Category: Information

Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then.

In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations.

Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage.

I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com

note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate.

update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following:

Dear Mark,

Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal).

There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Martin Scorsese for THE DEPARTED

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Forest Whitaker for THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Helen Mirren for THE QUEEN

Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: BABEL

Best Documentary, Feature
Winner: AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Best Documentary, Short Subject
Winner: THE BLOOD OF YINGZHOU DISTRICT

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Jennifer Hudson for DREAMGIRLS

Best Foreign Film
Winner: LEBEN DER ANDEREN, DAS

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: MARIE ANTOINETTE

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: THE DEPARTED

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: HAPPY FEET

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Alan Arkin for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Best Achievement in Sound
Winner: DREAMGIRLS

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: WEST BANK STORY

Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: THE DANISH POET

Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: LABERINTO DEL FAUNO, EL

More details

Rado at RatLab posted an interesting post about a large flag on the side of one of the buildings in the city that went crazy. Seems the flag got loose somehow and because it was windy it started slamming into the glass building breaking and smashing windows. The firemen ended up coming and closing down the street until they could bring the flag down. Pictures of the incident are available on RatLab. [Link]

I got the following in my email today:

Cinemagic Kuwait Launches Weekly Short Film Screenings
“Short & Sweet”

(Kuwait 05/12/2006) Cinemagic Kuwait are organizing “Short & Sweet”, a schedule of weekly short film screenings. The screenings will commence on Wednesday, February 21st, and run throughout the year. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run between 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.

The screenings will bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week we will screen a different selection of short films of varying genre, nationality, and style.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of filmmaking

Attendance for the event is free of charge, but seating is limited. Snacks and refreshments will be served throughout. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact me at the numbers below.

Yazan Al Ghazzawi
PR & Marketing Manager
Kuwait Cinemagic

Tel: (+965) 574 3253
Cell: (+965) 722 2416
www.cinemagics.com

Don’t know how many people saw these pictures but yesterday Maserati revealed their new coupe and its really looks amazing. [Link]

I thought Levi’s closed for good in Kuwait after their store in Al Fanar shut down but today I found another branch. I was in Dar Al Awadi complex in Kuwait City, its the really tall building with a wizards hat on top. The Levi’s store is located in the basement of the small mall there and it seemed pretty decent. I just took a quick peak and saw that the jeans were priced between KD21 and KD29 which is cool but most of the styles and colors they had even I would call old fashioned.

I always was curious to how they were made… [Link]

This has to be the coolest thing the local government has done so far. The First Ring Road has an actual website! For those of you who don’t visit the city much, construction is soon to start on the Sheraton round-about to help decrease the traffic. This First Ring Road website has information on this project including pictures of how the project will end up looking like AND pictures of the current progress. They are actually updating the site on a regular basis with pictures of the construction site.

Now the site design is ugly of course but thats to be expected. [Link]

Recently Marina Mall has become extremely cluttered with ads and it seems things will just get worse. A few days ago “ads 2 blog” posted Marina Mall was going to install a fog screen where ads would run on it. Now today ads 2 blog posted that Marina Mall is also launching a Sky Billboard which will fly around inside the mall displaying ads!

On the bright side, Avenues is opening up on the 20th of this month which is just three days away.

This years Dog Show will be held once again at the British Embassy Gardens on Friday 16th of March 2007. Last year it was a lot of fun for so we will for sure be going back this year. In last years show Geo won second place in the Best Puppy category and this year we are hoping to win in other categories including Best Tail Wagger, Most Adorable Dog and Most Obedient. These competitions aren’t anything serious its all just a lot of fun. If you have a dog you should try and make it this year. For more information click [Here]

Here is my post of last years event.

Thanks Stallion for reminding me

I have posted about Campaign ME numerous times before since its my favorite regional advertising publication. Last week the Campaign ME advertising awards got canceled and no explanation was given which sucked since my agency was tipped as being “Creative Agency of the Year”. Rumors then started flying around that the publication was going to close down and it seems the rumors are true.

I just read an article on mediaME which shed more light into this story. It seems Haymarket, a UK based firm that holds the license for Campaign ME, has pulled the license from IITP the current publishing house of Campaign ME.

It really sucks that they did that. Campaign ME, you will be missed.

I found this movie trailer on K.thekuwaiti’s blog. Its a movie made in Kuwait and from the looks of the trailer it looks pretty cool. Although the plot is really cliche, “six kids have the adventure of their lifetime” the fact that its about six Kuwaiti kids in Kuwait makes it special.

There is another movie I heard that was good called “Shabab Cool”. I was told it was about street racing in Kuwait and that it got banned from the movies here.

By the way, the movie Sharq is directed by Erik Sandoval. The only Sandoval I know is Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star. I wonder if he is related to her?

On my way back to my car after leaving The ONE I spotted the new Burger Company location. Its not bad but looks small. Its located next to the large parking lot outside The ONE.

Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today?

Thanks to K.theKuwaiti for reminding me its Shani Day today.

I always enjoy bazars so I will most probably be going to this one. This Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday the annual Autism Charity Bazar will be held in Kuwait City. Its for a good cause so if you can make it do so. Its from 10AM to 1PM and then again from 5PM to 9PM.

Here is a scan of the flyer which also includes a map:
Front of flyer
Back of flyer