2009 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Awareness on gender inequality and the Women Empowerment Program spread. The ad encouraged women to make their mark and make themselves heard. The meaning behind literally changing the word empowered them to actually change their reality with their own hands.

Creative Execution

The “kasra” accent was attached on the press ad as a sticker, to encourage readers of female magazines to literally take the “kasra”/”take the habit of getting things moving” in their favor. By adding the “kasra” accent below the word, participants were involved in changing its meaning. No longer did it address men, but it now read “your right” as a woman.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The Hariri Foundation wanted to address the imbalance of gender roles in Lebanese society, through their “Women Empowerment Program”. The Agency decided to tackle gender inequality by challenging the premises on which people’s daily vocabulary is based. Spoken and written words in the media which would otherwise be addressed to men by default, were altered with a “kasra” accent, making them addressed to women instead. This was extremely relevant to the client which had been heavily researching the depiction of women in the media. With a call for action line that encouraged women to “make your mark”, the target audience that included every Lebanese woman from every possible demographic, was inspired by such a simple idea.