In this post we compiled what we thought were some of the most well done Arabic commercials in the Middle East. Many of these will be entertaining regardless of whether or not you speak Arabic, but we have also include a description of each advertisement and why we thought it was so great. If you have any examples of Arabic commercials you think should be on this list be sure to let us know.

 

Panda Cheese

The above Panda cheese commercials are hands down the funniest in this list of Arab country commercials. Each commercial starts with a person refusing or postponing the consumption or the purchase of Panda cheese in a casual way. Next the Panda appears and there is an awkward silence for a few seconds. Then the Panda does something violent in retaliation for the lack of interest in his product. He throws a birthday cake, smashes a car, tips over a shopping cart, breaks a TV, and much more to show everyone “Never say no to Panda”. The reason for the huge success of this commercial is that it literally applies all four of the most power ad campaign techniques into one commercial. There is a word hook, a character hook, a repeatable theme, and a consistent format in each commercial.

 

McDonalds Arabia

This Arabic commercial gives us all a smile as a modern day Romeo goes to great lengths for his beloved to the tune of the famous Meatloaf song, “I would do anything for Love (but I won’t do that)”. The advert appears to tell us that two love struck Egyptians would do anything for love; that is until they get to McDonalds. When she orders a sandwich instead of a combo meal and then tries to share his fries it becomes clear that Romeo’s true love is the McDonald’s French fries.  The two fight and separate over the disagreement proving that McDonald’s is really that good.

 

Snickers Chocolate

In this extremely creative commercial Snickers Arabia shows us that you just aren’t yourself when you are really hungry. They use DC comics Joker character in a match of cards to illustrate just how crazy you can get when you don’t have food in your stomach and how Snickers satisfies your hunger. The Arabic advertisements starts with four young guys sitting around a table playing cards and when one of them asks are we going to play with the joker, the player that is out of view turns into the Joker. He makes all sorts of crazy antics until his friend gives him a Snickers and he is converted back to normal.

 

 Chipsy

In this advertisement two famous Arab actors are at the gym when one decides to give away the other’s bag of Chipsy potato chips to some girls. Upon returning from giving the chips away the friend asks “so you gave my Chipsys away to the girls” and his response is “yeah, what’s the big deal”. He soon realizes that while he was giving away the chips his friend gave away his mobile to the big scary guy in the gym. This Middle Eastern commercial shows us that you don’t just give away some else’s bag of Chispy potato chips unless you are prepared to face the consequences. It also shows us that Chipsy’s irresistible chips may cause you to do some things you regret.

Sidenote: Who would bring a bag of potato chips to the gym?

 

Coca-Cola Ramadan

This ad from Coca-Cola during Ramadan 2013 highlights the greatness of the time of year when everyone from different colors and backgrounds come together to breakfast. By showing all the great things about the season of Ramadan, the family, friends, food, and decorations and oneness of the community during this time Coca-Cola makes an emotional appeal to Arab families. With many of the scenes containing Coke as the centerpiece the meal together they turn their product into an essential ingredient of this holiday.

 

Moro Chocolate Arabia

Moro got very creative with this commercial that shows us the power of eating a Moro bar. The young guy who eats the Moro bar while he is playing tennis on the Wii steps on what looks like a bear rug only for the audience to find out that it is actually a bear. The bear begs the guy to let him go home but the since the guy is charged up from his Moro bar he tells it to keep playing “rug”. The ad does a great job of conveying that a Moro bar will charge you up and satisfy your hunger.

 

Mobinil

Some of the best commercials in the Middle East come out during Ramadan and this is definitely the case for this Mobinil commercial. Mobinil offered double the minutes and SMS messages during the month of Ramadan and they illustrated the offer with this creative ad. The ad shows a popular action movie star killing the villain at the end of a movie but the every time you think it’s over, the villain keeps coming back. This shows the audience that they might think their minutes and SMS messages are out only to find that with Mobinil they still have more minutes and messages to be used.

 

Toyota HiLux

This Toyota Arabia commercial does a great job of bringing their HiLux product into one of the most important moments in a young Arab’s life, when he asks for permission to marry his bride to be from her family. The young Arab is grilled on what he does and has done and because of his experiences with his HiLux he is able to exaggerate his accomplishments to his future in-laws. He says we works on great projects for the great leaders of the future when he actually just towed a bus of school kids. He claims to help in special operations for the military when is just playing with his truck in the desert and shows a military convoy where to go. He mentions that he invests in agriculture when he just uses his truck to buy a load of fruit. Finally, he claims to consult for the top engineers, when in reality he uses his HiLux truck to deliver a load of cinderblocks to a construction site. The commercial ends with Toyota stating that the HiLux has great power without the need to exaggerate.

 

MTV

This advert is a super creative production by MTV Arabia that takes a common scene in many Arab countries of youth standing on the street just hanging out chewing sunflower seeds and turns it cool jingle. This is definitely a great example of a commercial that connects with its target audience and is memorable.

 

IKEA

In this Saudi Arabian commercial we see tension as an older Saudi couple has a group of Saudi youth pull up alongside of them at a traffic light blaring rap music. However, as the commercial progresses we see the camera pan out and you notice that both the older couple and the youth have the same style couch from IKEA tied to the roofs of their cars and then both groups smile at each other. The ad does a great job of conveying the message that though there may be differences between old and young they can agree that IKEA is a great place to buy affordable stylish furniture.