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Tbh the new campaign by Abaad is very upsetting, and not for the reasons they intended it to be. Yes, sexual violence is a big issue in Leb, still taboo, with silencing and victim-blaming, but hear me out - this applies to the whole ngos+ad agencies trend (thread/rant⬇️)
1) the ad shows the woman as merely a victim. Not a survivor. Not a multi-dimensional person w/ depth. A victim, surrounded by, mostly, threatening men. That’s a pretty normative picture to draw. Plus it frames the woman through a lense of pity, tells u to feel sorry for her
2) I realise many people hold the victim-blaming discourse, I am not shocked to see it repeated by (the supposedly unaware) bystanders. I am shocked, however, to see that discourse unchallenged by the ad and the overall campaign.
Simply having the message in the end is not enough if it doesn’t read through the whole thing. Just read some of the comments on the ad on social media and you see how that discourse is unchallenged, and some people have no problem whatsoever to repeat it.
I assume these were the same people targeted by this campaign so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3) there is a real problem with ngos commissioning ad agencies for their awareness and advocacy campaigns. Ad agencies see this work as an opportunity to seem responsible, they might even really believe in the cause, but are still driven by the opportunity of winning awards.
Ngos also become driven by their campaigns winning awards as that equates visibility, which is somehow amalgamated with impact - although these 2 can be linked, they are absolutely not the same thing.
In completely handing over their message to agencies and the logic of advertisement, ngos end up favouring the success of the ad itself over actually achieving their objective. The result is tone-deaf ads that seem to miss the point.
For example, going for mere shock value because that seems to make ads successful (as in win awards), without thinking about how this affects the people the ngo works with, or the people targeted.
Not to mention that ads that are meant to shock you are becoming quite stale, just like flash mobs were a few years ago, so really cannot wait till this trend blows away cos it’s getting tiring. Anyhoo, I don’t know who Abaad worked with but, basically, this just went for shock,
It’s not refined at all, and doesn’t deliver a strong message - unlike, for example, their ad for abolishing article 522 (I believe that one was Leo Burnett).
This applies to all ngos working in Leb who seem to believe that it’s as simple as paying an ad agency to reach your awareness objective and who are ending up with poor, tone-deaf messaging. Civil society is basically aiming to work through ad campaigns alone.
But hey, it’s good visibility, and celebrities endorse it, I guess that is the main goal
Honestly, the whole #MinElFelten tagline had so much potential, that’s what makes me more upset. I imagined a whole tongue-in-cheek campaign around everyone saying “I am felten/eh” kind of a finger to the respectability police, but I guess a girl can’t dream.
