Al Rifai Valentine’s causing national feminist drama!
Al Rifai Valentine’s causing national feminist drama!
By Admin H: In one of the cheesiest occasions, Valentine’s, we are actually facing some less hideous campaigns if compared to Christmas. One of the ‘red’ campaigns invading the roads is the straight to the point “Al Rifai nuts”, a minimal visual and a play on copy.
On their corporate branding background of reddish gradient with the white typography, typical Valentines colors, (the ones that admin I can’t bear), a perfectly shot piece of nuts introduces an engaging play on form and connotations. In a festive season, where nuts and alcohol are essentials (along with condoms!), Al Rifai went direct with simple lines such as: “Because two can become one”, hinting the indescribable “Love”, trying to treat the cliché with the least possible cliché.
Those campaigns might seem passive to you, but they’re indeed provocative; just after the release, the campaign faced sexist accusations coming from their large facebook audience. The ads were accused to focus on a man’s brains, and a woman’s curves, which is somehow a very demeaning Orientalized look to gender. Whether you agree with those comments or not, the brand managed to keep a class while apologizing to the feminists of the women’s rights group that were offended by the ad.
Girls, girls, girls, com’on! It’s just a classy ad with some sense of humor, relax and think about more serious issues to defend in Lebanon, at least it’s way better than “Castania’s” Happy Valentine’s, and the huge sexual connotation shown in the shape of the pistachio (I guess no offense was taken there/ any agencies involved?)
“Al Rifai would like to point out that the Valentine visuals were not, in any way, trying to belittle the role of women in society. These visuals are part of a campaign that highlights the beauty of every nut and not our view on the role of men and women in society. We believe in equality, not only among people, but also among all our nuts. We hope that you will be able to see things from our perspective.
We thank all of you who appreciated the creativity of the campaign, your support proves that it was a successful one, but in order not to offend anyone and to avoid any further misunderstandings, we have decided to remove 2 of the posted visuals. Wishing you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!”
Brofessional Review 
Great job Rizk Group 🙂
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1. The people who were offended by the campaign were not just women, they were men and women.
2. The organization in fact did not make a big deal out of it, they simply posted it on facebook and the members themselves wanted to call.
3. Sexual connotations are totally fine. What’s so bad about sexual connotations?
Bottom line is: The ads may be distasteful (forgive the intended pun). But regardless of the sexual connotations that this campaign may have given off, there are 2 more striking things that indicate great sloppiness on behalf of the agency that annoy me even more. A copywriter that still creates ads that start with “Because…” needs to be excommunicated from the advertising world. Major #FAIL. And proper english grammar is seriously required guys; there’s no such thing as “Happy Valentine”….the abbreviated form comes from slashing the word “Day”…so it’s “Happy Valentine’s” (Day). Pheew!! There! I vented. Back to work 🙂
Amen to every word!
I am a man, I don’t consider myself a feminist and I found the man/brains woman/curves stereotype offensive. Drama is another sexist word used in a condescending manner against women. Saying they should take it easy and laugh is the most cliche thing a man can say in such cases. Your whole review is unacceptable, so please stick to what you do best.
I am a woman, I sure can be a drama queen, and I happen to know one when I see it. And I’m sorry to tell u that these ads did not insult me or any “highly educated” friend of mine.