2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Corruption in Lebanon is everywhere. It lives in an economy of its own feeding on everything; and as a result, the fight against it seems hopeless. But the truth is, corruption acts exactly like a private business: The more you buy from it, the more it grows. And so we wanted corruption to go Bankrupt. We needed the Lebanese to report acts of corruption, but first we needed to show how blatant corruption had become in Lebanon. And so, we created a real shop named ‘Lebanon4Sale’ where people could actually interact with the shop and bypass the system.

Creative Execution

Through guerilla marketing, a PR stunt, outdoors, an online movie we brought to life the Country’s Corner Shop called “Lebanon4sale” and invited people to close it down by reporting corruption - which allowed our client to gather data and quantify incidents involving corrupt practices in Lebanon. Corner shops in Lebanon are not only part of the folklore of the country but are known to provide more than the usual merchandise and services you’d usually look for. The mercantile nature of corruption in Lebanon made the corner shop a culturally powerful symbol to use in our campaign.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We started with a guerilla campaign with a shop called “Lebanon4sale” advertising for driving licenses, diplomas, etc. And, a week later, in the middle of Beirut, an actual shop called “Lebanon4sale” opened. “Lebanon4sale” looked exactly like a regular corner shop, and inside of it, the driving licenses and other official paper were disposed like regular merchandise. “Lebanon4sale” invaded the territory through portable shops and activists trying to sell their merchandise in every corner of Lebanon. Once people started reporting and numbers started to show, a “Stop the Shop” car started going around the country to gather on the spot reports.

Results

To date, reports on line amount to 3.4 billion liras. 51 Million impressions & $2.6 Million of earned media. Featured in 12 regional and international TVs, 14 magazines, 9 NPs, 5 blogs, and over 30 websites. 487 volunteers in 3 months. 1.598 bribery reports. 2.737 mobile App downloads. 32 Shops “opened” across Lebanon. 4 Booths ‘opened’ in 4 universities. A reporting car went across 26 districts. 4 Street Guerrilla activations. 3 vending machines across 3 theatres. On Jan 26, SED closed the first “shop” in Lebanon by helping develop, sustain and replicate a fully DIGITIZED AND CORRUPT FREE Police Station.