Ramsey Naja is chief creative officer at JWT MENA
“I was in Cannes and I started thinking of crabs. You might say this had something to do with the menu or, worse, personal hygiene, but no: the crabs I was thinking about are the ones that fishermen throw, alive, in a basket. A basket with no lid. Why no lid? Because the moment one of those crabs decides that his ambition in life goes beyond salads and makes a run for it, the other crabs grab him and pull him down. Such is the sad world of crabs… and of Middle East advertising.
Whichever way you look at it, and regardless of what gloss our many associations, award shows and festivals put over it, the industry in our part of the world has, throughout its existence, exhibited the self-defeating, hypocritical and destructive traits of an armed suicidal maniac whose gun will always fire a round in his foot, regardless of where it is pointed. It is almost as if we derive more pleasure from preventing the success of others than celebrating our own.
There is no doubt in my mind that our region has the talent to match any other. Indeed it has, at its helm, a broad, multi-ethnic, widely travelled, well-educated elite that has got all the ingredients for success. And it would be considerably more successful if it weren’t so fundamentalist in its thinking, if it didn’t bicker endlessly over trivial matters, if it didn’t bend over backwards and undercut others for the sake of winning even abusive pitches and, most infuriatingly, for resolutely sticking to political divisiveness and eschewing any notion of collaboration.
In Cannes, jury members from the same region often help each other by favouring each others’ work. Ethical or not, such behaviour shows at least the spirit we could learn a few lessons from. It is the attitude that is formed in creative clubs, in cross-industry forums aimed at maintaining students’ interest in advertising and in initiatives genuinely keen on progress – initiatives that end where the final competition starts, but which, in our pathetic case, never go beyond making sure the crab stays where he belongs.”
Thank you very much for this article, to help us to be positive,
but unfortunately for me I quit the network (and I’m not able to part with my ideas) so i’m a crab.
But I have a solution, to not remain a crab and I want to share with you and all of the JWT creative.
My idea is that the former staff of JWT participate just in the creative challenge, if the creation is good she is at JWT.
thank you
Mel
and you eat the whole crab.
Lovely piece of writing! Lovely black and white photo!
Honestly I’ve really had enough of hearing how down trodden the Middle East is.
Crabs!
Let’s stop kissing the arse of our friends that work in Europe. I was not lucky enough to make it to Cannes. I was busy chasing payments and trying to secure our next job.
There are talents and there are try hards…globally. It’s not a Middle East thing, or a UK thing, or a South African thing.
It’s so boring to keep reading that we need to up our game. I’ve learnt more in The ME in 6 years than I’d ever learn in the UK.
And let’s wake up about where ideas can come from. They can stem from creative, media, digital or BTL agencies.
There’s no hierachy of disciplines in advertising. We don’t save lives. We all try to be creative and some people are better at it than others.
Crabs should be avoided, as should motivational speeches from creative gurus in Cannes.
Interesting, Ramsey. So even while you’re at Cannes, a global celebration for creativity, you’re still focusing on how bad things are in the ME?
Well, the truth is that a lot of agencies in the ME are doing well. Very well. Although JWT MENA seems to be disintegrating from the inside out. I wonder if your negativity has anything to do with that?
Perhaps, instead of constantly moaning about the region all the time, and using it as a crutch to lean on, you should get your own house in order. Then you could become a guru, and a leader, instead of just a sad old man who has seen too many expensive lunches.
This was never about one agency, Ben (and JWT MENA is fine, thank you for your heartfelt concern). This is about the industry in the region and how we, as creatives, can cooperate to improve it and make it more attractive to new talent. And if you see it “doing well”, then I suggest an eye test, a diet of carrots, and an open mind that allows you to read the column for what it intends to do rather than use it for exactly the kind of petty bickering that it bemoans.
Ramsey and for we (les anciens) no solution for that role in the progress of the creativity of the region
Mel, do you have a crush on Ramsey?
no Debbile :), I won with JWT (those who believed in me) one silver and one bronze at Dubai Lynx and Some cristalmena and Casablanca is ranked 17th in the network.
now I want a lion, and not remained a crab, and one that you know better than anyone who does not know you.
thks
Debbie, I think we may assume that Mel – courageous, tell-it-like-it-is individualist that he/she is – is operating on the principle that ‘nobody ever lost their job by telling the boss he’s right’.