2020/2021 Winners & Shortlists

Write a short summary of what happens in the digital or ambient execution or campaign.

We covered billboards across the country with the army’s emblem and an incomplete slogan and invited people to fill in the blank using spray paint. In this way, the citizens became part of our campaign in real time, creating their own slogans/“billboards” for the army. We then took the most moving user-generated slogans from social media and broadcast them on LED screens across the country.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

On October 17, 2019, massive anti-government demonstrations broke out in Lebanon. Thousands took to the streets to protest long-standing corruption and express their lack of faith in the state’s institutions. The Lebanese army was ordered to intervene, and they were immediately perceived as “oppressors” by their own people. On Independence Day, when the army holds its annual parade and when emotions were running especially high, we were faced with a difficult task: how to re-instill faith in the military and rally people to celebrate its contributions. People were already spray-painting anti-government slogans on walls, barriers, street signs, ATMs and any empty space they could find during the revolution.

Explain how the work innovatively used the outdoor medium.

Rather than using billboards to communicate our own message this Independence Day, we turned billboards into a space for citizens to express themselves and broadcast their own messages of support.