Freedom of the press / AnNahar’s AI President campaign reinforces the publication’s impartiality and reputation for protecting the rights of Lebanese people.
The core idea behind the campaign simply wouldn’t work if the data the AI President was trained on was biased or corrupt; AnNahar input its own extensive and impartial reporting over the last 90 years to build the technology – effectively creating a live interactive demo of its credibility for people to engage with. If a consumer uses the OurPresident.AI website to ask the AI President about pressing issues such as the environment, poverty, housing or immigration in Lebanon, they automatically interact with AnNahar’s journalism.
When Contagious spoke to BBDO Impact in 2022, regional executive creative director Joe Abou-Khaled emphasised that AnNahar has a long reputation for standing up for its nation’s people and argued that publications should be vocal about what matters most to its readers. ‘This is what newspapers really should do. They’re championing free and independent journalism in a country that is still very overwhelmed with political agendas and they’re raising the bar each time to keep fighting for the rights of the people and not just for the brand.’
Extra, extra. Read all about it / AnNahar’s AI President is the latest campaign to result from the always-on brief (to find big ideas that can help translate the brand’s mission within the territory) the newspaper has with Impact BBDO. In 2018, AnNahar published a Blank Edition of its daily newspaper to give Lebanese citizens space to write messages to their politicians when the country was without a government for eight months. Then, in 2022, AnNahar pulled the Elections Edition of its newspaper and donated the resources when shortages of ink and paper risked there not being enough ballot papers for voters.
Both campaigns earned Grands Prix in the Print & Publishing categories at Cannes Lions. Ali Rez, Impact BBDO’s chief creative officer for the Menap region told Contagious: ‘As a brand, and as a product itself, they’re very bold. They’re very daring. It’s a dream brand partner from that perspective in that they constantly urge us to push the limits of what will be terrifying to most people. They’re fearless and they recognise that in order to make some noise in a place like Lebanon, to really move people, you have to do something that goes beyond the ordinary.’
Printing money / AnNahar has high journalistic integrity and altruistic intentions, but at the end of the day, it is still a business with the ongoing challenge of selling newspapers in a world where print is a dying art form. In June 2022, Michel Helou, the director of Lebanese newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour, told UNESCO: ‘Lebanon used to be the capital of freedom of speech and quality newspapers and media since the 19th century, and this has collapsed over the last decade, and this collapse has accelerated over the last two years. There is absolutely no way to sustain a print business model in Lebanon.’ To keep AnNahar relevant and operational in today’s digital world, the publication needs to give people a reason to read and buy its journalism – which is exactly what this campaign does. Bold stunts like the AI President can inject new life into a brand and galvanise supporters, which is ever more urgent for print publications.
