2019 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The sound of shisha opened a national online debate on a health crisis previously overlooked in Lebanon - shisha smoking and its relationship to throat cancer. In partnership with the American University of Beirut Medical Center we created a social experiment directly targeting smokers at cafés. We turned their beloved shisha into a media tool to deliver a powerful message they could no longer ignore. Our stunt video spread like wildfire on social media, winning over the public opinion, turning our social pages into a pledge wall for current smokers to stop smoking shisha and advocate for the cause.

Background.

Lebanon, a country smoking its way to cancer In the recent years Lebanon has been ranked third globally for having the most smokers per capita, propelling this tiny country into the top 10 countries when it comes to smoking related cancer. The Lebanese government has failed to enforce a ban on smoking in public places receiving a violent backlash from the hospitality industry forcing politicians to overlook this health crisis. Shisha is not “really” smoking While today people slowly recognize the danger of smoking in Lebanon, shisha is ironically seen as an exception. People even mention shisha as a healthier alternative, wrongly believing that this fun, flavoured and water based social activity is not harmful for their health. For World Cancer Day, AUMB was looking to take on the fight against shisha smoking and shine the light on a lesser-known cancer but directly related to shisha smoking, the throat cancer.

Describe the creative idea.

We knew that attacking shisha with generic cancer propaganda was not the right approach to change behaviour amongst Lebanese people. We needed to find a creative way to get their attention and demonstrate the long-term consequences of shisha smoking. Immersion vs. Intervention Instead of going on tv with an alarming message, we decided to get the shisha smokers to experience first-hand what throat cancer felt like. So we decided to give people a taste of cancer by conducting a social experiment in the place where it all begins, a shisha café in Beirut. Using the “poison” to teach the lesson To put the final nail in the coffin, we decided to use the shisha itself as a device to help bring our message home and get people to directly question their behaviour while puffing on the poison, reminding them that they were the one playing with the shisha Russian roulette.

Describe the strategy.

We knew that our task wouldn’t be easy, not only because shisha is seen as a staple of the Lebanese culture but also because of the cultural sensitivity surrounding the word cancer. Cancer, a difficult conversation to have in the middle east In Lebanon there are always been a taboo around cancer and people avoid having an open conversation about it in social settings. People still believe that discussing it openly is inviting the disease into their home. Not only people avoid the talk about cancer, they even avoid pronouncing the name, literally called “the other disease”/”haydak al marad” in the Arabic language. Beyond words we needed to demonstrate the risk of shisha smoking by getting people all choked up in order for them to start protecting their throat and take this issue seriously.

Describe the execution.

Hooking our audiences up with a practical joke In order to get people’s attention during our social experiment and hook the audience online for them to continue watching we started our stunt by adding an extra ingredient to their regular shishas. Before being served in the café, the shishas were filled with an inoffensive amount of helium. Inoffensive for the health but with a direct impact on the sound of the participants voice. First joking with it, playing with their transformed voices, but then this happened: Revealing the true sound of shisha by giving a voice to the survivors To conclude our social experiment the café waiter brought an important video-message to the smokers. Not a message from a doctor, but the testimony of a throat cancer survivor who walked the cancer walk but could barely talk the talk because of it: we revealed the true sound of shisha.

List the results.

A campaign that spread like wildfire on social media After uploading our stunt video on social media our campaign went viral within minutes. Despite the fact that we were not allowed to push our content on Facebook because of regulations around promoting smoking, our video was shared more than 23.9k time, generating 11.4 K comments and ultimately reaching over 1 million organic views within the first 24 hours. Causing a national debate in Lebanon Beyond the impressive number of views and shares on social media, our video started a real debate in Lebanon. TV channels like MTV Lebanon picked up on our social experiment, inviting doctors to highlight the relatively greater harm of smoking shisha compared to cigarettes. Ultimately, the real sound of shisha couldn’t be ignored anymore by politicians as bloggers and Lebanese celebrities joined the public opinion, adding their voices and volunteering to be advocates for the cause.