2015 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

Our aim was to stop people from using Dubai's beautiful beaches as an ashtray. Which is dreadful, environmentally speaking. But just as importantly, these are the very areas where our children spend their weekends playing. So the objective was to clean up our beaches, and to make sure the sandpits where our children play are not just a giant ashtray

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We constructed a huge, classic sandcastle on a popular Dubai Beach, but with a twist. When people got close to have a better look, they realized it was covered in cigarette butts, which were in fact picked up from that very beach. In this way, we wanted to force smokers, and all their friends and family, to make the connection between casually throwing their cigarettes away on the beach, and what happens to those cigarettes afterwards. We then used all social media platforms to spread the word of this shocking and visually arresting sandcastle.

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

Dubai's residents are very proud of where they live, and nothing is more important to any of us than our children. This campaign made a visceral connection between littering the beach with cigarette butts, and the health, well-being and future of our children. It got people talking about the issue, and shamed them into changing their behavior. And slowly but surely, it's becoming socially unacceptable to just throw your cigarette butt on the beach and casually walk away.

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

By homing in on the scene of the crime, we were able to talk to a captive audience. Is this really what you want your children to be doing with their hands? The creation of a visually arresting and quietly disturbing sandcastle, which aught to be a celebration of our children at play but turns out to be a monument to trash, quickly became a talking point across all social media. And the combination of a spectacular sandcastle on an actual beach, and the buzz it caused was a powerful combination.