We The Unburnt
Exotica
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Leo Burnett Beirut
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Bechara Mouzannar Executive Creative Directors Malek Ghorayeb, Natasha Maasri Creative Director Rana Khoury Associate Creative Director Nadia Deghayli Senior Art Director Noura Assaf Art Director India Arida Junior Art Director Layane Makhlouf Copywriter Mariam Basma
Production Team
Videographer Karen Maroun Junior Content Manager Mahmoud Jaber
Other Credits
Managing Director Nada Abi Saleh Communication Director Elias Kodeissi Communication Executive Nour Zahar Community Manager Rawan Badr PR Managing Director Jo Chemali PR Communication Director Rita Chammas PR Communication Executive Layla Gaussin
Date
January – February 2020
Background
In October 2019, a fire destroyed Lebanon’s forests sparking massive local protests. The government’s lack of response was yet another example of the inadequacy that had put the country in such a difficult socio-economic position.
There were huge demonstrations in the streets. Then, two months later, just before Christmas, Exotica, Lebanon’s leading plant and decoration shop, lost most of its inventory in a massive warehouse fire.
Unlike the government, however, Exotica decided to turn this unfortunate event into a positive act.
Idea
Inspired by the feeling that Lebanon was being propelled into a new era by popular demand for change, Exotica joined the protest movement. Their burnt flower-pots became a symbol of the demand for change. Just as they had survived the blaze, so the people of the country would survive misrule and, against all the odds, survive and thrive.
15 burnt pots were given to artists to decorate with their own metaphors of revival. These were sold by auction on Facebook.
Additional burnt pots were put on sale at Exotica shops and sold out in hours. All the money raised went to AFDC to help regenerate the destroyed forests.
Results
Still not fully reconciled but to date the results indicate 1.2 million impressions on social channels and counting, with 2,800 shares. 400 pots were sold and many more hundreds of trees planted.
Exotica acquired a 40% increase in followers on social channels with 100% positive social sentiments recorded.
Our Thoughts
Nothing in Lebanon is the same as it is in other countries and that includes advertising and, indeed, agencies.
Nowhere else in the world would anyone see selling flowers as a political opportunity. Nowhere else would a catastrophe for the business be seen as an opportunity to make a statement about the regime.
We sometimes forget that the Renaissance was a time of war and massive political change in Italy. Perhaps the creative flowering in Lebanon led by Leo Burnett Beirut is not despite the shenanigans of their self-absorbed political elite but because of them?