From the Egyptian Cinderella to Raseeni, Tameem Younis connected the dots to come up with a Youtube channel with amateur videos, that were the talk of the town in full throttle. Amid the revolution’s curfew, Facebook homepages went insane with a video that reached 99,600 views showing Disney’s Cinderella, swearing vaguely in Egyptian Arabic about the 12:00am curfew, while talking to prince charming. Raseeni is Tameem’s new mission, in which he mocks a certain social topic on camera. It became a retweeted Hash Tag on Twitter, which immediately turned heads to amateur videos in Egypt. One of Tameem’s dreams is to open a creative hub that’s based on ideas inspired from our culture and “No bullshit” as he says. We caught up with Tameem to know where his brainwaves come from, he proved us right when we discovered that the guy is just funny and not on any kind of drugs.
So tell us did you create the Tameem Younis Youtube channel for fun or fame?
Well I’ve been working in advertising for 9 years now in the creative department and when I first heard about Youtube, I started uploading some of the advertisements I worked on. I decided that I should take Youtube for another level and I started creating and uploading funny videos, but I had a terrible experience and people threw me with negative comments. So I removed my first video and made others until I got good feedback and I proceeded.
How is it working in advertising, is it fun or just hectic?
I love advertising but I could go on without sleeping for days. Sometimes in the middle of a presentation I would sneak out and create a funny video (laughs). I work, I cook and I live alone, but you could stay for months without any new ideas and I always say that there is no equation for producing creativity, once there is something on your mind just shoot with it before someone else does it.
How is Raseeni treating you so far?
Raseeni is going well so far. It’s the first video I ever made that has a built up structure. People started sending me messages and suggesting certain topics that should be mocked by Raseeni, but you know, some topics are just funny as they are and in Egypt you have a various amount of issues every day that could be harshly mocked. Yehia Ismail works with me on this project; he is a friend and was my partner in Leo Burnett, one of the leading advertising agencies worldwide.
Do you think the revolution paved the way for amateur videos to come out?
Yes of course. There are some videos that were really funny and there were some that were seriously lame, but whether lame or funny it’s good to have competition and I believe that everyone could come up with a good idea.
How do you evaluate creative labs in Egypt, after Youtube, a lot of advertising agencies came with their tail between their legs after they were scandalized with copying foreign ads. So what do you think of that?
Look I think that Egypt is one of the countries that is escalating like a rocket in the advertising field. We have creative labs here in Egypt like no other. For example, Ali Ali who owns Elephant Agency has been awarded several times and his agency is the best small agency around the globe. I work at JWT and I used to work and have friends in Leo Burnett and we all believe in three things: No imitation, fierce encouragement and healthy competition. Ali Ali lectures in Cannes and there are advertising agencies in Egypt that receive Cannes award for advertising. It’s like a Nobel Prize for us.
Twitter# raseeni