MIDDLE EAST
THE BLOTTER
TO ER IS HUMAN
As of press time, we were unable to acquire the transcript of the
Dubai Eye interview with Darren Whittingham, executive creative
director of Start Creative, but here’s what we remember…
Whittingham: “Er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er…
er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er…
er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er…
er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er…
er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er… er…
er… er… er… er… er… er… er… yeah.”
Dubai Eye: Ok, thanks… and now to the news…
FURIOUS?
Eagle-eyed reader Sherine Mankouche has brought a very
unfortunate boo-boo to our attention. Seems our critique of the
website
feedyourcuriosity.com (tagline: “Curious?”) was off the
mark. See, when we clicked on the site’s links, we wrote, “nothing
happened”, leaving us “not so much curious as annoyed”. Ms.
Mankouche, however, was able to access “16 beautiful micro sites”.
TRIVIAL HIRSUTE
So we tried again and, yep, were able to access a bunch of Sharjah
Not being the most imaginative
museum websites. Now we’re not so much annoyed as bored.
of Valentine’s shoppers, we were
Thanks, Sherine!
pleased to get a text message
from beauty salon Nbar, promot-
FILM MOI
ing a one-time-only offer for the
Productivity in Dubai media is said to have fallen by a whopping 72 per
low-low price of Dhs400. “This
cent last week, as local print journalists spent an average of 2.5 hours
Valentine’s Day,” the text began,
a day trawling YouTube to catch a glimpse of themselves on Piers
“surprise her with an exclusive
Morgan’s Dubai documentary, and another 3.5 going on to each other
gift package from The Art of
about how anyone who appeared in the film is an “utter tosser”.
Shaving for Women.”
One-time-only indeed.
SCAM I AM
It’s not like Emirates Business
O-KAY-KAY-KAY, THEN!
24/7,6,5,4… to fall for a scam.
We at Media Week would hate seemingly-innocent daubings on
Well, there was its recent article
our readers to think we are his arm: “Where I’m from, spider
that quoted “unconfirmed
peddling right-wing propaganda, web tattoos on elbows usually
resources” as saying that
but we may have slipped up means you’re a white suprema-
President Obama has signed
last issue. A peer has emailed cist who’s killed someone.”
a $30 million advertising deal
us to complain about our use Hang on: the scowl, the
with BlackBerry—which turned
of the Dairiday milk advert, clenched fist... suddenly it all
out to be a big fat hoax. Look
which depicts a little boy with starts to make sense.
out for the follow-up piece:
“Opportunities abound for those
BOXING CLEVER
who take a chance on Nigerian
Communications professionals ‘unconventional guru’ who is
widows!”
still grappling with the concept said to be running the show
of ‘thinking outside the box’ at City 7 these days. Below,
SON OF SCAM
need only visit the LinkedIn Saliba’s extremely helpful
It’s not like Emirates Business
profile of Tatiana Saliba, the diagram.
24/7,6,5,4… to get its facts
muddled. However, a recent
feature informed readers that
the “Pros” of internet banking
include convenience, value and
er, the “risk of hackers, phishing
and viruses”.
LEAST-READ PRESS
RELEASE OF THE WEEK
AWARD
“New Zealand company sets up
the first pultrusion factory in
Dubai”, Asda’a, February 1 (Size:
ANOTHER FINE MESS
2 MB)
Media Week can reveal another exclusive photo of Andrew
Blair, the former Dubai construction manager who scrawled an
impromptu classified on his Porsche after losing his job. Sadly,
QUOTE OF THE WEEK the unemployed hunk has run into trouble with the law—seems
“Ian Fairservice has been around so long, the worldwide media coverage—complete with pictures of his
he’s known as Ian Al Fairservice. He’s com- car, name, phone number and license plate—alerted authorities
pletely old-school—as you’d know if you’d to Dhs3,650 in unpaid speeding tickets.
read any of his magazines.”—Local hack on Speaking from a “beach in Dubai”, Blair told the Bristol Post:
the Motivate boss. “I am aware of the speeding tickets and I will pay them off when
I get paid.”
Bless.
A pultrusion, yesterday
34 / 08 FEBRUARY 2009
www.mediaweekme.com
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