Where commerce and culture collide

A cinema show of ads drawn from the world’s biggest advertising library is coming to Dubai.

A previous AdEaters presentation. Courtesy AdEaters

A cinematic show featuring adverts from across the world in 40 different languages including rare dialects, which is opening for the first time in the UAE, will prove actions speak louder than words.

The Night of the AdEaters, a travelling exhibition of some of the rarest commercials collected and preserved since 1980 by the Cinematheque Jean Marie Boursicot, the world’s biggest ad library, will be seen for the first time in Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah Theatre this week.

Boursicot, who as a teenager began collecting ads by rummaging through film distributors’ rubbish, organised the first event in 1981, which presented hundreds of adverts in a six-hour show. Each year, more than 300,000 visual communicators in 100 cities have seen more than 500 hand-picked adverts from his vast library.

“The Night of the AdEaters is all about emotions,” says Boursicot. “The message is sufficiently brief and dense to be understood by every­one. People will enjoy great moments of cinema; they will laugh a lot and watch wonderful adverts that reflect trends from all over the world. It is also a source of inspiration for advertising ­professionals.”

Boursicot’s love affair with adverts began at the age of 10 when he came across a poster promoting a soft cheese. His passion grew after he got a manual film projector as a gift.

When working for an advertising agency in Paris, he noticed adverts weren’t being archived and decided to create what is now the biggest library dedicated to television and cinema commercials. Every year it receives 15,000 to 20,000 new commercials from agencies and festivals.

The Night of the AdEaters has become an extension of his passion.

“Maintaining a Cinematheque is a huge task,” he says. “We collect new adverts and restore old ones – from the first commercial made in 1898.

Mohammad Qaraeen, the chief executive of Kilograms Creative Tactics, the company organising the three-day show in Dubai, says it worked with the Boursicot library to select 200 adverts for an 80-minute programme.

“I’ve attended the shows in Jordan and Beirut and wanted to bring the experience here,” says Qaraeen. “But we aren’t hosting a six-hour show and had to remove adverts that were culturally insensitive. But each ad in the show is unique, so the audience won’t be missing anything.”

Boursicot says a good commercial needs to have artistic dimension and to tell a story, “but not necessarily be an advert that sells”.

“I like funny, spectacular commercials, unexpected situations, moving moments and atypical actors,” he says, adding that the event is not a marketing lesson. “It is great moments of cinema to enjoy,” he says.

• The Night of the AdEaters opens tonight and runs until Tuesday at Madinat Jumeirah Theatre. The show starts at 7.30pm and will include a quiz and an interactive session. For ticket information, visit adeatersdubai.com