2018 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

To tilt the balance, we went where few brands have gone before. We created our own counter brand. Meet Em Khalil, meaning ‘mother of Khalil’, the voice that tackles gender-associated laws and societal stereotypes. Also known as the Yin to Bou Khalil's Yang.

Creative Execution

We created our own counter brand, and found that the Yin and Yang aspect of Bou Khalil and Em Khalil could be reflected perfectly in a newly-designed logo. Bou Khalil means "father of Khalil" and Em Khalil means "mother of Khalil". Switching from one to the other was done graphically by simply flipping the B in Bou Khalil and making it an E for Em Khalil, while still retaining the same design balance of the logo and the logo typeface of Khalil itself in English and Arabic, thus showing the parallelism and symmetry between the two. That new logo became the face of Instagram and also the logo on the guerrilla signage. Because of the seamless graphic integration between the 2 emblems and typefaces, it was easy to high-jack the signage in a matter of minutes by replacing the B with the E and the Bou with the Em.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Em Khalil's Instagram posts started getting attention from both male and female influencers on the platform. They quickly started sharing, liking and commenting on them. In less than 1 month, Em Khalil had more followers on Instagram than the number one NGO for women's rights in Lebanon. And Em Khalil is followed equally by men and women. After the guerrilla high-jacking of the signage on Women's Equality Day, bloggers and media picked up on the story, and both Em Khalil and Women’s Equality Day were in the news for the very first time in Lebanon. And from here on, Em Khalil’s voice will only get louder: Em Khalil was invited to write her own monthly column in Lebanon’s most famous business magazine: Executive Magazine. And this is how a supermarket chain became the champion of women… by giving them exactly what they need, beyond just products on a shelf.

Em Khalil was introduced to the world on her very own Instagram account. And the conversation began… Post by post, we discussed the dormant inequality that is at the heart of our society. Child marriage, body positivity, women driving, women voting, women in business and how to pull equal weight as a couple. Then, on Women’s Equality Day, we crossed from the digital world into the real world, in one bold, guerrilla move: In a matter of minutes, we high-jacked the signage of Bou Khalil Supermarket’s flagship store and gave it to Em Khalil for the day, as a sign of solidarity with women. Moreover, couples who showed up to shop together got a 10% discount on their purchases, to encourage men to pull equal weight in grocery shopping.