The World's Tallest Donation Box
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives
Issue 56 | September 2020
Agency
MullenLowe MENA
Creative Team
Regional Agency Group MullenLowe MENA Executive Creative Director Paul Banham Creative Directors Khaled AlShehhi, Prerna Mehra Writer Greg Brown Art Directors Prerna Mehra, Zaheer Abbas, Mohammed Jawad
Production Team
Agency Producer Mounir Mohammed Production Companies Calm Ray, The Confessional
Other Credits
Account Management Amina El Ashry, Rami Ghanem, Matthew Butterworth Strategists Matthew Butterworth, Khaled AlShehhi Clients Executive Director Marketing and Communication Khaled AlShehhi Brand Representatives Latifa Almaarzooqi, Ghaya AlBannay, Abdulla AlNuaimi, Sherouk Maher, Ahmed Sari, Suhail Baha
Date
May 2020
Background
While millions were losing their jobs in the pandemic, charitable donations plummeted. In the UAE those most affected were the hundreds of thousands of lowwage workers, who struggled to put food on the table for themselves and their families.
In answer to an open brief from the government, the agency had to find a way to capture attention and raise funds to feed the needy.
Idea
The world’s tallest building is the Burj Khalifa.
Its exterior surfaces host 1.2 million LED lights. ‘The World’s Tallest Donation Box’ invited the public to purchase each and every individual light for as little as $10 AED (equivalent to $3 USD or £2 GBP). Every light illuminated provided a meal for someone.
Individuals and companies were invited to go to tallestdonationbox.com where they bought the lights pixel by pixel. The site’s back-end pushed the data to the building’s servers so the amounts donated could be viewed on the Burj Khalifa itself in real-time.
Results
The campaign was expected to reach its target within one month. In fact, it took just seven days, thanks to generous donations from people and companies in 115 countries. $USD 3.3 million was raised in food aid. The World’s Tallest Donation Box was covered over 550 times by news outlets worldwide and reached a staggering 4.6 billion people.
Our Thoughts
The horror of the current situation is millions of people are losing their jobs at precisely the moment when tens of millions are no longer donating to the organisations that might help them. What this lovely idea does is make you think that however bad you think you’ve got it it, others are in a worse plight. And for a measly two quid you can rediscover your conscience and your humanity.