Take it easy



Salam everyone!

Eid Mubarak! Anyone traveling this holiday?

It's been ages since I last blogged about the beautiful *cough* ads I see around Muscat - 15 months to be precise.

Been caught up with work and life in general. I just want to take advantage of my blog space and thank god for the countless blessings in my life and the hard times I've been through as well, because without them I wouldn't have given the best a chance. A big thank you to the biggest blessing in my life; my family. I love you mama, baba, sisters and bro. You've always been there for me. You are my fans, my supporters, my cheerleaders, and most importantly my comedy channel when least expected and most needed (hehe). Al Hamdulillah.


Onto what I like doing best; criticizing ads around me.

Was asked to blog about a specific ad that has been released quite sometime ago here in Oman - maybe a few months now. I think you'll remember it without me even posting a picture. The name will ring the bell. The one and only:

Take it easy (خف علينا) by Nawras - a telecommunication company in Oman.

Yes! see.. you remember. That billboard was the talk of the town! No one missed it and I don't think anyone will ever forget it, whether for a good reason or a bad one. 

But why did it stand out? Was it the size of the billboards, the location, layout, colours, copy, translation, concept or was the message confusing?

First of all lets start by saying that Nawras do have some great ads. They do try their best to be creative and capture the right audience attention. They do think out of the box, but this one was just somehow.... "special". 



Billboards are placed in very busy common areas




Lets break it down...
- Starting with the layout. It looks good; simple, clean and applied according to their guidelines. CHECK
- Font-wise: Clean and clear. Legible. Arabic on top of the English. CHECK (native language has to always go on top)
- Colours: White on dark green; makes the copy stand out. Perfect contrast. CHECK
- Image: Okay. They are trying to show us some different ways of communicating; phone, laptop.. etc. Adding a local with the Kumma and Dishdasha. CHECK

So far so good. Then why are people talking about it? 

The most important part in a corporate ad or any ad is the headline along with the image. One should get it in a few seconds in order to move on to the call to action.

Nawras is trying to deliver a message. What is it? It's "Take it easy".
OK. nice. We know what "take it easy" means. It means slow down, be patient, relax, take care, and we use this line often in our daily lives, so we can relate to it. Another CHECK.

Next, lets now link the line "take it easy" with a telecomm company. So they provide broadband, wifi.. etc how do I take it easy with those services? or how do I "take it easy" with the company itself since it's not a tactical ad? Ding Ding Ding... Confusion alert.

Answers to that were different from different people. Those who like their services said "take it easy" has nothing to do with the brand. They are just reminding us to take life easy... Like a general reminder.
Other people said: They are telling us to take it easy or not to be harsh on them and stop complaining and calling their help line.
Others said: Take it easy means don't make calls much cause it congests our network and slows it down.
Some were rather considerate. They said: They are telling us to take it easy, therefore, we're moving to another telecom company!

Those are some of the responses I heard and remember. Honestly, I am just as confused. So, I'll leave it there hoping Nawras would clarify at the bottom.

On to the Arabic.. 

It's just the same if not worse because "Khif Alaina" translates to "take it easy on us" or "slow down". So if you compare it with the english, this one actually specifies that we should take it easy "on them". 

The english line could pass as a message or a general reminder, but this one doesn't. It's so specific. 

This can only be explained one way; stop bugging us, stop complaining, we are getting there, take it easy and bear with us or maybe stop showing off as it's commonly used as a sentence to stop the speaker jokingly from showing off or exaggerating. 

I know that they're trying to use those common sentences used amongst youth, but I don't see how it serves them in a corporate ad. Yes, you can be hip and cool using some interesting engaging lines, but does it serve any purpose or is it just an idea that needs better execution?

One more thing... The three dots in Arabic? Why? 



Below are some random tweeps comments on the billboard:








Rating: 
Layout over all: 5/5 
Colours: 5/5 Font: Legible 5/5 
Concept: 2/5 (trying to use common sentences) 
Execution of concept: 1.5/5 




With design, SF.



Comments

  1. MaK19 August 2013 at 11:48

    Hahaha nice one. I never gave that ad a thought until I read your blog, you are right, it is confusing!! :P

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3aib.

Image
It's a shame (3aib) when a college of  design  (and other majors including English) produces such booklet to showcase their portfolio, facilities, courses and programmes. Lets go through it before I start talking in details. It took me almost 3 weeks to blog this specific booklet out of my chest. Every time I sit infront of my laptop trying to put my river of thoughts into words; my hands shiver, smoke comes out of ears and my face turns into a red balloon filled with anger and frustration ready to explode! Maybe because it isn't only about this booklet, but its the whole experience, from landing a foot on the college grounds to running back to my car. The experience also has to do with the college's dean who asked me - when I went to apply for a job as a Typography teacher - he asked "What do you mean by Typography?" (!!!)  I felt like a bucket of cold water got poured over my head . I instantly thought to my self "Is this really where I want to work?...
Read more

Frog legs!

Image
Alright. Just to let everyone know that I dont look for bad ads to critisize them, but I also look for the good ones to give them some credit. However, the bad ones seem to stand out a bit more than any others. Maybe coz they're just BAD. This is an ad for Hayyak (prepaid phone credit) from Omantel. To be promoted during the Muscat Festival 2011. Lets start with the goods. Love the simplicity of the msg and font. I like how they put a hint of the festival at the back, no clutter, clear blue sky no clouds and a well styled up model. Festival = youth = jeans and jumper that match the climate at this time. Moving along.. Now as soon as I saw this ad, my direct attention was to the frog legs! Isn't his jump weird?! I'm sure they took several shots prior to "frog legs" stage. Aren't there any better ones like the ones below? Something with more of a happy, dance, side shot jump? Something more attractive with closed legs?!! ...
Read more

It's time for CHANGE.

Okay. So I haven't ever written a blog before, but now I have the urge to put my blunt opinion out there for people to wake up and think out of the box. We have enough "firework" ads and "happy families" ads. We have enough 10,000 colour logo! Since my opinions are never heard, nor appreciated, and often trashed in Oman coz "the client asked for it" or "the client paid for it", I've decided to start a blog in my field of expertise; graphic design and advertising and say it ALL here. I will look for ads and designs in Oman that in my opinion could be done so much better and sell the product better too. I will critique advertisements in Oman and most probably logos. I think Oman has a long way ahead of it to reach Dubai or Bahrain in design. I heard that Oman is lacking 20 years behind Dubai in advertising and 10 years behind Bahrain. The good thing though, is that we are 10 years ahead of Yamen! Bismilla... Lets start... and PLEASE d...
Read more