When Sharjah Municipality decided in 2006 to launch an environmental company, which will – among other things – create a waste sorting and recycling plant, it turned to Dubai-based AGA ADK Advertising & Marketing to create the branding and launch campaign.
“We didn’t want to just come out and say, ‘Hey, this is a recycling company,’” says Martino O’Brien, AGA’s creative director. “Who would give a shit?”
It’s a fair question. According to the UAE government’s Web site, the Emirates has one of the highest levels of domestic waste in the world – with Abu Dhabi weighing in at an impressive 730 kilos per capita and Dubai 725 kilos. Both are higher than the US (710 kilos) and more than double the UK (300 kilos). Apart from domestic waste, there’s also a huge problem with litter on the streets, beaches and gardens.
“The UAE is one of the world’s worst countries for waste disposal and Sharjah is one of the worst emirates,” O’Brien says. But it’s a problem that is usually swept under the carpet. Mainly because the bulk of the refuse appears in the less glamorous areas, where tourists don’t go, while the rubbish on the more upmarket streets is cleared away daily by hordes of laborers who many residents never see, meaning the problem is not visible. “The litter is cleared every morning,” says O’Brien. “It’s not like in India where it’s out on the street.”
TRANSFORMING TRASH. Having come up with a name (Bee’ah, the Arabic word for “environment”) and logo (green, naturally) for the company, AGA created a launch campaign designed to show how everyday objects we normally discard without a thought can contribute to the future.
So one ad shows a crushed Coke can with the headline, “Your new microwave oven,” another has what looks like an empty glass jar with a cracked lid (“Your new home”), and the third has a plastic water bottle with the copy, “Your new television.”
The sub-heads explain how each object can be transformed into the headline statement, and it’s not until the small print that the copy explains Bee’ah’s role in the process. “We were launching a new company,” O’Brien says. “But we didn’t want to make it seem like a new company. That wasn’t the focus of the campaign.”
SIMPLY THE BEST. Instead, the ads are intended to pique readers’ interest with the straightforward message that rubbish can be useful. The simplicity of the headlines is deliberate.
“When we got the account, we went to Sharjah to do some research,” O’Brien says. “And we went into this little store and asked the shopkeeper, ‘D’you know anything about recycling?’ He said, ‘Cycling? No, no, no. I only drive a car.’ We were like, ‘Wow. We’re really going to have to start at the very bottom.’
“We were trying to really, really simplify this,” he continues. “Sharjah has a lot of Pakistani and Indian laborers, for example, whose levels of education are not very high. So the simple message of ‘Just throw it in the bin, don’t leave it on the roadside,’ was the basis for the whole campaign. There are no layers that he has to struggle through to get to the core message. It’s right there in his face.”
To help communicate the message to a broader target audience, the ads were produced in Urdu and Malayalam, as well as Arabic and English.
“It’s aimed at the guy in the street. How does a can of Coke become a microwave? I just need them to read the first two lines of the copy,” O’Brien says. “Then what I wanted to achieve in the communication has been achieved. Maybe instead of chucking it over his shoulder, he’ll drop it in the bin.”
KEEP IT CLEAN. The verbal simplicity of the campaign was carried over into the art direction too. The ads have plenty of light-blue space, with just a picture of a single object.
“We didn’t want to clutter the ad,” O’Brien explains. “‘Recycling’ is an ugly word, visually. We looked at a lot of the recycling ads that have been done in this region and they all looked the same. Piles and piles of garbage.
“We went the other way. We wanted to make sure it looked clean, because that’s the company image.”
The use of so much space also helped the campaign to stand out in the region’s print media, where so many ads are visually cluttered, particularly those for real estate, O’Brien says.
“What happens is the client thinks he’s got this full-page ad that he’s paying for – he wants to fill it. It’s a lot of money, so just fill it. He doesn’t give a shit what with,” he says. “So it’s a great opportunity to make your ads stand out.”
SCRAP SATISFACTION. O’Brien credits the client for backing the campaign immediately. “It’s very rare that we get a campaign approved immediately. He didn’t even ask us to make the logo bigger [one of the most common client requests]. So it was a great boost.”
Nor is there any demand for unrealistic ROI from the campaign. “Bee’ah knows this is a long-term process. People aren’t going to get recycling immediately,” says O’Brien. “But it’s a start.”
And although the ads are not the kind of thing that will be troubling the jurors at Cannes next year, they do convey what many individuals would see as a boring, or irrelevant, message in an engaging manner. O’Brien, certainly, is proud to have been involved.
“As creatives, we can try and do too much. You get so caught up in your little world. The first thing you think is, ‘Let’s do something that might win us an award.’ I went through all sorts of very creative ideas from my team. And I said, ‘Show them to the office boy. And if he gets it, we’ll go with it.’
“He stood there and looked at it, and looked at it, and looked at it. And then just walked off. He didn’t get it. But then we did this and he got it.
“This will never win us an award,” he continues. “I know that for a fact. But this was one of my favorite campaigns to work on. The satisfaction comes from people understanding it. When they look at it and it brings a smile to their face. That’s all I’m expecting from this campaign.”
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On the record
Martino O’Brien, creative director, AGA ADK Advertising & Marketing.
On good work
At the end of the day, advertising is interrupting you. If you’re reading the news while you’re having a crap in the morning, you’re just wanting to read the news. And if I come and stick my ad in your face, it’d better be good. I’d better have something interesting to say to you. Otherwise you’re going to kick me in the nuts.
On presenting campaigns
I believe the first round – the first presentation – should always go to the creatives. After that, it’s going to get mutilated along the way, but the first round has to go to you. Otherwise, how can you have any enthusiasm for the campaign, if you compromise at the start? And you never know, they might go for the first suggestion.
On knowing what a good ad is
You look at it and think, ‘Man, I could’ve done this. I should have done this.’ Yeah. But you didn’t think of it.
On his favorite ad
It was for Timberland. It says, “We stole their land. We stole their buffalo. We stole their women. And then we went back for their shoes.” So smart. You don’t have to know anything about American history, you’ll get it. If I write one line like that, I’ll retire, man.
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