I picked up a copy of ‘Signature’ – the Diners Club mag from the post office (a lot of magazines, newsletters, trade journals are discarded here)…I just pick up what interests me, being a bit of an info freak:)

Found some interesting environment conservation ads from the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG).

Back in 1998, when I had arrived in Dubai and was working in the advertising division of a company, we had paid a visit the EEG office in the Crown Plaza building on Shk. Zayed Road. We offered our services to Ms. Habiba Al Marashi , the founder and chairperson of the group. Quite a nice lady doing voluntary work. She told us how she had started and was quite impressed with our portfolio and asked us to drop by often and help out in the projects Those were their still growing days..now I think they are a big organisation.

When applying for a job in the creative department of an ad agency, normally social service ads that you might have created (pro bono work) is not a yardstick by which your talent is measured. Your idea generating capabilities for actual products provide a better clue on whether you’ll make a good art director or copywriter. I think I read this in “Squeeze this, Mr. Whipple!”. Correct me if I’m wrong!

I won my first ad contest in school by directing a social advertisement “Change the World”, enacted to the background score of “Where Eagles Dare”…more about this in a separate post on my personal portfolio blog.