The Work That Made Me: Mohamed Diaa ElDin Osman
Mohamed Diaa ElDin Osman, or just Diaa, serves as a group creative director at Ogilvy New York, tracing his roots to Egypt where he kick started his career. Before that, he spent a decade at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, leaving his mark on brands like Nike, Instagram, EA, and Facebook. There, he was behind some ground breaking work which caught the attention of media outlets like CNN, The Guardian & Vice, earning him some awards along the way. Some time before that, he made stops at BBDO Dubai and JWT Cairo. Clocking in at 17 years in advertising, he’s leveraged his passion for film, photography, music, tech, and culture to craft a distinct creative style for some of the world’s biggest brands.
The music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Mohamed> It’s pretty difficult to beat Nirvana’s Smell Like Teen Spirit. Not only because it was that definitive anthem for every angst filled '90s kid, but the music video that featured cheerleaders, jocks and punks and everyone in between in a mosh pit surrounding the band, came out of nowhere. It made me and millions take pause and ask “Wait…I’m allowed to feel like that?” What did it mean? Don’t know and it doesn't matter. What I think mattered more than trying to break it down, analyse it and invite focus groups to poke holes in it, is that it made everyone feel something deep down.
The platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Mohamed> Growing up in Egypt, we used to get MTV for a couple hours a day on some obscure satellite channel. And if we’re lucky, we’d get it a bit longer if whoever was in charge of turning it on and off was having a good day. So needless to say, those few hours spent watching that channel were incredibly precious to us. It was a small window into the other side of the world. But MTV’s idents (or bumpers depending what you call them) were the highlight. Beautifully crafted mini leftfield mini stories. Random ideas that meant nothing and said everything in such a short amount of time. You just can’t beat that. I didn’t know who made it or how it was made but I think I got lucky and I ended up in the right industry that at least takes inspiration from that world.
The ad that I keep revisiting…
Mohamed> Oreo’s Life Raft. I can spend all day talking about the comedic genius of this spot. It’s casting. It's a perfect ending. How the dialogue hits the right beats. The set up. But for me, what’s even more intriguing, is how anybody got to convince a brand not to show their product for 45 seconds. The clients, the agency, the creatives, take a bow.
My first professional project…
Mohamed> Too embarrassed to name the project or the agency. But all I can say is that it was for a bank. Despite it being a not so great start for my career, it threw me in the deep end of advertising. And it quickly taught me a lot about what I’m good at. And what I’m terrible at. It gave me a north star for what kind of work I want to do. And the type of work I want to be associated with. Because a check at the end of the month is nice. But being able to feel proud of what you are doing, is even nicer, if you’re lucky enough to have that privilege.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Mohamed> Please refer to the above 👆
The ad that still makes me jealous…
Mohamed> It’s a classic but it has to be Nike’s Write The Future directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Big shout out to Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy. It’s got everything. It’s an epic odyssey of drama, action, suspense, heartbreak and humour all woven neatly together in just under three minutes. It also has one of the best dad jokes by Homer Simpson.
The creative project that changed my career…
Mohamed> We were working on a project for EA’s Need For Speed. After countless rounds of amazing work by some amazing creatives that didn’t go through for different reasons, there was an air of defeat. The client, although appreciative of all the heart and work we put in, decided to go in-house with the project. My partner then, Ignasi Tudela, and I decided to give it one more go. We’re not fans of losing. We came up and wrote the idea at a bar, as one does. What if we remixed Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise with Peter Fonda’s ‘We want to be free’ speech from the movie The Wild Angels? We ran to our agency’s editor first thing the following morning, asked them to put together a mood film for our idea. Sent it to the client and they instantly approved it. We didn't get any awards or big headlines with it - but it was one the best highs of my career that jump started everything else.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Mohamed> Nike Women’s Middle East ‘What will they say about you?’. Because of my background, this one hits close to home. The idea was inspired by what I witnessed my sister and mother and countless other Arab women go through when it comes to something as simple as wanting to play a sport. They battled an outdated stigma of what it means for a woman to sweat and exercise in public. When it went live, Arab Twitter (now X) lit up. It sparked heated debates from both sides. One half loved it and supported it. The other half hated it. It made people feel something I guess.
Nike: What will they say about you?
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Mohamed> There’s a lot of cool stuff brewing at our Ogilvy office in NYC at the moment, but the most recent one that got me excited was for our client Samsung, called ‘Ze Choice’. The idea behind it was to spotlight some of the most iconic duos in pop culture and have them pitch the Galaxy Z Flip and Fold phones. So, we jumped on the Emily in Paris train and got Luc and Julien to banter and outshine each other while highlighting why their Galaxy Z is superior. Shooting this was a blast; it didn’t have the typical ad vibe but rather served as genuine entertainment for fans of the show.
