2018 Winners & Shortlists

AN ODE TO ARAB FEMINISM

Short List
BrandMASHROU' LEILA
Product/ServiceIBN EL LEIL (SON OF THE NIGHT) DELUXE EDITION
EntrantFP7/BEY Beirut, LEBANON
CategoryExcellence in Music Video
Idea Creation FP7/BEY Beirut, LEBANON
PR FP7/BEY Beirut, LEBANON
Production CLANDESTINO FILMS Beirut, LEBANON

The Campaign

With an Arab woman director, we created A MUSIC VIDEO featuring Arab women (doing things one typically sees Western do in a music video – dancing), disrupting the global narrative of Arab feminism - and importantly, that of hyper-secularised (white) feminism, which increasingly positions itself as incompatible with Islam and the Arab world. Instead, the music video celebrates the various modalities of Middle-Eastern feminism. The music video treats oppression and stereotyping from the West, not as a source of victimhood, but as the fertile ground from where resistance can be forged, through music. “Contains anger, sorrow, accusation, and resignation, without losing control or force: the calm simultaneous with the storm.” (Jessica Doyle, Western Listener).

Creative Execution

The video self-consciously toys with the intersection of gender with race by celebrating and championing a coalition of Arab and Muslim women, styled to over-articulate their ethnic background, in a manner more typically employed by Western media to victimise them. The video purposefully attempts to revert the position of the (male) musicians as the heroes of the narrative, not only by subjecting them to the (female) gaze of the director, but also by representing them as individuals who (literally) take the backseat as the coalition moves forward. So, while the lyrics of the verses discuss betrayal, struggle, and conflict, the video revolves around the lyrical pivot in the chorus: ‘aleihum (charge!). “Life-affirming and joyous rather than the timid, “oppressed” vision the West is used to from media reports.” (Alex Clifton, The Singles Jukebox) The song has also featured in the band’s concerts regionally and worldwide, taking the message even further.

Within a week, the song influenced news headlines as it featured on leading news and media platforms such as NBC News, CNN Politics, The New York Times, NewNowNext, Voice of America, The Stable, Adweek, Scroll, Native, Roya News, Egypt today, StepFeed. Adweek: “An agency helped create this incredible music video celebrating feminism in the modern Arab world.” It travelled across 50% of countries on our planet, in multiple languages such as Turkish, Slovak, Portugese, Greek, French, Dutch and Spanish, among others. Featured on international pop culture platforms such as Nowness as the Nowness Picks alongwith Madonna’s Ray of Light. $3.7 earned media value. 580 million impressions. It was ranked as the most popular Arabic song worldwide on music platforms such as iTunes, Anghami, Soundcloud, Earmilk, Listen on Repeat. it became the most trending content on feminism (Trendolizer). Album sales: +24% vs. previous albums. iTunes downloads: +36% vs. any other soundtrack.

Mashrou’ Leila are an independent Lebanese band whose songs take on socio-political issues affecting the Arab World. With their new album’s launch, we were tasked to get the band and their messages more exposure internationally. We didn't do a traditional campaign. We picked an unreleased song, tweaked its lyrics to take on prejudice against Arab women in Western media, added that song to the album and released a provocative MUSIC VIDEO. Earlier, no one would've imagined a music video showing Arab women, in their traditional and religious garbs, dancing. But, Mashrou’ Leila made one happen, creating the ultimate conversation driver.

Instead of promoting the album with a traditional campaign, we identified an unreleased song, composed 3 years back, about "Betrayal". Taking the lyrics of that song, called “Roman”, we gave it a dual meaning - to address the global socio-political trends against Arabs and Arab Feminism. The western media’s narrative of feminism and women empowerment, does position itself as incompatible with Islam and the Arab world. And with Islamophobia rising in the Western world, Western media does not fairly showcase the progress by women in the Middle East; instead, exploiting the cultural and religious prejudices that people and governments are using to victimize Arab women. We wanted Arab women to take back that narrative. And create a new narrative.

Credits

Name Company Role
Jessy Moussallem Clandestino Films Director
Jessy Moussallem Clandestino Films Creative Director
Wissam Smayra Clandestino Films Producer
Ray Barakat Clandestino Films Producer
Katie Dolan Caviar TV Producer
Emile Atallah FP7/BEY Managing Director
Karim Kazan FP7/BEY Executive Creative Director
Tahaab Rais FP7/MENA Regional Head of Strategic Planning
Carl Bou Abdallah FP7/BEY Senior brand planner
Anna Sadykova FP7/MENA Case Strategist
Links
Video URL