A pop up school was set up in Ain el Mraisseh, Beirut on a sunny day in mid-August. This classroom resembled an everyday public school class but with a twist.
Onto the board, the screening of a film telling the story of a young boy, Karim, heading to school. Only his journey was divided into chapters. The video would stop every few minutes to ask the viewers to invite someone to sit down for the story to keep playing. Indeed, each chapter would continue only if a passerby takes a seat in the classroom. The seats had sensors triggering the film to continue playing, hence enabling Karim's journey to school. When all the seats of the class were taken, Karim's journey to school was completed.
Every participant was thanked for taking part in 'Abtal el Madrasa', UNICEF's 2017 Back to School social experiment and each celebrated as a hero, as they were asked to pull out a cape from under each desk that had 'Abtal el Madrasa' (School Heroes) written on.
“A child’s place is in school. But before children can go to schools several people and institutions who believe in the importance of education must step in to remove hurdles and pave the way for these children: those are the people we honour today,” said Tanya Chapuisat, UNICEF’s representative in Lebanon.
The 'Back to School' campaign is a full integrated campaign including advertising, public relations, social media and activation. While it pays tribute to all the inspiring individuals who push through every challenge to prioritise education, it's main objective is to spread awareness around the importance of education and reinforce the message that each member of society has a role to play to ensure children’s access to education.
This is the fourth year in a row that UNICEF has worked on a campaign that promotes free education across all public schools in Lebanon.
CREDITS:
Agency: Memac Ogilvy Beirut
Managing Director: Naji Boulos
Business Director: Rima Isho
PR Director: Carmen El Hajj
Creative Director: Danielle Chebli
Associate Creative Director: Christian Safi
Senior Art Director: Tina Arab
Senior Graphic Designer: Dimitri Ghalieh
Copywriters: Malek Badreddine, Nour Jurdi
Production Manager: Nizar Tawil
