Playing with Accents in the Khede Kasra Campaign in Lebanon: Multimodality in Visual Politics

Abstract

An advertising brief “to raise awareness of gender inequality in Lebanon” generated a campaign which through its interactivity and simplicity became a salient cultural moment for addressing women’s rights in the country. The uptake of the campaign was built into billboards where the viewing public physically placed an accent on various keywords to change them from masculine to feminine form in Arabic with red stickers. The red kasra emerged as an iconic symbol that soon was found on other billboards, on urban graffiti, and worn by politicians and celebrities. This chapter explores how the multimodal engagement of this campaign, its playfulness, generated momentum for broader political activism within the country. Through interviews with members of the advertising team, as well as an exploration of the campaign itself, I analyze the dynamics of active language reform and its effects on public sensibilities toward the role of women in Lebanese society.