Adding some fizz to Arab film

If you have gone to the cinema in the past 12 months, chances are you saw at least one Pepsi advert featuring an Arab superstar, such as Haifa Wehbe, promoting the soft drink. Yet that wasn't just part of another celebrity-fronted ad campaign.

In fact, Bahr Al Nujoom (Sea of Stars) is Pepsi's biggest, and longest, commercial to date. The beverage giant has ventured into the Arabic movie world by producing and releasing this first-of-its-kind cinematic initiative, out now on general release across the UAE.

The hotly anticipated movie features some of the Middle East's biggest singers, including Lebanese Wehbe, Wael Kafouri, Carole Samaha, as well as Tunisian rising star Ahmed Al Sharif, and Emirati crooner Ruwaida Al Mahroogi, all playing themselves. Meanwhile, legendary Egyptian actors Lotfi Labib and Saeed Saleh feature alongside rising stars Bridget Yaghi and Karim Mahmoud Adbel Aziz, the son of famous Egyptian actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz.

"Bahr Al Nujoom was a very exciting project, and through the movie and its music, we are able to relate emotionally to our consumers," PepsiCo International Regional President, Saad Abdulatif told Emirates Business at Wednesday night's Dubai premiere of the film.

"Our aim is to preserve the upbeat and creative image of Pepsi while connecting directly to our audience with the superstars they enjoy and admire in the Middle East," he added.

The film tells the story of a young teenager, played by Abdel Aziz, who lives in a coastline city helping his father run the family restaurant business. Unfortunately, business isn't doing too well as tourists no longer visit the area, and most of the residents have moved to neighbouring cities.

Desperate to help his family make some money, he decides its time to revive the city. He remembers that when his grandfather (Labib) was younger, he used to organise a famous music festival called Mahragan Bahr Al Nujoom (The Sea of Stars Festival). He and his friend brought music's crème de la crème to the city, including the legendary artists Um Kulthoum, Sabah and Abdel Haleem. But over time, the two friends lose touch with each other and the event comes to a halt.

Now, the teenager teams up with his girlfriend, best friend, and sister to attempt to re-launch the festival.

But they need the stars of today, and that's when they decide to approach "five of the hottest stars in the Arab world": Wehbe, Kafouri, Samaha, Al Sharif and Al Mahroogi. But the gang of friends soon realise the job is much harder than expected.

Will they be able to launch the festival in time, and more importantly, will the artists turn up or even accept to appear at the festival?

This is the first time a soft drink company has made a full-length movie as a way of marketing. And Pepsi invested a lot of money into it.

Shot across Lebanon, Bahr Al Nujoom cost an estimated $6 million (Dh22m) and was directed by well-known Egyptian director Ahmed El Mehdi, while Hollywood writer Declan O'Brian provided the script.

Pepsi has a history of associations with the music business, with Michael Jackson, Beyonce and Shakira all signing up to promote the brand.



The numbers

45: The number of days it took to shoot Bahr Al Nujoom

$6m: The total production cost of the 90-minute film

12: The number of original songs sung by the artists throughout Bahr Al Nujoum

Soft drink revolution: The phenomenon of the celebrity-fronted ad campaign


Pepsi is certainly no stranger to the music marketing business.

In 1984, the soft drink manufacturers created a revolution by featuring Michael Jackson in a television commercial – the first time a company of its kind ever signed on a pop star to promote its brands.

Today, Pepsi's music brand ambassadors include international celebrities such as Christina Aguilera (right) Beyonce, Pink, Shakira and Amr Diab. Financially, there's no doubt that these celebrity-brand partnerships benefit the star involved and the company.

However, fat pay cheques aside it also does wonders for their career in the long run, especially for singers from the Middle East.

For example, when Diab joined Spears, Pink and Beyonce for a Pepsi commercial, one of many in his life-long contract, it was reported that many Westerners took interest in the Egyptian superstar, downloading his songs, and purchasing his CDs, despite the fact they didn't know Arabic.

The same can be said for Lebanese beauty Haifa Wehbe, who joined Thierry Henry for a Pepsi World Cup Campaign. It resulted in her receiving an invite to the Cannes Film Festival, where she rubbed shoulders with Hollywood's elite, and, we can guess, made many good business connections.