2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In Lebanon there’s never been a law protecting women against abuse, and more women are being killed by husbands each year. In a male-dominated society that expects women to be submissive, there’s a cultural tendency not to report abuse or interfere in other’s affairs. We needed more women to speak up to get a law passed. We conducted a social experiment with a women’s only taxi service, replacing the GPS system with a remote one we connected to the taxi’s radio. The abusive human GPS directed the driver from another vehicle, giving our surprised captive audience an experience that made it impossible to stay silent. We then created a film of the experiment and used PR to drive it online and through social media. The campaign generated 128 million media impressions globally. It gained so much attention in Lebanon and around the world, it was the final push KAFA needed to get the law passed and the first man in Lebanon jailed for brutally assaulting his wife, driving change in the way Lebanon treats women.

The Brief

In Lebanon there’s never been a law protecting women against abuse, and more women are being killed by husbands each year. In a male-dominated society that expects women to be submissive, there’s a cultural tendency not to report abuse or interfere in other’s affairs. We needed more women to speak up to get a law passed.

Results

The campaign generated 128 million media impressions globally. It gained so much attention in Lebanon and around the world, it was the final push KAFA needed to get the law passed and the first man in Lebanon jailed for brutally assaulting his wife, driving change in the way Lebanon treats women.

Execution

We conducted a social experiment with a women’s only taxi service, replacing the GPS system with a remote one we connected to the taxi’s radio. The abusive human GPS directed the driver from another vehicle, giving our surprised captive audience an experience that made it impossible to stay silent. We then created a film of the experiment and used PR to drive it online and through social media.

The Situation

KAFA is an organisation in Lebanon that has been advocating for women’s rights for many years. But theirs is an uphill battle in a male-dominated society that expects women to be submissive. There’s also a cultural tendency not to report abuse or interfere in other’s affairs that has prevented any effective laws being passed. KAFA had made strong headway in their push for a new law, but they needed a final push to get it passed.

The Strategy

The PR strategy deliberately canvassed the support of key media organisations and influencers in Lebanon who had shown an interest in women’s rights issues before. The campaign was initially seeded through this group to ensure the conversations it started resonated in the right places and was quickly amplified. Then we targeted the Lebanese diaspora in countries around the world, to raise awareness and encourage them to make a real difference back in their home countries. Alongside this unique, targeted approach, international mass media outlets were used to spread the campaign around the world in offline and online media, helping generate 128 million media impressions in total.