One of the great tragedies of living under fear of terrorism is its effect on how we treat one another. Fear for ourselves makes us forget that our abstract villains create unintended victims. The case, created by Ogilvy Jordan for Jordan Airlines is inviting viewers to travel in the Arab or Muslim shoes. “Can you imagine what it’s like to be an Arab boarding an airplane?” Recent years featured a slew of headlines in which people were ethnically profiled as Arab and removed from airplanes, including a refugee college student, for just talking on the phone. The ad is presenting the anguishing journey of a dark skinned traveller, possibly associated with an Arab or a Muslim, as he and other passengers board a plane. As several passengers glare suspiciously into the camera, a voiceover shares the thoughts of the man build around his fears of being feared. The ad is a poignant call to reasoning, tolerance and dissolution of preconceived ideas about “the other”, whoever this might be. After all, as the pop culture rightfully quotes, “the assumption is the mother of all fuckups”.
Credits:
AGENCY: Memac Ogilvy Advize, Amman, Jordan
CLIENT: Royal Jordanian
CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Mohammad Kamal
SCRIPTWRITER: Hadi Alaeddin
ART DIRECTOR: Hadi Alaeddin
ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Amr Hourani
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