2019 Winners & Shortlists

Synopsis.

9/11 changed the perception of Muslims, forever. Media didn’t help with 75% of Muslim news mentioning “terrorism”(1). As a result, Muslims were being victimized at global airports with hostile “random checks”. 48% of Muslims personally experienced airport discrimination(2). Airports obliged with Muslims kicked off planes, women forced to show their bloodied pads, burqa bans (3)... Moreover, Trump’s travel ban on 6 Muslim countries signified the last nail in the Muslim traveller’s coffin. Amnesty International believes it’s ‘Better to light a candle than curse in the darkness’. It needed to shift the public opinion from ‘Islam equals Terrorism’, to ‘Islam equals Peace’. The ambition was too big, unlike the budget. Taking on decades of stereotyping, hateful media and the US president! It was Rambo again! We were fighting an army with a knife. We needed to understand islamophobia first. It was a paradox. Americans believe Muslims are dangerous and 58.7% of them think Muslims should endure extra airport screening(4). Yet, 83% of Americans admit they do not know Islam. It was clear, islamophobia was an unfounded fear. To dig deeper, we conducted a series of online focus groups with Americans from across the country. There was one common denominator among all who feared Muslims: they all feared Islam, because they feared their own interpretation of it. They were living in a self-made bubble. We provided Muslims with a truth needle to pop the bubble of ignorance at airports. The idea was powerfully simple: transform passports from means for discrimination into messages of peace. We looked into The Quran for verses that relay peace. These verses (in English) were beautifully transformed into passport holders, called Skins of Peace. The passport holders were placed on skinsofpeace.com for people to print them. To make the idea clear, we launched an online film encouraging people to download the designs and contribute theirs to the collection. We accompanied the main launch with 2 shorter versions driving people to the website and a series of DIY films to easily fold and create the passport covers from the comfort of people’s homes. We sent out limited-edition leather covers to celebrities, journalists, and social media influencers. We also placed printed tearable versions at travel agencies, airports, and Islamic centers. Finally, we added a donation section where the proceeds will benefit works to combat Islamophobia. Mission accomplished! Online listening reports registered 18% increase in positive sentiment around Islam(6) signaling an amelioration of Muslims’ image in society. We received 700 artworks from artists from 83 countries. Skinsofpeace.com registered thousands of daily visitors, more than 120,000 Skins downloaded, and $80,000 donation(7). The films garnered 45 million social media impressions. Organic online celebrities and influencers adopted the campaign!7 We caught the attention of global media outlets from around the world like Campaign Magazine’s Top Campaigns of 2017, Arabian Marketer, Creativity Online, The Culture Pub and The Drum’s. (1) Harvard, 2017 (2) PEW, 2017 (3) News Australia, 2018 (4) Chapman University, 2016 (5) BBC, 2017 (6) Crimson Hexagon, 2017 (7) Amnesty International, 2018