In October 2012, there was a massive car bomb explosion in a crowded residential area in Achrafieh (in Beirut city in Lebanon). This explosion not only took lives, but damaged 4 big buildings and left their residents homeless.

Without any governmental support for these victims, Offre Joie, a non-partisan NGO, stepped in to help them.

Armed with a small amount of their own volunteers, Offre Joie approached us to help them increase awareness and encourage more people to join.

The insight from the campaign was inspired by the Offre Joie volunteers: they are regular people that just want to help, without seeking any recognition. Making the campaign idea Volunteers Do Not Seek Recognition, encouraging people to join them rather than thank them.

The campaign kicked off with a TVC that shows the diversity of people helping on site, yet keeping their backs turned in order to keep the volunteers anonymous.

We launched a Facebook Activation that asked people to change their profile pictures to pictures of people with their backs turned, labeled as “citizens” – to show their solidarity with the volunteers and the anonymity they are promoting.

We also worked on a stunt on one of Lebanon’s popular talk shows.

We asked the audience to turn their backs to the cameras, wearing t-shirts that labeled them as citizens – keeping with the volunteers’ anonymity.

The campaign attracted one of Lebanon’s popular socio-political talk shows that dedicated a 2 hour special to the NGO. To everyone’s surprise, the Lebanese President honored Offre Joie with one of the nation’s highest distinctions: National Order of the Cedar.

We got Offre Joie’s volunteers to increase from 1,400 to 2,000.

They managed to rebuild 80 homes, hence reuniting families together after the tragedy.