2013 Winners & Shortlists

CHEYEF HALAK

BrandLBCI
Product/ServiceANTI-DISCRIMINATION
EntrantIMPACT BBDO Beirut, LEBANON
CategoryBEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN LED BY PR
Entrant Company IMPACT BBDO Beirut, LEBANON
PR Agency IMPACT PORTER NOVELLI Beirut, LEBANON

The Campaign

Lebanon’s human rights record showed a lot of controversy in the past few years on both National and International levels. Racial discrimination has become a common attitude in a country known for its rooted ethnic and social elitism. In that sense, Cheyef Halak had to tackle the social discrimination issue, to support and extend the role of numerous local NGOs in grasping the attention of the mass public. The objective was to expose the uncivilized behaviors related to racial discrimination by shaming the wrongdoers and provoke an upset. The mediums were to be traditional empowered by effective and efficient Public Relations deployment. The "Discrimination" TVCs, which were aired on LBCI and uploaded on YouTube, aimed at exposing the level of ignorance and misperception in the Lebanese society that starts from young school students and extends to older age classes. Progressively, a radio stunt, on ground and online activations were created to reinforce the debate, alongside dedicated hotlines to support the mistreated more concretely.

The Brief

We wanted to reach out to the average citizen and create awareness on the discriminatory issues of our society by provoking positive and extensive change within Lebanese individuals and communities. The core objective remained the same: Empowering citizens to expose and shame wrongdoers to generate behavioral change. Cheyef Halak took charge of exposing the problem and inciting the mass to react against racist actions around them because social change can only be ignited by a small group of believers and slowly spread across the community.

Results

The online community applauded the initiative, which immediately became the talk of the town . It also spawned the attention of LBCI’s competitors who also covered discriminatory issues and aired their own “Cheyef Halak” inspired videos. Moreover, the campaign had a behavioral impact on the Lebanese society and discrimination was no longer taken as lightly as it was prior the campaign; a MEA Ground Services staff was dismissed following a racist incident that was spread online. Tourism Minister also stated that there would be zero tolerance against racism. Furthermore, the Philippines government lifted its deployment ban on Lebanon, allowing Filipino workers to return to Beirut. On a quantitative level, the TV commercials got more than 45,000 views on Youtube. As for the on ground activation, it got more than 17,000 views in just 7 days. The Cheyef Halak Facebook page likes increased by more than 10,000 since the launch of the discrimination campaign.

Execution

2 contentious TVCs were created, highlighting the problem in a sarcastic manner. The videos were uploaded on YouTube, Cheyef 7alak’s official website, the Cheyef Halak FB, and aired on LBCI. They triggered the debate that had been smothered for years. 2 hotline numbers were set up to report any misconduct against foreign workers, in collaboration with NGOs. We premeditated a radio stunt to intensify the debate by hijacking a popular morning show provoking the audience to react in favor of our cause. In response to the boycott of foreign workers in public places we organized a 5-star seated dinner for foreign workers only. We created a reverse discrimination situation. Online and press Activation served to remind the Lebanese of what humanity meant. In order to browse the website, users were wittily imposed to prove their humanity by filling in humanitarian claims instead of random CAPTCHA messages.

The Situation

Due to years of war, the country suffers from the absence and inefficiency of governmental accountability and lack of civic education. Consequently, the behavioral problems in the Lebanese society are numerous, from corruption and environmental irresponsibility to racism and traffic misconducts. Human rights watch and other international organizations condemned the situation to an extent that the US Government had downgraded Lebanon to tier 3, the worst possible level, in its report on human trafficking. Incidents of social discrimination were multiplying as foreign workers were being rejected at multiple public locations. More dramatically, home abuse calls were being indirectly reported.

The Strategy

Lebanese citizens often take pride in outsmarting the law. Inspired by the unshakable Lebanese pride the 360° campaign using sarcasm as a tone of voice that started with the traffic theme is now tackling racism and discrimination, considered taboo in our society. PR deployment followed the launch of 2 TVCs. Radio allowed covering audiences that call morning shows to complain about daily problems, but never social discrimination. Cheyef Halak FB page hosted the debate and propelled it nationwide. It helped get the attention of bloggers who fueled the cause by transmitting the message and spurring interaction. The Hotlines of NGOs and the Antiracism Movements were at the center of our campaign, providing support for the victims. An on-ground activation was necessary to fight back the boycott of foreign workers at public resorts. A creative online activation was needed to trigger the attention of online users.

Credits

Name Company Role
Walid Kanaan Impact BBDO Regional Executive Creative Director
Jocelyne Tawk Impact BBDO Digital Account Director
Omar Sadek Impact BBDO Manager - Content Developemnt
Georges Kyrillos Impact BBDO Art Director
Omar Frangieh Impact BBDO Head Of Tv
Rawad Keyrouz Impact BBDO Tv Producer
Nayla Kheyreddine Impact BBDO Account Executive
Chris Jabre Impact BBDO Copywriter
Miriam Jbeili Impact BBDO Seniorer Copywriter
Pierre El-Daher LBCI Ceo