Calling advertising fraternity to help Lebanon July 17, 2006
Posted by Farrukh Naeem at copywriterjournalist.com in : Advertising , 10commentsThings are going from bad to worse in Lebanon. When will this senseless violence stop?
I personally, wholeheartedly, unconditionally condemn all violence and every killing of an innocent civilian, particularly the use of bombs and missiles in civilian populations. (No matter how smart bombs get, they can never make out the difference between a terrorist and an innocent civilian, can they?) Like Gandhi said, an eye for an eye makes everyone blind. Senseless aggression is not the answer for anything.
Tim Addington has written about the Lebanon crisis and its effect on the advertising industry on the Campaign ME blog. Seeing the post, I was inspired to do something about it, as a human being, as an advertising professional, as a writer, as a journalist. Not politics but humanitarian support.
Moryarti of Dubai Consumer Mirror wrote a Relief for Lebanon post on the UAE community blog exploring how we can help. Do have a look at it and the links in the comments.
I am thinking, most of the advertising agency top brass in the UAE is Lebanese – they must surely be organising some relief efforts, I’d love to know how I can join in. And this is the time for not just the Lebanese but for all of us from every country in the UAE to rise to the occasion and find ways to help.
Instead of news of agencies closing down their offices in Lebanon, I’d be inspired to see the advertising people getting together and organising at least a relief campaign if not a campaign to promote peace and condemn violence. So many of advertising agency people are very well placed and well connected to initiate and organise regional campaigns for relief. Let’s do it. No help is ever too small.
C’mon advertising fraternity – it’s time for us to take our creativity and use it for a good cause – there is so much we can do as communicators as well as ad professionals with high disposable incomes. Organise relief campaigns, fund raising events, peace campaigns and advocacy. What if we don’t have some client to fund it – let’s do it pro bono. I as a copywriter volunteer to write the relief and peace ads for free.
I remember seeing an ad where one man is making his way through a huge crowd of people running franticallly in the opposite direction. This man is walking against the flow of the running crowd. Alone.
There comes a time when everyone has escaped and only this one man is still going towards the place which everyone was running away from. The camera focuses on the back of this man’s t-shirt. It has a red cross on it. That’s how I would like us ad people to be.
