On the plus side, Almaza seems to be the only major player still advertising - which I guess is good for the economy. On the minus side, the results are really inconsistent (here). For their latest installment, Almaza unfiltered, the brand tries to riff on all those problems in Lebanon - anything from how the beach in Saida has been taken over by Muslim extremists denying women the right to wear a swimsuit, to women walking the streets and being harassed, to men with non-conforming genders, going through a whole multitude of issues that gen Z or millennials find challenging. 

However, the tone of voice, the way the ad was shot, the whole ambiance made me remember a much, much better ad that riffed on too many such social issues... The ad was done by Leo Burnett in 2005 for Aizone (the kid brother of Aishti - the town's most luxurious adress) which you can find here. I truly think Almaza redid the original though with less gusto than the Aizone effort (which I still find sublime after all these years).

Watch the Almaza effort here, which in itself is interesting. And to give credit where credit is due, the original concept - Un-filtered beer which is as brave as the Lebanese "enduring unacceptable and unjust daily deceptions" (as per the words of Almaza) which leads to the words un-censored, un-hate, un-armed, un-censored, un-afraid and so on in the ad is actually not half as bad. 

I still think however the Aizone ad was much better done.