Meet Samer Younes, the Executive Creative Director at M&C Saatchi Beirut, and join this constant dreamer in his abstract rambles, as he muses on his pleasurable distractions, his stimulators in life, and other true delights like that summer dream destination that mirrors his idea of perfect happiness.
What gets you up in the morning?
Lately, a stupid pigeon!
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Finding simple creative solutions to complex problems.
What’s your motto in life?
“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” - Oscar Wilde.
What keeps you in the game?
I simply love what I do, and it’s not even half-time.
What keeps you up at night?
A good movie where the hero always wins.
What would be your worst nightmare?
The hero in the movie dies. That’s why I rarely watch French movies.
What inspires you most?
Everything!
What music have you been listening to lately?
80’s while working out.
Who would you like to sit next to on a seven-hour flight?
An empty chair for me to lie down and sleep.
If you could have dinner with someone, living or dead, who would it be; and what question would you ask him/her?
Stanley Kubrick. I would ask him if he shot the moon landing… And out of all actors… why Tom Cruise?
If you were to change profession, what would you choose to do?
Gaming.
What do you consider to be the greatest headline of all time?
“Labour Isn’t Working” - Saatchi’s 1978 campaign for the Conservative Party.
What business tip would you give the newbies?
Learn the basics. Research first. Sketch. Know your brand and your consumer. Study the greatest advertising minds (Bernbach, Ogilvy, Lasker, Burnett, Saatchi, Hegarty). Stay humble. Client is not always wrong… the list is long!
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Summer in Taormina.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Spend my summers in Taormina and my winters in Cape Town.
What would you like to be doing five years from now?
I would have loved to answer this; unfortunately I live in Lebanon where you don’t know what will happen five minutes from now.
If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
Somewhere warm and sunny.
What is the one thing you wish you have designed?
The first iMac.
I AM
I am a dreamer but I’m not the only one.
I like everything to be clear from the start.
I want to live in peace, in Lebanon if possible, thank you.
I have very little time to do things right.
I wish I lived the golden age of advertising.
I hate the combination of stupidity and pretension.
I fear sharks.
I Google Messi more than anything else.
I wonder why lately Advertising became such a “nasty word”.
I regret not investing in Amazon, Google, and Tesla at a very early stage.
I love summers in Taormina (am I being too repetitive?)
I need my space.
If I ruled the world I would be a lousy ruler.
I dream constantly.
My Favourite…
Dream Destination: Taormina (again)
Restaurant: Happy Prince before it was blown to pieces on August 4
Hotel: Mount Nelson, Cape Town
Meal: Happy Prince T-Bone before it was blown to pieces on August 4
Quote: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”
Book: The Perfume
Movie: Breaking the Waves
Flower: Sunflowers
Animal: Lion
Poet: Not much into poetry
Music/band: Led Zeppelin
Painter: Van Gogh
Heroes: Bill Bernbach. Charles Saatchi. Paul Arden. John Hegarty. Dave Trott.
