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Friday, 3 March 2017

The TV ads craze in the ‘80s

Cartoons. Celebrities. Riri. Schweppes. Abdelrehim Amr. Catchy tunes. You guessed it: It’s our dive into the epic world of the ‘80s TV ads. “Hatlena Riri, hatlena Riri. Hatlena menno bako wetnein. El sala ‘al zein el sala ‘al zein.” Riri, everyone, the local cereal of the 80s, when folks apparently had a much longer attention span: The spot is 1:18 long (watch two ads, runtime 2:40). Remember Sherine Reda promoting Show Inn’s burgers ? And weren’t you just happy that Abdelrehim Amr Furniture guy was finally getting married? Or that Tarek Nour’s Kito guy could finally sleep after mosquitos left him alone? (0:38)

The hit of the 1980s: The Serr Schweppes (Schweppes’ secret) campaign. We’re not sure what the secret was, really, but you had a good life if you watched Dallas (Sue Ellen, J.R.) and longed to know what serr Schweppes was. Watch Tarek Nour’s epic Schweppes campaign featuring actor Hassan Abdin here (2:33). Then head to Gersy chocolate’s ad for the definition of sexy in the ‘80s or the classic that is Carpet City’s “Mahmoud eh da ya Mahmoud” ad (runtime 0:31) — both by Tarek Nour. Clearly you have Tarek Nour Communications to thank for shaping the collective memory the ‘80s generation.

Check out the collection of 1980s and 1990s ads on Essaad Younes’ Sahibet Al-Saada show (run time: 10:58).

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