• ISCRIVITI ALLA NEWSLETTER

Interview with Nicolas Courant (Tunisia).

Q: You are creative director of Memac Ogilvy, Tunisia. You won a gold at Cannes 2011 with “Tunisia 2014″. Can you tell us how the campaign was born?

NC: One month after the revolution there was a sort of general disappointment, there were many strikes and people kept thinking about the past rather than the present. It seemed that things weren’t going as we hoped. But we felt we should do something. Clients wanted to communicate, but they were afraid of being accused of exploiting the revolution for commercial purposes. They asked us to come up with an idea. So, we began to think and we realized that the country needed a vision for the future, a kind of “road map” toward a common goal.

Q: The most amazing thing about this campaign is that there isn’t a real client. It looks as if the client was Tunisia.

NC: That’s right! Clients paid for the campaign, but they are not featured in it, their names do not even appear. They found a legitimate way of being engaged.

Q: Was it difficult to organize it?

NC: It all started in no time. We gathered all the mainstream media leaders, in a few hours we presented our idea and they reacted with great enthusiasm. It was all very simple because everyone wanted to take part in it. And it was so!

Q: It looks like it had a huge impact. What was the meaning of this campaign for the people?

NC: It was a very positive meaning. It was the first time someone spoke about the future with such freedom. The same media that people usually viewed as manipulated by the government now had become independent and had undergone to a huge transformation: now the media said things that nobody could say before. Just imagine the surprise. For our people it was very exciting. As a consequence, everybody started to look ahead, to imagine what will be of the country in three years. On social networks the ad became a hot topic, and for the first time Tunisia was the main trend in Twitter France. That day we felt a new wind of hope.

Q: Arab Spring took by surprise everyone. However, agencies are always looking for ways to build a more authentic relationship with the public. Maybe some signs had already come to you?

NC: It was a surprise for everyone. Of course people complained, but the moaning seemed so hackneyed it could not go much further. Things have changed since videos of protesters killed in January became to circulate. From then on the collapse began, but no one imagined that the system was so weak. It was something never seen before: the protest was very strong but we did not imagine that it could come to an end so easily.

Q: Ben Ali had founded ATCE (Agence de Communication Extérieur Tunisian), an organization which was dismantled a few months ago. ATCE used to control Mass Media by managing public companies advertising and by intruding with the choice of adverts commissioned by private clients. Can you tell something about it?

NC: It controlled the media in general, not the advertising industry. Its action focused on media within the country and on public relations with foreign countries. ATCE made propaganda, saying that everything was good in Tunisia, that we were experiencing a great economic miracle, and then invited foreign politicians to discuss about it on TV, giving them fake data. We knew there were taboos: every time we tried to do something new, TV and radio stopped us even before the ATCE took action. They did it every time there was something which the governement could misunderstand.

Q: Have you ever witnessed a censorship incident?

NC: I’ll just make an example: there was this commercial about highly nutritious biscuits for children. A boy stands on the beach and throws a biscuit, making it bounce on the surface of the water, and he does it with such an energy that he hits a ship in open sea. They saw in it a reference to Intifadah! It would have never come to mind to us, but you know, anything that could be read politically was banned on TV. They wouldn’t take the chance.

Q: And is it different today?

NC: The difference is freedom! We notice two main changes, one negative and one positive. On the negative side, people is still scared, afraid to spend money… The positive side is the birth of many civil rights groups, or in defense of women’s rights – a sort of general awakening that makes life here very interesting today.

Q: Which are the most popular products in Tunisia today?

NC: Food and telecom. We have many domestic clients too.

Q: And what about Ramadan? Is it a celebrated event in commercials?

NC: Yes, it’s a very important appointment for the whole advertising industry. Families gather for dinner and watch TV. We make an awful amount of themed commercials! The agencies work hard to prepare for Ramadan, it’s a month full of campaigns, especially food commercials. It’s a bit like Christmas for you!

Q: So I imagine you use symbols. For example, we have Santa Claus and the Christmas tree… what are Ramadan icons?

NC: The Moon! It’s our icon.

Q: Let\’s talk about young people. There is a lot of talk about North Africa being a country of young generations. What do you think?

NC: When election campaign started, I changed my mind on the topic. I used to think that the revolution had been started by a crowd of well-educated and connected students. I saw a great creative and positive energy, the willing of changing the world. The results of the elections, however, showed that this was only a small part of Tunisia, and that the revolution was also about class struggle. The reason of revolution was poverty, it had been started from people who had nothing to loose. When the elections came, the students chose the progressive parties, while the poor voted for those parties that were closer to Islam and religion. Today young people are split into two factions.

Q: But the role of social networks and mobile phones was important to spread ideas. Did this huge use of technology took you by surprise or was it already in your campaigns?

NC: No, it was no surprise. We already produced contents for social networks. Media, from print to television, were controlled. Social networking was the only way to speak freely, and here we used it as nowhere in the world. A boy alone in his bedroom could start a buzz in five minutes – the only thing he needed was a laptop. Suddenly a new language was born, which is really interesting for advertisers… This language has little to do with traditional advertising. Without the money for good photo shoots or glossy commercials, the whole idea of what is avertising and how is made has changed: it all was really different from what we are accustomed to see. Now we do not make traditional ads anymore.

Q: A recent example of this is the fake Ben Ali advert – it was your way to encourage Tunisians to go voting.

NC: It was really successful. Anywhere, not only on the Web. Only 60% of people was expected to vote, but then voter turnout rates exceeded 80%. Of course I don’t know if it was due to the campaign.

Q: What you are doing actually is helping Tunisia in its journey to democracy – a “civic” case history which had few precedents. Will you go on doing this?

NC: The kind of advertising I like and try to do is the one which makes life a little better. And when you reach your goal, you succeed as a creative and as a citizen. That’s what I always try to do.

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