"Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.'"
"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision", by quoting Helen Keller; the Universite Antonine, through the Department of Advertising, presents "PubliCréa": a creative competition for professionals, in its first edition.
Visual impairment, also known as vision loss, is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means. Identifying many celebrities with vision loss such as: Andrea BOCELLI, Ray CHARLES, Stevie WONDER, and countless sculptors, painters, writers, scientists, etc. these extremely talented individuals have proven that blind people can be as productive and creative as ordinary persons. While the masses consider blind people to be limited or restricted, especially in the field of arts, the mentioned names are a perfect example to success and creative production.
The Lebanese Association for the blind (ALNB) is a humanitarian non-profit organization whose objective is to support people with visual impairment in their diverse individual, social and economic activities.
PubliCréa’s aim is to raise funds and recruit supporting staff; the bare essentials for sustaining the association’s work. Yet some challenges exist:
- Complete indifference to the problems of people with visual impairment:
We find it difficult to look beyond the blind people’s hindering handicap and see who they really are, while all they ask for is to live a dignified life where they can be as productive as everybody else.
- Communication: While people with visual impairment struggle to grasp the world around them and try to communicate with others by compensating for their loss of vision with other senses, gestures and behaviors, people with normal vision, find it difficult to communicate with “those who live in the darkâ€, especially when they cannot exchange direct looks, a fact that bothers many and creates distance between them and the blind.
We must stop our collective conscience from sinking deeper into this indifference or this passive compassion and start taking action to do justice to these marginalized citizens.
Dazzled by their ability to receive immediate external images, people with normal vision are still in need of that internal perception only the blind have. And because the creations of the blind, open our eyes to a more humane world; the campaign wishes to build a bridge of artistic communication through a project presented in A3 format (jpg) shedding light on Lebanese talents and social values.
Note:
- Open to the professionals in the field of advertising, including agencies.
- The projects should be submitted before Monday 14th March, 2016
For more info, contact Mr. Antoine Bakhos:
antoine.bakhos@ua.edu.lb
antoinebacchus@gmail.com
00961 3 924 907
