Staying Alive, barely

A second delightful anonymous submission:

A certain government agency looking to establish a bigger and better corporate image here in Dubai has gone and opened a closed pitch with only three agencies requested to present.

It is not unusual in Dubai or the Middle East for companies or brands to choose and qualify agencies before sending out a brief and without informing the general marketing public. Nor is it unusual that because someone knows someone, then a second or third someone, can effectively find himself or herself meeting the first someone to pitch for something he or she did not anticipate. Effectively fooling themselves into the foolish thought that it was the quality of their creative genius and level of commitment that got the first someone to come knocking at their door on their own.

The cockiness with which that someone then proceeds beats this writer, however it must be said, the creative concepts with which two of these three agencies came up with have humbled this writer in a way entirely unknown to me before.

Our first someone honestly and with all their hearts - pause for effect - thought that presenting a creative concept for a campaign aimed at safe driving to the tune of the BG’s Staying Alive was entirely appropriate. Just because you got it right with the local Dubai airlines, doesn’t mean you’ll be lucky the second time around. Meanwhile someone else figured a play on words such as Rich Tourist Attractions was a sure fire way to create trustworthy and reliable brand positioning. Did you reward yourself with a chocolate after that one? And I’d like to see that painted across the Abras please.

All this someone has to say is, everything about all of this in Dubai has become mediocre to the point where the majority of those working in agencies have turned into completely irrelevant robots. One wonders if some of those lurking in the dark corners of creative departments in the agencies across Dubai actually dusted those creative brain cells before they attempted to come up with such pathetic communication strategy. They pay can't be that bad. For now the public eagerly awaits more insulting advertising.