2012 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

We were approached by a group of Lebanese women fighting for women’s rights, to create a campaign for their new organization. By Lebanese law, men and women are not equal. For example, Lebanese women have no right to pass their nationality to their children, etc. Some laws are so discriminatory that they reduce women to “half citizens”. If it takes a man to become a full citizen, so be it! We wanted the Lebanese community and the lawmakers to imagine a world without women. We named both the movement and the campaign “No Rights, No Women”.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

4 weeks before International Women’s Day we asked women to add mustaches to their profile pictures and become men on Facebook. The complex laws were simplified . On March 8th, following the massive online response, hundreds of women dressed as men went to work and invaded their institution to make a clear statement. At night, women gathered close to parliament to voice the cause in public and on live media. We needed this tangible act for people to engage with us to generate maximum impact. That evening, we made it to the opening of the 8 o’clock news on local and Arab news channels.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Over 1000 Lebanese women, in Lebanon and abroad changed their gender on Facebook. We were featured in: Over 20 leading regional magazines and newspapers Over 57 international blogs & websites Top 3 local and Arab channels The movement got 1.2 million USD of free media coverage (Stat-IPSOS). Our Facebook page was viewed over 16,700 times in only 1 week On August 4th 2011, i.e., 7 months after the start of the “No Rights No women” movement, The Honor Crimes Law was abolished. The Domestic Violence law is now in final study by the parliament.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We wanted to quickly engage the most amounts of people, by creating a simple act that would generate maximum impact. Since by Lebanese law, only men are full citizens we asked women to give up their “womanship” to claim their citizenship, by becoming “men”. We started on Facebook, asking women to add mustaches to their profile pictures and change their gender to call for the event. Thanks to the help and contribution of bloggers, NGOs, activists and concerned citizens the response was massive. Our mustaches were everywhere. On March 8th, International Women’s Day, women around the country were dressed like men. That night, hundreds of women met close to parliament to ask for equal rights.