2016 Winners & Shortlists

Brief Explanation

Every protest movement needs a song. A song helps generate strong feelings and gather people behind a cause. As Sakker El Dekkene needed help in refocusing the cause of the demonstrations to corruption, we decided to use a popular tool among demonstrators: an anti-corruption song. The song was purposely written in an engaging and revolutionary tonality - without being too intellectual - to make sure it appeals to the masses and has the power to serve as a street song during the demonstrations.

The Campaign

2015 was the year corruption stopped being an abstract concept and started really affecting the lives of all Lebanese: as a result of corrupt policies, from a day to another, garbage stopped being collected. People had enough! They flooded the streets chanting slogans against the government. But soon, the movement got politicized, diverting the conversation from the garbage crisis to serving the political agenda of the master puppeteers, the corrupt political class. Stop the Shop wanted to bring the conversation back to corruption quickly before the movement loses its momentum. We partnered with independent activist artist, Tania Saleh created a song and its video clip in just a few hours. The song quickly became a driving force for the protesters, taking back the street protest away from the grasp of the corrupt political class and focusing the movement once again against their corrupt policies.

Creative Execution

We partnered with the independent activist artist, Tania Saleh, known for her integrity and for always carrying messages of politics and humanity in her songs, used footage from the demonstrations and from our previous campaigns and created a song and its video clip just a few hours. All we did is put the song online and, the movement on the ground, the people online and the media, picked it up.

Instantly, the song was widely shared online by demonstrators, influencers, artists and the public at large, confirming their endorsement to Stop the Shop’s cause, totaling over 1 Million impressions and garnering more than 300.000 views and 2,223 shares. On the ground: the song was played at every meeting occasion becoming the anthem of the movement. The song even made it to the demonstrations that expat Lebanese were holding in cities all over the world. Mainstream media picked it up: Tania Saleh and Stop the Shop’s team were invited to the top shows. The two biggest channels in the country, started playing the song 20-40 times a day including the live coverage of the demonstrations where the song was playing in the background during the entire period of the protests. Coverage reached the phenomenal figure of $8,578,136 earned media, focusing the conversation on the real issue – corruption.