Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Ministry of Telecommunications - International dialogue day OOH goes all out

Now that's sexy. All right first off remember the Ministry of Telecommunications international dialogue day TVC which went out yesterday? (see here) Well apparently the boys and girls at TBWA\Raad went all out in their OOH (Out of Home) for the same campaign.

OK, just to be fair and even-handed, we seem to be looking at two distinct concepts. As if the client couldn't decide which and went with both, simply because the outdoor campaign is totally unrelated to the TVC we just saw. Because the OOH references directly the political deadlock hitting Lebanese specifically the fact that we have no president for the republic since October 2022. The campaign basically gives political archrivals each other's phone so as for them to initiate a dialogue and get passed the stalemate.

Samir Geagea/Gibran Bassil, Paula Yacoubian/Ali Hassan Khalil, Walid Jumblat/Nabih Berri, Sami Gemayel/Wafik Safa.... So the idea is to share each other's number and start the dialogue! Yes, the campaign could have easily translated into a TVC so it is interesting they went for the second concept as a TV ad (which, to repeat, was quite fun). Interestingly, the agency actually got these numbers from the Lebanese cell phone companies and sent them to the politicians in question with a manifesto urging them to actually start the much-needed talk.

Well, of course, ads are not supposed to have an impact on the ground, specifically not in a complicated country such as Lebanon where change - if it ever happens - takes forever. But hey, the campaign is indeed nice.