Developed by Euro RSCG Malaysia, a TV spot titled ‘Hands of hope’ uses real human hands against an animated fairytale backdrop to tell the story of a young refugee girl’s flight from war.
The girl is faced by the guns of war at home and the prospect of prostitution and destitution in the country to which she flees.
The hands imagery is also used to illustrate the power that lies in the hands of ordinary people, and draws a connection with UNHCR’s logo, which takes the form of two hands sheltering a refugee.
According to Case Deenadayalan, ECD at Euro RSCG, the story depicts the journey that most refugees go through. “The creative strategy was to appeal from a humanitarian perspective. We consciously did not refer to any country or race, for fear it could offend governments.”
A poster element uses redesigned dollar notes of varying denominations and depicts how that amount could help a refugee with specific actions such as digging wells, providing tents and heating stoves.
Yante Ismail, external relations officer, UNHCR said that she wanted to produce communications that could trigger compassion and understanding of the refugee plight. “The brief was that it would be completely apolitical, and the message would be a universal one of compassion,” she said.
A major challenge for client and agency, noted Ismail, was how to cut through a complex array of issues related to refugees and find a core message that cut across all the issues. The TV spot ran in Malaysia for only one week having been offered free spots by a TV station. The target audience is urban youths below 30 who “tend to be apathetic about social issues” but have “the most capacity to effect change” because of their privileged status.
UN refugee campaign targets Malaysian youth
KUALA LUMPUR - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has launched a campaign in Malaysia to help young people better understand the plight of refugees.
