Saturday, August 16, 2014

Fenicia bank, continuity via Chinese whispers.








Fenicia Bank (formerly known as Bank of Kuwait and the Arab World) is emphasizing its heritage with a cheesy ad. I think though not sure that the client is actually old and the "client service" people (just look at the name card in case you did not get it) are young to emphasize continuity? The line is "lifelong relationship" - for a more confusing take, check this on their own homepage. Under the line of "there are things you'd rather not inherit". Only to come to the visual above with "some things you'd want to inherit".








Of course what the bank did not bet on is that when you open the page the images start scrolling randomly which makes it difficult to understand the visuals being displayed. Frankly, if you did not want your clients or potential clients confused, maybe you should not have changed your name in the first place instead of emphasizing on heritage and continuity.


The other issue is that in Arab society, it is very taboo to speak of "inheritence" especially when related to a bank, because of the view of life and not wishing-ill on anyone (especially not your rich fat uncle as he appears in the ad). Hence the words "be3d el char" (may evil be averted), or "Allah ytawwil bi 3omrak" (may God give you a long life) etc.... whenever unintentionally a death reference is uttered.

Funnily enough, the game "Chinese whispers" (or telephone cassé) is also commonly known as "telephone Arabe" in France. So this might explain it then!

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