While still at Art College I teamed up with Ian and we started our own printing business in a garage.
There were many talented students at our College and Kevin Coyne was one. He was once described by Andy Kershaw as "A national treasure who keeps getting better". We printed this very early Coyne poetry and drawings book way before he rose to international recognition as an artist and accomplished musician.
I found employment as a junior designer in a Nottingham "Advertising Agency" though I found the local hostelries and their history far more interesting. It was here I first learned the importance of copywriting. Though I mainly worked on trade ads, it came quite naturally to write the headlines for whatever I visualised. One of our clients was Road Rollers, and that's exactly what they did. So for their 20th anniversary, I concocted, Telford & McAdam started it, Road Rollers finish it.
Within a year, I headed to London and was hired as an Art Director, tripling my previous salary. The photograph taken by Jeanie features me with three colleagues limbering up for the challenge to raise funds for the National Advertising Benevolent Society. We got generous support from the Milk Marketing Board and Noel Edmonds, who personally chauffeured us in his Mini Cooper to the BBC studios for an interview following the long 24-hour stint.
In my fifth year at the Agency my ad for the COI, Nursing Recruitment campaign, won a Design and Art Directors Award. The photograph was taken by Colin Duff. The equally clever headline was written by Peter Roche. The ad was for, what were then described as, Special Hospitals, and preceded Thatcher's closure of these valuable facilities in favour of 'care in the community'.
Here I am with Kathy Evans in Wadi Rum. Arriving in Aqaba after midnight, we missed the warning signs and unwittingly took a dip in the Red Sea. It was her scream that alerted me to the oil slick. She was completely enveloped in the black tar, and fortunately, I was only up to my knees. The local fishermen told us that it was not an unusual occurrence for oil to be released from storage facilities in Eilat when the tidal flow was headed toward Aqaba's beaches. Most probably a lethal contributory cause of her later illness.
Finally, I had to work, so I found employment in a local "Ad Agency" called SNIP. I was hired as their art director /photographer. I was also tasked with building a studio and a dark room. I was given a Hasselblad and Linhoff plate camera (see photo), neither of which I had any idea how to operate. Fortunately, Librarie Antoinne had all the reference books I required. The darkroom and studio project took almost a year to complete, by which time I was seeking pastures new. My only studio photos were my friend's wedding invitation featured here, a Farleys ad and various pack shots for sundry products.
There was a brief interlude during which I was asked to convert the interior of a girlie bar to a pub. Note the guy leaning on the wagon wheel, a feature of the interior design & darts area of the pub. The Lord Kitchener's was launched (see left) and free drinks for the duration. I then teamed up with an English journalist to form a creative consultancy.
Note: The Sam Haskins photograph whose work was featured throughout the pub.
I adapted this Boots brochure to feature an Arab mother and child. It was my first real attempt at a professional level of staged photography and all executed in colour, in subdued sunlight on my office balcony.
I produced campaigns and publicity material for several regional airlines.
In this campaign for Kuwait Airways, we were probably the first to use the more modern, angular Koufic Arabic calligraphy for headlines on ads. I also designed and produced an inflight brochure of which no copy exists.
SUN
Effective black and white small space ad campaign for Amstel Beer utilising display typography in the English text and the Arabic. Produced in French, English and Arabic.
I DRINK AMSTEL
Corporate brochure for Lebanese construction company based in Qatar. Using various supplied photographs and one weeks location photography, that included the Chairman's art collection, example illustrated here.
Another prestige corporate brochure for the Juffali Group. Printed in full colour, but unfortunately no colour sample exists. Shot over two weeks on location in Saudi Arabia.
The photo on the left is of Jeddah Port taken at dusk and is bathed in a red sunset, unfortunately this black and white copy does not do it justice.
Possibly the first ever published UAE travel brochure. All photographs supplied. Designed and printed with gate folds and five creases to form the semi-arch on the folded cover.
Left: Campaign for Ligget and Myers cigarettes, featuring another of my photographs.
Right: Campaign for Dar Assayad. Lebanese newspaper publishers.
The months following October were to be the most dangerous, as the civil war intensified central Beirut came under increasing shell fire and various factions began kidnappings and targeted assassinations. The worst fighting was around The Holiday Inn, inconveniently located only yards away from my printers. The one and only time I ran the gauntlet to check a job my taxi refused to go within two hundred yards of the building, it really was too close to call.
Undaunted, I eventually found a desk space to rent in a design studio in Pimlico. I also partnered with an old friend I had worked with in the London Ad Agency where he was an account executive. With my portfolio of work and accumulated knowledge of Middle East markets it made sense to set up as specialists in this particular field. Our first client turned out to be Purnell's publishers who had just obtained a contract to produce Ahlan Wasahlan, Saudia Airlines first inflight brochure. This was dejavu and most fortuitous for several reasons. With the relative commercial decline of Beirut, due to the civil war, London became a sanctuary for many Lebanese and for their commercial interests. At the same time UK marketeers were able to find the services they would normally only find in Beirut, in the heart of London. We eventually moved to offices in the West End and expanded our staffing level to meet demand.
I was asked to model for this photo taken by Jeanie. Sadly, days later, Jimi Hendrix passed away. Coincidentally, I also attended his last concert on the Isle of Wight. In the circumstances, the ad was pulled temporarily, and Barry was asked to come up with another headline, but politely declined. It was very shortly after this episode that we both quit the agency.
My first assignment in my fledgling business was this Saudi Airlines' Annual Report, entailing two weeks of location photography, traversing the Kingdom from west to east. It was printed in colour. Ironically, it could be said this project was the launch of my business career in the Middle East, and it was in Saudi Arabia where, with a little help, I ultimately ended my advertising career.
An illustrated spread of Arabic poetry executed once again in crayon for Saudia in flight brochure, enhanced with classic Soulos calligraphy.
Things couldn't get worse. First the news that my office assistant had been shot and severely wounded. A few weeks later in the bar of a Hotel, a friend and myself were apprehended by Kalashnikov wielding men wearing hooded kafir's. We were removed from the premises and forced into a jeep with a manned machine gun mounted at the rear. I was relieved of my passport and a precious gold and silver ring that a silversmith friend had made as a parting gift. We were then driven out of Beirut at speed to eventually be put through a horrifying mock execution exercise, before they finally sped away. I decided then it was time to quit Beirut and arranged collection of a new passport from the British Embassy. My business partner lived across the green line so I informed him of my intentions and left a signed bank cheque for him to countersign so as to bring funds to London, where I'd thought we could operate from for the interim. He brought the cash to London and put it in his personal account. I was left completely penniless and had to rely on the generosity of friends. The ad on the left was quite prophetic as it was the last ad I designed and shot for Middle East Airlines before my own final departure.
As illustrated here in this early promotion, we very quickly acquired an enviable list of blue chip clients.
PIPE LINES
A major commission for Caterpillar was to translate all their technical literature across the whole range of machinery into Arabic — an assignment I would reject today.
Beechams Overseas product range covered everything in the consumer category from, Marmite and Bovril, Macleans and Aquafresh toothpaste, various shampoo and soap brands, to the Airwick range. Soft drinks including Lucozade, Ribena, Idris, Quosh, Shloer, Corona all of which we were called to work on.
Then we were approached by Rank Hovis McDougal to rebrand their Sharwoods range and various other products such as Mrs Kipling and the Paxo recipe leaflet featured here.
We designed and printed this prestige brochure in English and Arabic for London and Arab Investment Limited along with their Annual Report. It was also used in AlMona's first corporate brochure as a piece of their own work.
I quickly familiarised myself with Arabic script designing and drawing most of these logotypes myself. There were no computers back then so everything was hand drafted.
A proposal for the first cover of Saudia in flight brochure. This portrait of King Abdulaziz Al-Saud was illustrated in coloured crayon and rejected in favour of a bland gold embossed profile of the late King on green background.
Rolls Royce Silver Shadow 2
After a reasonably successful five years in business, I was hit by yet more disappointment. My partner admitted to a financial indiscretion involving himself and an employee of one of our larger clients, prompting me to end the partnership and take overall control of the business. This harmed the turnover of my design business, and I sought desperately to find another avenue of revenue. I contacted the son of my former Beirut-based employer, who, because of the civil war, had relocated his own business to Kuwait. I arranged a meeting in London where we agreed to form a UK-based entity of his ad agency operation. We put in equal amounts of seed money and formed MEANS UK Ltd. The name is an acronym for Middle East Advertising Network Services.
Fortuitously, the furniture showroom's offices adjacent to my design practice were vacating, and I stepped in swiftly to obtain the lease. I spent the majority of the seed money on a complete refurb, with contemporary furnishings, a telex, tinted glass partitioning and some decorative modern art. At the time, I was aware that the Wellcome Foundation had huge business in the Middle East, concentrated mainly on insecticides. I cold-called the marketing manager, making a verbal introduction and proposal. On receiving a positive first reaction, I was asked to make a creative pitch for their insecticide brand Pif Paf. I worked with a copywriter friend on the pitch and used my studio staff to do all the creative work, which included TV storyboards, press ads, direct mail and point of sale material. (Examples below)
We designed and wrote a monthly magazine for Dar Assayad publishing group featuring news and gossip from the Lebanese Advertising Souk. This, in some respects, led to my feature article in AdWeek the highly popular precursor to Haymarket's Campaign magazine.
My Beirut-based client, Dar Assayad, moved their advertising department to London, so I continued to design their promotional literature across most of their titles, which included this Fairuz launch/promotion.
After gaining the Wellcome business, I produced launch TV commercials for the main brand, coinciding with commercials for a major Kuwait bank and Pumbrose (Halal) sausages. Unfortunately, and mainly due to my partner's inadequate pan-Arab credentials, meaning he had no Network, this left us finally open to a classic swindle, perpetrated and orchestrated by three major players in the Middle East's advertising industry.
I was invited to Paris by the MD of Publi Graphics. Not being adequately versed in the intrigues of media trading it came as no surprise when he pointed out that MEANS could not possibly fully service the Wellcome clients' media needs. He suggested he might be able to help, so after a late dinner, he booked me into the Royal Monceau Hotel for us to convene the following morning.
The dust had hardly settled on my drawing board when it transpired that a young executive would be seconded to our office to assist with the running of our London operation. I was informed he was an educated Lebanese Christian who spoke French, English and Arabic fluently, so I eagerly awaited this messiah from the East.
I could not possibly have anticipated the speed with which things were going to change. Mr Smith, as my chosen sobriquet for my new colleague, was highly proactive and seemingly diligent. His first recommendation was a name change for the business, and in my naivety, I agreed. The new company was registered as AlMona International S.A.
At the time, these machinations were beyond my comprehension. So in fact, eventually, all I could derive was that we were two companies, London being a creative and production hub, and SA being a media billing hub. In reality, and with hindsight, it was simply a device to spirit funds out of the UK into an offshore entity, presumably Paris-based. We eventually employed an experienced English account executive from Dorland's to manage the business of the Wellcome Foundation. We also hired an English lady media planner who came with all the requisite credentials.
My premises and design studio continued to provide support to the agency. At the same time, I worked full-time for the Agency entity. We planned to seek new business at speed, and though I knew Mr. Smith and I shared a common ambition, I was less sure about our shared values. It wasn’t long before those values were tested. We had four major accounts, and we were pitching for new business regularly. I was contacted by an old client, who suggested I might like to pitch for the Ross frozen foods business, to which I eagerly agreed. I worked with a copywriter friend who wrote the jingle. On gaining the account, we selected Lamberts to shoot our commercial. See clip.
Ross are ready, good and ready for you
By this time, I needed someone to deal with the logistics, so I hired an old friend to take charge of TV production. She was very experienced in the industry, and during the time she worked with us, she was an exceptional producer. It also happened that our billing and bookkeeping had got badly in arrears, and so we hired a full-time bookkeeper/production and billing exec. She came highly recommended, having previously worked at Dorlands. At about this time, Mr. Smith had hired an additional senior account executive. This individual brought a strong track record in Middle East advertising circles, being Anglo/Lebanese, and would oversee all client contact, with a particular focus on the Wellcome business. By then, we were seven in the ad agency and five in my studio.
A decade earlier, I designed an exhibition stand for the Fa soap brand (see photo). Twelve years later, I pitched a TV storyboard for the same brand. The concept was to be adaptable across three product lines, being Fa soap, deodorant and shampoo. After countless trips to Düsseldorf, a storyboard was agreed upon, and we filmed at Dunn's River Falls, Jamaica. Again, using Lamberts, we shot on 35mm film as opposed to digital for the very best image quality, and the fee was a record amount for making commercials in this market.
After about a year, the launch campaign for our Pif Paf product had clearly run its course, and we were asked to come up with three 15-second commercials for the main brand, and one for a powder product, see below. In those days, a creative guy in the Middle East, and most certainly in my case, was an all-round concept man, meaning art director and copywriter. These commercials were aggressive in tone and used the same strap line we had established in the launch commercial. My selected production company was Sinclair Associates, the same company I used for the launch commercials.
We used close ups of a roaring tiger, the jaws of a shark, and a striking cobra to convey in visual metaphors the effect of a mosquito bite. With the tag line, The Effect is Deadly.
Sinclaire Associates
We used a comical take on an office worker being bugged by a fly as he desperately tries to squat it and fails. Pif Paf comes to the rescue; The Effect is Deadly.
Sinclaire Associates
We took a visual tour through areas of the home that were vulnerable to cockroaches, including a cinematic run with the camera lens through a drainage pipe, ending with the radiating red for danger as illustrated here. Sinclaire Associates
In this animated commercial for Pif Paf powder I selected the music track from Dragnet along with a sound alike voice over. Using animation as the vehicle to tell the story.
Orchid Productions
Nocturne fabric freshener. Sinclaire Associates
Freshaire air freshener
Drapolene baby lotion, Nocturne and Freshaire press ads.
I took a flight to Beirut, Lebanon, with a couple of weeks' wages and a Nikon F camera. The first year I spent getting to know what was then described as 'The Paris of the Middle East'. Enjoying both its nightlife and its more bucolic offerings, I quickly befriended a group of locals and some interesting expatriates working in the fields of journalism and film, as well as some more nefariously engaged individuals. This became more than just an enjoyable pastime, and I travelled the region extensively, getting involved in various escapades. More of which in Adrabia the book.
My creative endeavours began at art college and along with my colleagues I completed the Nottingham to Derby egg and spoon race to promote our student Jazz Ball.
During the summer break I found employment at Butlins Holiday Camp, Skegness. I worked as a kitchen porter during the day, a barman in the evening, and a receptionist at weekends.
Next on the agenda, I was informed that we'd taken an interest in a Cairo agency and purchased the JWT offices in Dubai. I was promptly relocated to the Sheraton hotel for a week to meet the local staff and was briefed on a Red Label tea commercial. From concept to production, this commercial took over one year. For economic reasons, it was mostly shot in Cairo and was problematic to say the least.
Visually taking a timeline from harvesting the tea leaf, to transporting by camel train, to a Victorian picnic, to a teatime setting in an ultra-modern Arab home and the strap line, The timeless taste of original tea. Orchid Productions
I found myself back at the Royal Monceau, Paris, to be introduced to our latest 'acquisition', who I'm told will run our Paris office. He's a dual-national Lebanese/French Middle East media specialist who is highly rated. He has also introduced us to the Lebanese marketing manager for Orangina, a Pernod Ricard brand. Enough said, I am briefed to come up with a commercial for the Saudi Arabian market for Orangina. I began by arabising the outdoor, example here.
The TV was arduous from beginning to end. There were a few revisions to the storyboard before getting final approval, but when Egypt was selected for the shoot, I was less than pleased. Our Cairo office managed to find a location just short of derelict. With my production company and principal actor flying in from Manchester, we were left to clean up the site as best we could and shoot with extremely narrow angles. The accommodation and catering were abysmal, resulting in everyone getting a severe dose of Egyptian tummy.
In the interim, we attended another conference in Cairo, and I was informed we were considering a merger with a Saudi Arabian agency. Mr. Smith had told me that he had domestic issues to deal with, and at the same time, in short order, we lost three key London staff, one to a major competitor agency. We began again by recruiting a new bookkeeper.
In due course, the deal with the Saudi's was done, but once again I was not made aware of the small print. We attended a sumptuous, traditional Majlis in Jeddah with all the key directors.
My next assignment with Kathy was to Quneitra in Syria to witness the aftermath of Israel's withdrawal from this part of the occupied Golan. After raising the city to the ground, though falsely claiming at the time that it was a result of war damage, John Snow eventually exposed this lie. The photo on the right is IDF graffiti featuring Ian Anderson, Keith Richards, Ginger Baker and Manfred Mann in one of the few buildings left standing. More of which in Adrabia the book.
The above photo, taken in Cairo, features our new Saudi Arabian MD. (centre). Mr. Smith keeps a low profile, back row left. I am kneeling front row in a striped shirt with my original Lebanese, bespectacled partner. His Paris-based brother-in-law, who ultimately brokered the deal, is absent.
I was in the Jeddah office for a meeting with our Orangina client, which of course was a car crash. Having seen the rough cut he rejected the commercial out of hand and demanded a reshoot. It was about this time I began to despair about the direction the agency was taking, and I was not overly impressed with the Jeddah operation. On the Orangina front, a complete re-shoot was organised at a four-star location near Giza, and we saved costs by shooting two commercials with the same production company.
My London agency career was a slow burner, as for two years, I worked on an uninspiring retail account. On being liberated, my first proper ad featured the lady in the duvet, at a time when blanket bedding was the norm. I was surprised that my risque headline passed the censor test. I have purposely obscured the brand, but they did secure the market with this campaign.
After the merger and following several meetings between the two parties, both in Jeddah and Cairo, it became clear that clashes of personality were inevitable. I hired an English creative director to oversee the large creative department in Jeddah. Unfortunately, he did not stay and moved to another international agency based in Jeddah. At about this time, I was briefed to prepare a presentation for the Saudi Arabian Airlines account, and pitching against the incumbent agency. Working solo without a copywriter, I was relatively confident I could pitch a winner, despite the lack of a proper brief. What I didn’t know was that specific individuals in our Jeddah office had hired a freelance Lebanese creative man to also do a presentation. Putting my disappointment to one side, I did make the point that this would not reflect well on the agency. The outcome was that all three pitches were rejected. I was then informed that both agencies would re-pitch alongside each other to the Saudia Board. I found this suggestion quite bizarre, and a few weeks later, I boarded our Jeddah-bound Saudi Airlines flight and told Mr. Smith that after this debacle, I would be resigning. His response was, “How can you resign? What will you do?” and I responded, “Sausages”.
After receiving numerous awards and accolades for the exceptional quality of our sausages and supplying many high-end establishments, including the Big House, I decided to retire and take the occasional photograph after a 25-year run.
Farley's ad photo
Having thought I'd put the advertising days well behind me, and finding fresh stimulus in photography, I inevitably delved into the wonders of my new toy, an iMac. By chance, browsing through social media pages, I noticed that my erstwhile partner had indeed climbed the greasy pole of International advertising, becoming a senior executive of one of the world's largest advertising agencies. It was the following blog that caught my attention, and I continue here, still using my sobriquet for this individual:
Mr. Smith's character is in many ways intertwined with that of JWT. Although he holds a WPP title, he remains as non-executive chairman of JWT MEA, whilst the agency he established in London in 1984 was the seed from which JWT MENA originally grew. Although the network is performing well on a regional level, with JWT Riyadh winning Saudi Arabia's first-ever grand prix at the Lynx in March, JWT Dubai is currently witnessing significant change. As of early May, up to eight people had lost their jobs and a further four had resigned from the agency's creative department. "People come and go, but you guys like to dramatise these things, otherwise you won't sell magazines," he says with a smile.
I was struck not only by the man's arrogance but also by his contempt for creative people. I'm familiar with his outlandish lies and well-practised artifice, as crassly displayed in this interview, and I offer more revealing detail in my forthcoming book.
After the shoot, I decided to spend a few days at The Mena House, situated near the Giza Pyramids. It was while taking supper in the restaurant that a somewhat inebriated Omar Sheriff appeared at my table, had a few brief words and proceeded to the small makeshift stage to entertain us with a ten-minute Oscar-worthy music and dance performance that alone more than made up for the grief we'd gone through producing the Orangina commercial.
We eventually moved to smart new offices, and I was accommodated at the Sofitel Hotel. However, the personal privations became too much to handle, and, combined with a toxic working environment, I resigned from the organisation after one year. I reclaimed possession of my UK offices, took a paltry severance payment and sought pastures new.
But alas, and contrary to my better judgment, I was persuaded to make the move to Jeddah and head their creative department. It very quickly became apparent that the whole operation was run on a shoestring. The office premises were crap, I was given substandard accommodation, my financial package was not fully adhered to, and when promises are broken, trust is lost. I was fighting pitched battles with senior account handlers, and I didn't endear myself to senior management when I initiated a project to increase the wages of my studio staff. In the photo below, I am attending a leaving party for one of the Filipino artists
