! AD had an idea of showing a close up of the open teeth like zip track of the bag, arranging it to look like the open mouth of a T-rex….goes well the line too!

33) OneMobile Showroom – Sony Ericsson Headset – KT, 22Aug06

In Dubai, you can see a lot of people wearing this and walking around. Wierd! Sadly, you’ll still see people gabbing away into their mobiles while driving with one hand! Now that prices of this bluetooth headset has dropped, it’s time everybody with a mobile and a car got one!

34) Sony VAIO – KT, 21Aug06

Double page spread…does it matter if you write anything?

35) Shoemart – KT, 21Aug06

Interesting visual treatment.

36) Nescafe – GN, 21Aug06

A rare sight – a long-copy ad – because it’s Nescafe.

37) NUVI

A good product….lots of information but still not informative enough.

38) Dubai Transport Bus Advertisement

Shot this ad inside a Dubai Transport bus on the way to Bur Dubai. Maybe in the future, we might have television screens in the buses running ads.

39) Ariel Washing Powder

Dramatic visual..stay stain free…..hmmm?

Burger King advertises their new seafood addition using the famous animation movie title “Finding Nemo” in a teaser ad- thanks to Woke for pointing that out in his blog post. It didn’t occur to me at all, though I had seen the movie in bits and pieces. The above ads were found in the Gulf News on subsequent pages.

2) SPINNEYS Market Day – 7DAYS, 20 & 21 Aug 06

Spinneys advertises their Market Day a day before hand with a smaller reminder ad.

3) A Proper Teaser – 20, 21, 22 Aug 06 (Final ad yet to appear)

The above 3 ads have been appearing consequently for 3 days now. What is it is anybody’s guess? Guesses anyone?