Founder's Day Review
Waking up from a long lasting stressful days of preparation, here I am now writing
you and all my body hurts where sleeping was rare and working was hard… but at the same
time, deep inside I am feeling a great pride. The Advertising Club proves once again to be
one of the greatest and most active clubs at NDU. The Advertising Club shows an important
presence in the Founder's Day and in all other activities at the time. The club participates in
the Anti-Smoking Campaign contest and wins the 2nd prize award in front of all the clubs at
the university. All of these great achievements were not to happen without the extreme and
ultimate support of one of the greatest professors at this university; Mr. Kamal Darouni. He is
the man behind creating the Advertising and Marketing major and the NDU Advertising Club. I
would like first to thank him a lot for all his help and support through out these events.
Telling you about the Founder's Day, I should start by our sponsor. Crepaway was
found to sponsor our club; there was a continuous coordination between the club and
Crepaway to finalize everything before the day of the event. So, we did the design of the
stand ahead of time and we dealt with one of the biggest production houses in Lebanon to
execute our work. (You can see the stand design by going to this address
www.najafaysal.com/stand.jpg) Crepaway for the first time felt that he is dealing with a
professional club. Everything was planned ahead of time, issues were discussed in details,
and papers were provided and submitted on time. A professional contract was signed
between the two parties declaring the duties and responsibilities of each party.
Weeks ago, and after the SAO declares the overall theme of the Founder's Day
which was: "Min Zamen", we started a continuous brain storming session till we came up with
our unique and shocking BIG IDEA: "Convince My Grandpa". This idea tells the people who
visit our stand how advertisers in ancient times were able to convince our grandpas to buy
products and services. Building on this, the Advertising Club chooses to make the stand as an
exposition displaying vintage advertisements. More than 30 vintage advertisements were
printed out in a high resolution format (x4) on the best quality paper to ensure correct colors
and gain more resolution. The club also prepared an invitation card for this exposition and it
was the first time a club participating in the Founder's Day has his unique invitation card
which was sent to hundreds of recipients. (You can see the invitation card by going to this
address www.najafaysal.com/ecard.jpg).
At the time the Founder's Day preparation was running, another project was held by
the Advertising Club, and it was a great challenge. Many people didn’t expect us to make it!!
The Advertising Club participated in the NDU Anti-Smoking Campaign Contest. Sleeping was
the least thing we were doing, but working was fun. A campaign titled: "Don’t be an Ash

Whole" was an impressive BIG IDEA for all who saw the campaign. The campaign was to
target important areas of a university student's life and was saying it in a very new and well
executed way. This campaign was announced on the Founder's Day to win the second prize
award out of all the clubs.
The day of the Founder's Day started on Thursday, May 11 at night where Crepaway
started to install the stand. The stand was finished around 3 in the morning, where it was time
to install the 400 x 200 cm banner above the 300 cm height of the stand. To stick this huge
banner on this height needs a strong wood basement, and this was provided by a carpenter
we dealt with where we demanded best quality and elegance. At 9:30 in the morning
everything was already installed and finalized. The stand looks perfect and the Ads were
stuck in a very nice way.
Here I would like to thank two people for their extreme help, Amanda Sabbouh
(Sophomore Adv/Mrk Student) and Melhim Rechdan (NDU Adv/Mrk Graduate). Amanda was
helping in creative work and brain storming; her ideas were original. She was the engine that
didn’t stop producing impressive and beneficial things for the club. Melhim Rechdan was
helping with everything related to the stage performances and he did a great job too.
Founder's Day started, everything is going great. Crepaway were distributing branded
cookies, bandanas and cups besides they were creating games and giving prizes as part of
their branding and promotional strategy. The stand was near to the stage, it looks amazing
and it was the most professional and elegant stand among all. You can easily differentiate our
stand from the others by looking at the huge banner where "Uncle Sam" pointing his finger at
you and saying "Convince My Grandpa".
The Advertising Club on-stage performances started at 3 pm, where "Scorpions
Karaoke" was breaking the silence of the crowd by the Advertising Club Karaoke Contest.
NDU students got over the stage from many clubs and sang their favorite songs. The
audience response was great, students started to dance "Dabke" and enthusiasm was shown
on most of the faces. Here I want to say thank you to Amanda, Reem and Aline for all their
efforts in the Karaoke contest. At 4:30, the Advertising Club Band "Nemesis" got to the stage
singing rock songs where at 6 pm two Rap singers "Rani" & "Garo" blew the stage with
Eminem and Dr. Dray songs. They faced each others and sang their best.
At 8:30, the biggest Advertising Club talent Salim Bannout got to the stage with 3
different performances. The first show was something NDU experienced for the first time
ever. We built a giant TV where only Salim Bannout's head appears. Salim sang some
vintage Lebanese advertisements published in some old Lebanese newspapers where at that
time all advertisements were published as "Zagal" without any colors or any visuals. Salim's

cute performance in singing the "Zagal" commercials creates a great atmosphere where the
audience reacts with a continuous clap. The second show was chosen by Salim Bannout and
Amanda Sabouh, and it was an English song aged more than 80 years. Salim Bannout with
the help of Gacia Apikian trained four other students to perform a dance show in
acquaintance with this song. Here I would like to say a great thank you first to Salim Bannout,
who was amazing in everything, and for the students who helped him, starting from Gacia
Apikian, Pascale Younes, Maria Touk, Phil Loutfi, and Salim… where they showed a great
personality and positive attitude. The show was simply brilliant; the girls were dressing black
short skirts, white shirts, and vintage black hats where the guys were dressing black. The
dancers were extremely great. The third part was a one man show from Salim Bannout; he
sang a very nice song using his amazing voice. He also sang another song consecutively
versus a girl from the Social Club.
The Founder's Day was a great experience for me especially being the president for
the Advertising Club for the first time and experiencing the stress that the presidents pass
through while organizing events and in contrast the pride of what we achieved. I hope I didn’t
forget anybody from those who helped and contributed in the Founder's Day, and I would like
to thank all the people who put any effort in the success of this event.
I also want to thank the NDU administration for giving us this opportunity to work in real
estate with organizing events.
Naja Faysal
NDU Advertising Club President
Spring 2006