Nada Abi Saleh

Leo Burnett - MD Beirut

What I definitely don’t miss is the traditional and cumbersome tools we had to work with…

I joined the ad industry…

by default in 1988. It was in September. I wanted to make movies and direct musicals but I ended up doing a law degree and a masters in international relations. Journalism and foreign affairs were not exciting options for me, so I turned to advertising thinking that I might as well “do ads”. Leo Burnett was my first and only choice. I was interviewed by Charles Homsi and Farid Chehab (The “H” and the “C” of H&C Leo Burnett and I was hired on the spot as an Account Executive on Procter and Gamble’s account. I was 24 years old.

The one thing I have always loved and still do about this profession is…. The business of ideas. The good old things about the ad business back in the 1990s, which no longer exist today…

In the world of big corporations and global networks, I miss the freedom, the flexibility and the facility we had back then in managing our business, our brands and our resources. What I definitely don’t miss is the traditional and cumbersome tools we had to work with, from the use of telex and typewriters to bromides and photo type setting…

My ‘Wonder Years’ in advertising…

It is the times we are living in. It is now. It is the future.

The craziest story to come out of all my time of service…

Living in the craziest country ever and continue

loving it.