A scoop of Doha

byHabib Battah
Jun 1, 2008

I saw this ad last night in front of the Haagen Daaz stand in downtown Beirut, which is now buzzing with pedestrian traffic. With its “Doha Agreement Cone” (as seen above) the American ice cream retailer is capitalizing on the recent truce signed by Lebanese politicians and former warlords upon the urging of the Qatari Emir in his country’s capital. Haagen Daaz partnered with none other than Qatar Airways to offer the deal.

Does this mean the Emir can have his cone and eat it too?

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.

2 comments

amir in tel aviv says:

Jun 1, 2008 at 6:29 pm

Lovely indeed.

Looks like Lebanese are extremely creative, and they like their ad’s big and flashy.

Great blogging BTW. I love your down to earth reporting; of what is happening in the streets.
.

Reply
Habib Battah says:

Jun 2, 2008 at 3:29 pm

Many thanks Amir. War or peace, Lebanese always seem to retain the ability to sell product and do so with flair.

See ‘billboards’ and ‘advertising’ in my categories if you are interested in other examples.

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