Freedom House is running a new nationwide advertising campaign in Jordan that asks "Where is equality?"
The campaign, featured in popular magazines and television commercials, uses a long blue bar and a short pink bar to represent the rights afforded to men and women. Badges featuring the campaign’s logo encourage people to ask about the meaning.
The year-long campaign is part of Freedom House’s "Together Achieving Women’s Advancement in Services, Opportunities and Legal Rights" program.
Source: [Freedom House]
This is a highly needed initiative since, sadly enough, Jordanian women are still not treated equally when it comes to issues of inheritance, citizenship, and others. I admire the work of Freedom House, especially when it comes to highlighting the issue of press freedom violations around the world. However, I wish this campaign had been initiated on a local level, as I believe local campaigns have a higher impact on the general population.
Well, seeing such efforts is a refreshing change because women truly are in need of such services given the conditions they must undergo because of such ridiculous laws! I hope that more progress is made and similar organizations pop up working for the same cause.
I am a professional marketer with almost 30 years experience. I have worked on and studied this at length in Jordan, and I do not believe this kind of campaign, though probably well intended, is the best use of whatever money is being spent on it. Efforts need to be much more narrowcasted at very specific audiences, portions of which probably can’t afford to spend JD5 on a magazine or own television sets. There is a lot of waste coverage here.
A pity, for there is so much work to be done in this area. But it needs to be approached in a much more coordinated, sustained, systematic, targeted manner.
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
“Reclaiming Honor in Jordan”
http://www.redroom.com/author/ellen-r-sheeley