Horizon FCB Dubai Ranks 3rd Most Awarded Agency in Middle East at Cannes Lions

Horizon FCB Dubai takes home three silver Lions with five shortlists at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity for its ‘Breackchains with Blockchains’ initiative that was created for the ‘Children of Female Prisoners Association’. 

Reham Mufleh, GM of Horizon FCB Dubai, “Cannes this year was a special celebration! We were not only celebrating creativity but also connecting together as an industry again; minds and souls. And to top that, we came back with three Silver Lions to place Horizon FCB in the Top three Agencies in the MENA region! There are no words that can describe my gratitude & happiness. I’m thankful to everyone who made this possible and hopefully this will only be the beginning… after all, our Horizon is ‘Never Finished’.”

Mazen Jawad, CEO of Horizon Holdings added, “Happy and grateful, this is not only our first win at Cannes but we made it to the top three most awarded agencies in the region. This is just the start of a lot more to come. We’re living & breathing a Never-Finished journey to keep creating work that makes the perfect equilibrium between data and creativity to generate the desired economic multiplier for our clients.”

About the campaign: 

Tens of thousands of women are sent to prison in Egypt every year. Their crime? Not being able to repay loans borrowed for amounts of only a few hundred dollars. 

These women are known simply as ‘Al Gharemaat’ or ‘The Fined’. The money they borrow goes to pay for medicine, emergencies, children’s education, etc. However, the consequences of not settling back their loans are devastating and lead to significant prison sentences. 

Horizon FCB decided to raise awareness about this issue and launched the ‘Breakchains with Blockchain’ initiative. 

Inspired by the reasons that cause Egypt's female debtors’ imprisonment, the agency decided to launch a collection of NFTs. Designed by international artists, each tells a woman’s story, the story of why she got sentenced. Each NFT is priced at the amount equal to the cost needed to be freed from prison and grab a second chance at life. 

All NFTs that were designed in the initial phase were sold, 17 women were freed and were able to go back home to join their families, their children… but even more important 60 members of the Egyptian parliament signed a petition to change this law.