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This brilliant cartoon by Jordanian cartoonist Osama Hajjaj has been been making the rounds on the internet lately. For those of you who can’t read Arabic, it’s basically a typical Jordanian phone conversation that is punctuated by logos of famous brands in Jordan (mostly used as a replacement for common words).
On a deeper level, this cartoon also speaks about the role of brands in our lives today. Brands are dominating the language, because they have become code words for whole product categories or lifestyles.
Here are some statistics about this cartoon:
Total number of brands/logos: 48
Jordanian brands: 14 (29%). Lacalle, ZAY, Ahli, Kan Zaman, Living Room, Kanabaye, Red, FEZ, Play, Nai, Umniah,
TcheTche, Book & Cafe, Hindi.
Arab brands: 6 (12.5%). Banque Audi (Lebanon), The One (UAE), Zain (Kuwait), MBC 4 (Saudi Arabia), Mazzika (Egypt), Mostaqbal TV (Lebanon).
Logos designed by SYNTAX: 2 (4%). Ahli Bank, Play 99.6. 
This shows a strong dominance by global brands, but also a strong showing of local brands (with some Arab brands added to the mix).
All of this is a rather unscientific, yet interesting, study of brand in Jordan.
Comments
2 responses to “It’s a branded world out there, “ya man!””
Very interesting. thanks for sharing.
I noticed that face book is converted to face ‘abook’ to fit the conversation. this guy is brilliant. I always check his caricatures. again, thanks for sharing.