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UAE-born fresh juice maker Barakat joined forces with its creative and social agency Havas Middle East to raise awareness about the importance of reading the back labels on products to discover what goes into the food and drinks consumers buy.

As part of the #ReadTheLabel campaign, Barakat and its agency removed all text, images and even the logo from front labels of the brand’s juice bottles -despite both front and back labels listing the same information, as Barakat products actually are all natural-leaving the most important facts: ingredients and nutritional table on the back, in an effort to encourage people to read labels and become more discerning about nutrition. 

The ‘Read the Label’ activity aims at spreading a powerful message supporting a growing consumer mindset that focuses on a healthy lifestyle through better food choices. As some front labels might be misleading, it is only by carefully reading labels on food items that shoppers can understand that many products perceived as ‘fresh’, are in fact re-engineered and contain artificial ingredients.

“So many of us -myself included- easily fall for attractive words on packagings, thinking we're being 'healthy'. We really wanted to open people's eyes to the importance of reading the back labels of products, because that's where you should look. So, we kept it simple. Very simple. By removing everything from the packaging and keeping only what matters: the nutritional information at the back,” explains Serena Abi Aad, Creative Director Havas Creative.

The message was reinforced and amplified through a live Instagram session with a certified nutritionist who explained food labels, what to look for and what to watch out for, then answered viewers’ questions about a variety of nutrition topics. 

The brand joined forces with a select number of influencers who received the #ReadTheLabel Barakat box, which had juices with blank front labels in it immediately, and who then encouraged their followers to ‘Read the Label’, raising awareness on the importance of the topic.