Let Us Overcome
The situation in our country was a time where conflicts within were making so many people lose hope in the united ideal that we once believed in. Cracks in the social fabric were wider than ever before and this seemed like an opportune time to address this.
Our work with Tomoca Coffee during Christmas specifically extends back two and a half years where we reinforced the Ethiopian Father of Christmas rather than resorting to a westernized version. We followed the next year with a message that in the spirit of Christmas carried by that character, we should act better and be kinder. This year felt different. We had to go big. We had the insight above and we decided to act on it with the character in place.
The conception flowed into execution smoothly as we researched into the beginnings of ¨the father of christmas¨ and the attire he put on. The story goes that these Fathers of Christmas are guardians of their community. To do so, they carry weapons for protection 364 days of the year. Yet, as Christmas arrives, a day of hope and joy, the characters put on their unique cultural cloth as they cover up the weapon and preach for unity.
We took that down directly with a message that if these characters could cover up ¨popularly¨tools of demise and destruction, we Ethiopian can do that too. That tagline “Kaba Ylbes” was a call-to-action in which we were telling people to overcome and surpass our violent tendencies.
We did a campaign video to drive our message that we should be united and strong, not divided and weak. This was wrapped up with the seasonal incorporation that Christmas is a time of coming together and moments shared.
We developed print adverts of our characters to drive our messaging on the ground by increasing exposure at outlets. The reception was overwhelmingly positive and invoked conversations.
