Via Beirut/NTSC by Tarek Chemaly Cafe Daniel (Bann Daniel) is back! First thing to notice is the logo which now contains the indication that is has been around since 1977 (but naturally it discounts the period when it was off the market). Daniel, along with Najjar and Abi Nasr were the staple ground coffee Arabica brands in Lebanon. When a brand has been off the shelves for such a long time, it is a reason to change its identity and logo now that people forgot how it used to look like. But rest assured Beirut/NTSC has a picture of the old logo, which you will find was in typical 70s typo - the above logo it must be said is indeed a derivative of the old one, and has been revamped and lifted as opposed to being done from scratch.
This naturally continues with the effort of building on a pre-existing brand and indicates the heritage that comes with it. The re-launch ad "yalli deye2... feye2" harps on the same melody - "he who has tasted... shall remember" and obviously still sticks to people who knew Cafe Daniel as opposed to a new breed of clients from a younger generation. The TVC clearly indicates this, with very few people in the cast (perhaps just one) who are not at least sexagenarians.
The only small annoyance is that the slogan reminds me a lot of "Iza de2et 3la2et" (if you have tasted, you are hooked) which is used massively by Zeit Boulos (Cafe Daniel with "he who has tasted... shall remember" is too close for comfort in that case). But what's with Cafe Daniel being away for such a long time I won't play the party spoiler for the homecoming queen! Via Beirut/NTSC by Tarek Chemaly
