Monday, October 27, 2008

Making a habit out of smart awareness

This time the lovely culprit is Leo Burnett Beirut for the Women's empowerment program.... What started as a teaser "Hakak", "Iradtak", "Masouliytak" (Respectively "Your right", "Your will power" and "Your responsibility") is revealed as "Hakik", "iradtik", and "masouliytik." Your right, your will power and your responsiblity - but all being addressed to females rather than males due to the transformation of the "a" in the word into an "i" by what is known as "kasra" in the Arabic language. Interestingly, the expression "khidi kasra" also means "make a habit out of it" and so the brilliant line "Khidi kasra wou harki el oumour" is a word play that says both "be addressed in the female form" and "make a habit out of taking things in hand." Hopefull, things will get stirred.

2 comments:

majd said...

This is a fantastic ad campaign. Reminds me of this quote:

"Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex." - Karl Marx

Tarek Chemaly said...

Thanks for the comment Majd.... Yes, Marx was right I suppose....