One of Nigeria’s leading creative advertising agencies, Noah’s Ark Communications Limited, has once again proven its mettle as arguably one of the best creative agencies in subregion by emerging the only West African agency to win an award at the recently concluded Loeries Creative Week 2021; the most coveted award event across Africa and the Middle-East.
The Loeries, a proudly not-for-profit company, promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of fresh thinking, innovative ideas and outstanding execution. As Africa and the Middle East’s premier award that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the advertising and brand communications industry, winning a Loerie is the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region; and is definitely not regarded as an easy feat.
Noah’s Ark Communications was awarded a Bronze in the Print category for a campaign called ‘The StopCut Project’ for Hacey, an NGO. An audacious campaign, considering its objective of tackling the age-old cultural practice, by creating awareness about the existence and harm of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and by extension, trying to enlighten the enablers, perpetrators, and sympathisers of the act about its consequences; both from the perspective of the mental and health effects for the victims as well as from the legal consequences for the enablers and perpetrators.
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The print series likened the FGM culture to the act of rape, showcasing the similarities of both acts in robbing victims of their innocence. The 4 print ads called out the enablers and perpetrators who typically tend to be relatives or close family friends and as a result tend to believe their act is being done for the good of the girl child. This view is primarily due to cultural beliefs that have been held over generations that these close relations are reluctant to see ended in their time, thus ensuring that the act persists.
Visually, the prints tried to capture the barbaric nature of the FGM act showing the perpetrators pinning the girl child down and performing the act under the guise of knowing what’s best for her, albeit robbing her of her innocence; similar to being raped.
According to the Loeries CEO, Preetesh Sewraj, “the brand communications industry, across Africa and the Middle East, faced strong headwinds over the past year, but the finalists are a testament to the power of creativity to prevail against the strongest challenges,” as he recognised the finalists of the Loeries awards for their hard work.
The Loeries Creative Week 2021, which commenced in Cape Town on Wednesday, 20 October, had hundreds of creative minds from across Africa and the Middle East converging to enjoy a programme of Loeries Creative Hour Live masterclasses and the Loeries Cinematic Experience; with various agencies across the region entering their works for the chance of winning awards.
Speaking on the award, the Chief Executive Officer/CCO of Noah’s Ark Communications, Mr. Lanre Adisa, commended the resilient spirit of the team for bringing home one of the most prestigious creative awards in Africa and the Middle-East.
Adisa added that the Agency will not rest in its quest to continue to put the Nigerian creative industry on the global map by continuing to create great creative ideas that not only give the brands in the Agency’s portfolio an invaluable edge over their competitors, but also elicit conversations and effectively pass the communication messages to their target audience.
