2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Lebanese politicians are part of ‘Lebanon4Sale’s’ (a retail environment created by the agency where everything is for sale, even civic rights) main clientele, thinking that the citizen’s rights are for sale to the highest bidder. On the new year, and for the first time, we wanted to send all politicians a direct message that would pressure them publicly to denounce corruption. We made sure the media was well aware of our act before hand, first covering the act on the main news segments and consequently confronting politicians about it through interviews.

Creative Execution

Our direct mailer was contextually relevant as it was meant to look like a regular end of year greeting allowing the card to make its way to each politician’s desk. There was nothing extraordinary in the execution, which was the strength of the creative with the message overpowering the design. It was relevant for the organization’s project because it sent a direct message about the fight against corruption to the people who have authority on the matter.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We sent a regular looking greeting card celebrating the festive season with a loaded message written on a fake USD 100 bill stating: ‘This is a loaded gift, refuse it to start building a proper state’. By sending our loaded gift directly to our politician’s place of business, the parliament, amongst all other offerings they usually receive, we wanted to first trigger a sentiment of shame and second observe who would applaud the act’s audacity or who would condemn it. In other words, we wanted to single out the good apples from the bad ones.

Results

A total of 151 greeting cards were sent to 127 Members of Parliament, 24 Ministers, and 1 Minister only (The Lebanese Minister of Commerce) expressed a positive reaction to the act stating: ‘This ‘gift’ is an important message that highlights the need to tackle corruption as a high priority’. With minimal cost invested, this act generated USD 148,000 in free media value.