2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

To change people's behavior, we had to come up with a solution that would shake people’s conscience, one that would make a sign that has become wallpaper for many stand out and become more meaningful again to our audience. We developed the ‘rewriting respect’ idea/campaign, where we’ve asked a renowned Qatari calligrapher to incorporate a message in the disabled sign, using impactful Arabic words that reminded people of the basics of respect. The disabled sign was reborn to address a powerful message to the abled bodied.

Creative Execution

The new signs were implemented in the parking spaces and bathrooms of malls and business towers, in various public spaces across Qatar. The implementation started on the second week of January 2017, and the campaign grew bigger as new places were progressively added. Following on from the success of this campaign we’re currently lobbying key stakeholders within the government to implement this campaign throughout the whole country.

Results

Redesigning the sign using Arabic calligraphy, tightly linked to the Arabic culture, had a profound impact on Qataris and Arab expats. Seeing the sign 'written' in their own language had a strong and positive effect on our target audience, touching their subconscious and reminding them that respect was, and will always be, a human, ethical, and cultural value . People were reminded of the importance of thinking of others and saw the real meaning behind the sign, and this powerful message naturally led them to change their behavior.

To address the issue of the continual abuse of the disabled sign, we have used the sign itself as media, along with a call-to-action that reminded our target audience of the value of respect, creating a direct influence on people's behavior and inviting them to promptly change it. The use of direct media generated an immediate action and, therefore, a visible change.

In Qatar, despite governmental efforts and punitive approaches to controlling the use and abuse of handicapped spaces, violations were still observed and frequently committed by Qataris and Arab expats. We used Arabic calligraphy, highly relevant to our predominately Arabic audience, to redesign the disabled sign using impactful words as a call-to-action that reminded our target audience of the value of respect, creating a direct influence on people's attitude and inviting them to promptly change their behavior and make Qatar accessible for all.