Abaad - still believes in teaser/revealer...

Wow, the 80s called and they want their teaser/revealer back. But here we are, another November/December and Abaad (as well as Kafa!) are both on unipoles and billboards and digital OOH. Well, a friend and myself have a theory how come they choose these times specifically when other billboards are a bit more Christmassy... We think it has to do, not with visibility or awareness, but rather with spending donor budget before the end of the year. I went back to my archive, and it is amazing that both Abaad and Kafa both show up in force in November and/or December - no matter the year. Still - the other issue with this ad? A teaser/revealer. Seriously? And the issue is that the revealer was poster while the teaser was on so many other billboards. Yes, as if confusion is not enough. So - to recap: The teaser goes #name_it_right (in triplicate in the same space!) and the revealer goes "no concealing, this is not an assault on dignity, it is a sexual assault, #name_it_right to judge it correctly" and in smaller character "change the sexual assault law". 

Well, yes, the ad does try to say a lot - if we add to it the picture of the scotch-taped woman (which could have come from the Paris Fashion Week but am digressing), with a lot of words attached, but also - as mentioned - a teaser/revealer as well.

Kafa - using tactics which make little sense

Well, that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

First, before anyone telling me I am being biased. There is a big difference between Labneh w Jebneh  (for reference check here) and between the ad above. The other was funny, it made you look, was very tongue-in-cheek, the Kafa ad uses tactics used by the nation bordering us on the south used to scare people prior to bombing. So using such post-colonial pseudo-terrorist ads basically fostered by - what technically is still - our enemy, is not exactly a smart move Kafa no matter the intentions (which I am sure are originally good). Sometimes, one really, really needs to read the room before issuing ads.

Small update on Facebook, the ad was eliminated and a long, long notice was put instead - which instead of simply apologizing it goes on a diatribe of justification. You know Kafa, sometimes admitting a mistake goes far enough...

Abaad comes up with a new rape awareness ad

Abaad comes with another rape ad.

Here.

Well, sadly I have said it before that Abaad (and Kafa - bot NGOs battling for women's rights) have gone too close to over-exposure (please read here) with Abaad almost getting the message correct in 2021 (here).Their ad this year means that there are still women being raped, harassed, subjected to violence, etc... which is bad news indeed. The only positive news is that they managed to do the ad prior to December and not very close to Christmas as is their usual timing.

And as usual there is a tag - for social media of course - to do along with it: لا_عرض_ولا_عار which sort of translates into "neither dignity nor shame" - "dignity" because one of the major causes of rape not being reported is how all this reflects on the dignity of the girl (and in extenso her family) because of the "shame" it brings them (if you read between the lines it's because her "fault" she got raped, as implicitly it is her who "seduced" him to do what he has done - yes, it is never his fault).

Long story short, it is sad Abaad has to do another ad - yearly - for rape reporting or prevention or awareness. But also and this is what worries me, say a woman goes and reports a rape... Isn't she going to be mocked by the agents who are taking her report, isn't she going to be subjected to harassments because it was her who gave him the wrong signals, who was wearing the seductive clothing, who had loose morals.... 

Which brings us to this 2018 Abaad ad...

Salama cracks domestic violence on its head!

Could Salama have done what Abaad and Kafa have tried to do for a long time but kind of failed? (see here) - what Salama did was flip the scenario on its tail. Instead of the woman going "oh poor me my husband is violent" she actually goes the opposite way and is proud of her marital life. "Marriage is one long never-ending honeymoon" - and then she starts defending him that he is stressed which is why he swears at her, but "look at what he offered me four months ago" (as she points to her earring). Then eventually we build up to masterstroke of leading line "العنف المنزلي عادة مش عادي" (domestic violence is a habit not something normal - since the "3adi" is pronounced the same in Arabic). See the beautiful ad here.

RDFL takes a page from the KAFA/Abaad playbook

RDFL, who did a brilliant ad post-elections, is sadly taking a somber page from the Kafa/Abaad playbook (namely the distressed bride on a black background). Yes, yes, I understand the idea but it has been used and overused and honestly, and am sad to say this, the level of shoulder-shrugging on women's issues has increased tremendously in a country where everything else takes precedent (specifically this year) without counting the danger of over-exposure I already mentioned before on the blog (here). Surely, the ad is timely, as it discusses laws which were being stipulated by the MPs, but honestly - at this stage - it just looks like "another women's law ad right in December" right at the door of a very troubled Christmas season riddled with poverty and unemployment.