Everyone has heard about the cyclone by now that is just reaching Oman and is expected to move north towards the Eastern provinces of Saudi and then maybe Kuwait (AlJazeera says its heading north towards Iran avoiding the gulf, but nowhere else does it say that yet). Gonu is now a category 5 hurricane, which the strongest kind of storm.

I tried finding some coverage on tv but there isn’t that much. Even Oman tv has some shows on.

I decided to check out Omani blogs, and fortunately I found two with some info, one with more updates -

• Other Oman talks about preparing for a cyclone
• Sleepless in Muscat with updates on the situation every now and then

Other articles -

Cyclone Gonu heading towards Persian Sea - USA Today
Fujaira affected by Gonu - Gulf News
Latest from Reuters

The new logo for the 2012 Olympics in London was revealed today.

A jigsaw with the Olympic and 2012.

Ugly. And its part of £500,000 spending!!

I think this is a Kuwaitism exclusive!

A friend of mine sent this to me and according to him this is the new logo for MTC with the new name -

The colors and resolution are not that great, but at least you can see the logo with the name.

I like it to be honest, but I haven’t seen the colors! The name is in English, but the logo seems to be Zain in Arabic if im not mistaken. My friends and I were debating whether the name change is the right move, and the opinions are divided, I don’t see anything wrong with it, its actually one of the few Arabic names that doesn’t sound too Arabic or complicated and could be a global brand!

If we look at the other telecom companies in the region with an Arabic name - Wataniya, Mobily, Nawras, Zain ….. it sounds the best out of the four, and the easiest to pronounce no matter what ur language is! It is also a less corporate (MTC) and more friendly and human name to match the mass target of the company.

I saw this ad in the newspaper before, so I looked for it today in AlWatan’s pdf format (the only positive thing about that newspaper is that they keep the ads in their pdf format), and luckily I found it and was able to save it for the blog.

This is a Skoda ad done for AlGhanim automotive.

(the names and arrows were added by me just in case you weren’t sure)

The idea is simple, a typical teenager in his room wearing his headphones being hip and cool and having posters of his favorite things on his wall, family, friends, singers and so on….and a skoda. So far so good, no problems with the concept so far.

In an attempt to localize the ad, the agency added Arab musicians too. My question is, is using these celebrities legal??? I am sure Ronaldinho, Brad Pitt, and Ricky Martin are not being paid to promote Skoda cars!! I doubt that Haifa Wahby or Nancy Ajram promotes these cars either ….. so how can they use their images in these ads???

Anyone know who did this ad?

A friend of mine today told me about an issue that bothered his dad, and that is the numerous versions of the Kuwait national symbol, so I came back and checked out what’s available online, and I was surprised!!

All the symbols have been found online, through the various government websites -

First, I will show the one which I believe is the official one, since I got it from our currency -

So, its a golden falcon with a flag logo under it, the wings expand and then four lines continue the circle (2 white and 2 gold). On the inside, there is a dow floating over 7 levels of waves with a white cloud behind the ship.

Most other symbols have all these factors but are not defined, either the cloud is wrong, the gold is yellow, the flag has different dimensions, the water is shallow or deeper, the lines after the wings are the wrong colors…..etc.

Ministry of Foreign affairs

Ministry of Information

Ministry of Planning

Ministry of Social Affairs

Ministry of Higher Education

Civil Services Commission

Ministry of Electricity and Water

Ministry of Education

State Audit Bureau

Council of Ministries

Ministry of Communications

Saving and Loans Bank

From Wikipedia

Im really surprised at the difference versions of the one symbol at all these government websites (except wikipedia)! The changes in different versions include -

• NONE of the falcons have the same color
• Some versions have the boat colored brown
• The flag comes in different sizes
• The lines making the circle are sometimes all white
• So many special effects have been used such as shining symbols, fading colors in symbols, and the ministry of electricity and water has it in 3D!
• The ministry of planning has a page where the ship in the logo is moving!!
• The borders are sometimes black, sometimes white, sometimes no border!
• The logo isn’t really a circle at all in some of the symbols!

Those are the ones I notice while checking them out quickly, Im sure you guys can find many more mistakes!

Anyway, the point is ….. THIS IS EMBARASSING and unacceptable!

Any respectable company tries its best to keep its logo at a certain level of quality, because the logo is a reflection of the company and is the identity that people associate it with! Most respectable companies establish something called a “brand manual”, in it you will find the guidelines for using the logo anywhere, and it will give you the specifications for using the logo in certain sizes and specific colors and so on… just search “brand manual” online and you will find many excellent examples. These are three I found just by one search and they will give you an idea of what to expect (AMD, Joomla!, Kitchener).

All this can solved by hiring a decent agency to handle the logo and set the guidelines required for using the logo in any of the government websites!