Ad Stars Jury 2020 – BBDO Pakistan’s Hira Mohibullah: With advertising, I help those who don’t have a voice

BBDO Pakistan’s Hira Mohibullah explains how the industry is pulling together in Pakistan like never before.

She is joining the Final Jury at AD STARS 2020, which is accepting entries free-of-charge until 15th May, with two $10,000 prizes for Grand Prix of the Year winners.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, Hira Mohibullah’s most impactful campaigns include #BridalUniform, which raised awareness of the prevalence of underage brides; #BeatMe for UN Women, which challenged men to “beat” women (at something they excel at); and Chai Ka Nishaan (The Hot Tea Stain – see below), a campaign that raised awareness on child burns caused through negligence around hot tea.

Since joining BBDO Pakistan in 2015, she has won more than 170 international advertising awards at the Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, London International Awards, AD STARS and more.

You live and work in Pakistan. Did you grow up there, too?
I’m a third culture kid, and so I don’t really know what place I call home. I grew up in the Middle East and moved to Pakistan when I was 14. I have very fond memories of my childhood and, quite contrary to popular belief, it was fun being a kid in Saudi Arabia! I had friends from all over the world, and from a very young age I was exposed to different cultures and languages, which I feel has shaped who I am today as a creative.

Creativity can help to bring people together in times of crisis: are there any inspiring initiatives taking place in Pakistan right now?
It’s overwhelming to see everybody fighting on the same front, for the same cause. It’s brought the industry together in a way nothing ever has. Every brand I work on is doing their part to help the nation cope with this unprecedented struggle. We’re all working from home currently (being amongst the first few to implement the policy) and besides a few teething issues in the start, we’re meeting all our timelines even when the work has doubled in amount. My team and I usually get the brainstorming out of the way earlier in the day and then go our separate ways to finish off the pending tasks. Keeping meticulous checklists of individual workflows has helped me stay afloat by giving me a good visibility on the tasks lined up for the entire week.

What does your typical day look like?
I have two kids who I bring to work with me (a 6 year-old and a 7 month old) and in pre-COVID times, I used to joke about “traveling” to work because I would lug around all their stuff in a mini carry-on… everyday! These days in lockdown, I start early, get my 6 year-old’s homework done and ship him off to another room for his online classes while I find myself a quiet corner to tackle my checklist for the day.

What led you to a career in advertising: did you always dream of impacting positive social change through your work?
Growing up, I’ve hopped (all too rapidly) from one dream career to another. One thing that I’ve always known about myself is that I get bored with one thing real quick, and so the versatility that advertising brings to my life every single day is what makes it such a perfect match. Right after I completed my A Levels (after having taken every subject under the sun), I chanced upon the communication design course. There it was, my love for creative writing and design brought miraculously together. Advertising was the most obvious choice after that, and I’ve never looked back since.

In my twenties, while my friends were writing their personal statements for college applications full to the brim with life-changing struggles, I was wishing I had more of a story to tell. I grew up in a house with parents who did not believe in gender discrimination. They had two daughters and they gave us the best education to the best of their abilities. There was absolutely no pressure on us to fit a certain mould. With a great support system, I grew up living a sheltered life of privilege. But today, I realise that’s what my story is: with advertising I use my position of privilege to help those who don’t have a voice. It’s all come full circle.

Do you have a process – is there a way you work through a problem? How much of your creative process happens subconsciously?
I’ve hardly ever had an idea strike me in a dream or in the shower, unlike many other creatives I know. For me, cracking a brief requires a formal session (always with a notebook in hand) where I start from a pain-point, deep-dive into real-world insights, colloquially unlock the idea for relevance, and finally tell the story in the voice of the brand. Also, being bi-lingual helps me tackle the creative process from two different vernacular angles.

Who are your creative heroes and why?
Fernando Machado (Chief Marketing Officer Burger King). He’s brave, unapologetically relentless, he has an eye for what will absolutely shake the world and he’s not afraid to do it!

#BridalUniform was an incredibly powerful campaign, which won countless awards and led to BBDO Pakistan winning Agency of the Year at AD STARS 2018. What challenges did you face in bringing it to life?
As with most pro-bono campaigns we do at BBDO, we had absolutely no money to spend on this one. So getting the word out to the entire nation, that it was not okay to marry off underage girls, seemed impossible. That challenge gave birth to a genius solution: we hijacked the biggest bridal fashion show of Pakistan, one that was already being covered by all major media channels in the country.

We partnered Ali Xeeshan, Pakistan’s foremost bridal wear designer and launched the Bridal Uniform: a merger between a little girl’s school uniform and embellishments from a typical bridal outfit. Amidst the pomp and show, out walked the showstopper: a little girl wearing the #BridalUniform, symbolising the trade-off that happens when a child is deprived of her right to an education and instead is dressed as someone’s wife. Without spending a dime, we were able to rack up one billion organic impressions.

You recently spoke at TEDxLahore. Can you tell us what your talk was about?
My joint talk at TEDx was about the importance of telling the right kind of stories. The stories we hear growing up shape us into the people we are today: they define our limits, our fears and our dreams. As advertisers, we call ourselves story-tellers, and so imagine the kind of power we hold to change the lives of those around us. Moiz Khan and I talked about the stories we’ve told in our time at BBDO Pakistan, and how they have positively impacted our society.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, do you have advice for others hoping to ‘make it’ in advertising?
No one makes it in advertising on their own! Find your tribe. Go out there and look for like-minded people and a place that matches your vision.

Are you working on anything interesting right now?
Pakistanis love their tea. They have tea for breakfast, tea in the afternoon and then in the evening. There’s tea with snacks and tea over gossip sessions. In a shocking revelation, we learnt that 80% of child burns happen due to hot tea spills. Now in a country where tea consumption is at an all-time high, there is considerable talk around removing tea stains from clothes but none around the perils of being negligent while preparing or drinking that tea. After a successful first leg of the campaign where we were able to bring down the number of accidents by 50%, we’re now working on Round 2 this year!

You attended AD STARS in 2018. Do you have any favourite memories of Busan in South Korea?
My fondest memory of Busan is going to The Library of Mystery Literature, a quaint little place which is a library, a cafe and a museum all rolled into one. Due to an ongoing book-club, they were closed at the time I wanted to visit. I called up the owner, and with my receptionist translating everything for me, told her it was the only day I could come visit and she generously opened up the cafe especially for me. There I met the famous crime novelist Kim Seong-jong, read a crime novel with a cup of buckwheat tea offset against a book-reading in a foreign language… it was really something else.

Hira Mohibullah will judge the Brand Experience & Activation, Creative eCommerce, Direct, Media and PR categories at the AD STARS 2020 Awards. To enter, submit your work free of charge here before 15th May.