Thursday, September 19, 2013

Abaad cluttered hotline ads

Abaad has just come out with a campaign for its new hotline - from the ads I gather it has to do with psychological counseling of some sorts. The ads feature several situations on day to day basis which imply that psychological stress will cause harm to one's self and to family. 
The initiative is interesting naturally - and interestingly all three protagonists in the ads are male (could this be a hint that in a society where men are supposed to be manly, this is an attempt to tell them that there's nothing wrong about confessing one's problems even if anonymously and on the telephone?) - and the copy is adapted to every situation.
The one thing that annoys me though is how much is happening in every ad. First the visual which is better explained in the TV ad (with just the culmination of the action in one single shot, it gets difficult to understand). Then the copy - a gimmick then an alert "don't harm yourself/your family" and then the line written next to the number one is supposed to call which goes "we are ready to hear you talk" - which frankly is the best part of the ad because in Arabic "mist3idin nisma3 hake" also doubles as "we are ready to be badmouthed" (something the Lebanese society readily does if one is not standard of fits into its expectations and conformity).
And there's the logos! A whole lot of logos of the participating institutions and NGOs and whatever else. Pity the ads are cluttered so much one ends up not even reading the hotline number.

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