Latest news with #BBDPerfectStorm
Campaign ME
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Campaign ME
Qatar Duty Free celebrates 25th anniversary on 1000 digital screens
Qatar Duty Free (QDF) has launched a campaign in collaboration with BBD Perfect Storm to celebrate 25 years of operations. The campaign kicks off a year of celebrations highlighting QDF's growth and experiences it offers its travellers. With a hero film, developed in partnership with production company, Resolution Films and featuring CGI development and post production work by Rabid Rat, the campaign aptly depicts a whimsical celebration in the sky. Complete with a CGI hot air balloon-shaped cake that leads a parade of fellow balloons flying through the sky, each representing the different areas of QDF's shopping experience. The film concludes with a first-person view transition to arrive at Hamad International Airport, as a nod to how QDF's customers come to interact with the brand. '25 Has Arrived is one of those rare campaigns where the idea, the moment, and the brand all align perfectly,' said Daisy Proctor, Managing Director at BBD Perfect Storm. The work is QDF's first from BBD Perfect Storm following their appointment in February this year to support the brand's creative direction throughout the anniversary year. 'As our first work for Qatar Duty Free, it was an incredible opportunity to set the tone for what will be a year-long celebration,' Proctor said. 'We wanted to create something joyful and memorable, something travellers will associate with that feeling of arrival in a new way.' The campaign took flight across Hamad International Airport, with over 1000 digital screens showcasing tailored creative across key retail categories. The campaign also introduces QDF's new brand tagline, 'You've Arrived,' which aims to reflect both the arrival at the airport and the joy of reaching somewhere special facilitated by QDF's offerings. 'Leaning into the celebratory theme, this campaign captures the imagination, energy, and excitement that defines Qatar Duty Free,' said Thabet Musleh, Chief Retail & Hospitality Officer at Qatar Duty Free. 'It's joyful and unexpected, bringing to life the spirit of our offering. As the first in a year-long series of campaigns, '25 Has Arrived' sets the tone for what's to come. Beyond the airport, the campaign extends across digital and social platforms, with influencer content and website banners broadening its reach. Celebratory in-terminal activations are planned throughout the month of May, offering travellers a chance to engage directly with the anniversary experience. Credits Client: Qatar Duty Free Advertising Agency: BBD Perfect Storm Agency Executive Creative Director: Seb Hill Agency Creative Director: Jacob Hill-Gowing Head of Copy: Robyn Bowman Chief Strategy Officer: Tony Quinn Managing Director: Daisy Proctor Account Director: Lauren Ogilvie Agency Producer: Kal Tank Production Company: Resolution Films Director: Mohammed Shams Producer: Lee Swartz CGI & Post Production: Rabid Rat 3D and VFX Lead: Tomasz Dabert Animation Lead: Krzysztof Marcinowski Colourist: Ferg Rotherham Sound Design and Mix: Sounds Good Audio
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
When society erases the male voice, a toxic backlash is the inevitable result
If anything signals the dawn of a dystopian age, it's surely the launch this week of Britain's first male-only publisher. Conduit Books is planning to tackle the marginalisation of male writers in the female-dominated industry. Predictably, its launch has been met with liberal derision. But in truth it is a serious warning sign that something has gone deeply wrong. While the movement for female equality has made great strides since the Suffragettes, we should admit it is now going too far – and is feeding male resentment. After a series of momentous victories – from securing the vote to abortion rights and the outlaw of marital rape – the feminist movement is now overcorrecting. And it is becoming grotesquely hypocritical in the process. While the worlds of finance, tech and science are lambasted for their failure to recruit more women, it is customary to openly fete the purging of men in the creative arts. In publishing insiders admit 'the word is out that there are agents who just don't bother taking on men'. The theatre director Kate Gilchrist's proposal for a year-long ban on staging the works of white male writers at the Soho Theatre captures the zeitgeist. Nobody complains on hearing women are dominating a particular industry. Nobody questions when high-flying female executives promote other women, while male counterparts are heavily scrutinised by their HR overseers if there is the faintest whiff of unconscious bias. Too often women are speedily elevated at the expense of equally competent male colleagues. But what we might term 'toxic femininity' is proving bad for business. Gripped by groupthink, the top publishing houses have lost their edge. It is the smaller independents which are snapping up the talented male writers who go on to win prizes like the Booker and the Pulitzer. Fixated with identity politics, the world of literature has almost completely ceased to produce works that have mass appeal. While the British 'state of the nation' novel has died a death, bookstores are cluttered with woke pulp that is lucky to sell a few hundred copies. Publishing is not the only female-dominated industry that is failing. As male teachers flee the sector, boys are underperforming. Social care is in crisis, with dire shortage of male staff meaning elderly men suffer the indignity of being washed and dressed by caregivers of the opposite sex. The HR industry has an excessive focus on fighting culture wars through staff networks rather than tackling the flatlining of worker productivity. As one care industry expert confessed to me: 'If you google social care then you basically get women in lilac uniforms delivering cups of tea to old men.' Then there's the female-dominated marketing industry, which is failing to target men in ways that resonate with their experience. As Fernando Desouches, the managing director of ad agency BBD Perfect Storm told me: 'We have made huge progress with how we advertise to women. But our approach to men is still quite narrow and materialistic. The way we build male aspiration is adding pressure to men in the same way female beauty was (and maybe still is) hurting women's confidence. The data shows that the way we are portraying men doesn't resonate with them. They are an underexploited growth opportunity for brands.' Toxic femininity is not only bad for industry but society. 19th-century feminist pushed for a more equal world, in which people are judged by their character, not biology. But the movement has gone far beyond its original purpose, and now actively pits the sexes against each other. Too many women believe they must engage in zero-sum wars for resources, status and respect. But a backlash against the war on men is now underway. Polling shows that more than half of men think the promotion of women's equality has 'gone too far'. Women might be tempted to retort that these men are surely hallucinating, for it is still a man's world. Thanks to the motherhood penalty men still earn more than women. They still dominate board rooms. Yet the men who increasingly feel they're living in a woman's world do have a point. Women aged 22-39 are paid more than men, and girls outperform them in school on almost every metric. Female-only fiefdoms are allowing women to subtly build the world in their own image. The pro-female slant to publishing means that the most promoted, and thus powerful, writers are increasingly likely to be women. With women dominating HR, all workplaces are becoming increasingly feminised. The push towards hybrid working, for instance, seems to be shaped by female preferences, with some research suggesting that men fear its impact on their promotion prospects. According to the ONS, men who work part-time are paid less per hour than women. Resentment is building up most notably among Gen Z males. It is hardly surprising that young men are getting sucked into incel societies when you consider how mainstream society mocks and marginalises them. It is little wonder that teenage boys become enraptured with online misogynists inspired by Andrew Tate, given the dearth of male role models and authors writing intelligently about the trials of coming of age, J D Salinger style. It is no great shock that adolescent men are embracing these nastily sexist archetypes, when the male caricatures that they are bombarded with by advertisers are nastily misandrist – by the own admission of industry insiders, oscillating between 'the comedy buffoon who doesn't know how to turn on the washing machine or the Stoic provider'. And it is little wonder that men from working class backgrounds feel like they have no prospects, when the biggest sources of mass employment in the post-industrial era, such as social care, are again hyper feminised. There are many who are keen to interpret the growing tensions between the sexes as a problem of 'toxic masculinity'. When the crisis is framed in this way, the temptation is to simply double down on the feminist cause while demanding ever more robust safeguards to protect women from male anger. Labour's latest calls for a teacher in every school to 'tackle violence against girls' is typical of this attitude. Perhaps worst of all, the relentless negativity towards men is distracting us from the real issues still facing women in Britain today: the rise in domestic violence, the reported increase in FGM. By broadening the 'problem' to encompass all men, we are not confronting the truly menacing few. Feminism has overreached. The consequences are proving dangerous and divisive. We ignore this at our peril.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
When society erases the male voice, a toxic backlash is the inevitable result
If anything signals the dawn of a dystopian age, it's surely the launch this week of Britain's first male-only publisher. Conduit Books is planning to tackle the marginalisation of male writers in the female-dominated industry. Predictably, its launch has been met with liberal derision. But in truth it is a serious warning sign that something has gone deeply wrong. While the movement for female equality has made great strides since the Suffragettes, we should admit it is now going too far – and is feeding male resentment. After a series of momentous victories – from securing the vote to abortion rights and the outlaw of marital rape – the feminist movement is now overcorrecting. And it is becoming grotesquely hypocritical in the process. While the worlds of finance, tech and science are lambasted for their failure to recruit more women, it is customary to openly fete the purging of men in the creative arts. In publishing insiders admit 'the word is out that there are agents who just don't bother taking on men'. The theatre director Kate Gilchrist's proposal for a year-long ban on staging the works of white male writers at the Soho Theatre captures the zeitgeist. Nobody complains on hearing women are dominating a particular industry. Nobody questions when high-flying female executives promote other women, while male counterparts are heavily scrutinised by their HR overseers if there is the faintest whiff of unconscious bias. Too often women are speedily elevated at the expense of equally competent male colleagues. But what we might term 'toxic femininity' is proving bad for business. Gripped by groupthink, the top publishing houses have lost their edge. It is the smaller independents which are snapping up the talented male writers who go on to win prizes like the Booker and the Pulitzer. Fixated with identity politics, the world of literature has almost completely ceased to produce works that have mass appeal. While the British 'state of the nation' novel has died a death, bookstores are cluttered with woke pulp that is lucky to sell a few hundred copies. Publishing is not the only female-dominated industry that is failing. As male teachers flee the sector, boys are underperforming. Social care is in crisis, with dire shortage of male staff meaning elderly men suffer the indignity of being washed and dressed by caregivers of the opposite sex. The HR industry has an excessive focus on fighting culture wars through staff networks rather than tackling the flatlining of worker productivity. As one care industry expert confessed to me: 'If you google social care then you basically get women in lilac uniforms delivering cups of tea to old men.' Then there's the female-dominated marketing industry, which is failing to target men in ways that resonate with their experience. As Fernando Desouches, the managing director of ad agency BBD Perfect Storm told me: 'We have made huge progress with how we advertise to women. But our approach to men is still quite narrow and materialistic. The way we build male aspiration is adding pressure to men in the same way female beauty was (and maybe still is) hurting women's confidence. The data shows that the way we are portraying men doesn't resonate with them. They are an underexploited growth opportunity for brands.' Toxic femininity is not only bad for industry but society. 19th-century feminist pushed for a more equal world, in which people are judged by their character, not biology. But the movement has gone far beyond its original purpose, and now actively pits the sexes against each other. Too many women believe they must engage in zero-sum wars for resources, status and respect. But a backlash against the war on men is now underway. Polling shows that more than half of men think the promotion of women's equality has 'gone too far'. Women might be tempted to retort that these men are surely hallucinating, for it is still a man's world. Thanks to the motherhood penalty men still earn more than women. They still dominate board rooms. Yet the men who increasingly feel they're living in a woman's world do have a point. Women aged 22-39 are paid more than men, and girls outperform them in school on almost every metric. Female-only fiefdoms are allowing women to subtly build the world in their own image. The pro-female slant to publishing means that the most promoted, and thus powerful, writers are increasingly likely to be women. With women dominating HR, all workplaces are becoming increasingly feminised. The push towards hybrid working, for instance, seems to be shaped by female preferences, with some research suggesting that men fear its impact on their promotion prospects. According to the ONS, men who work part-time are paid less per hour than women. Resentment is building up most notably among Gen Z males. It is hardly surprising that young men are getting sucked into incel societies when you consider how mainstream society mocks and marginalises them. It is little wonder that teenage boys become enraptured with online misogynists inspired by Andrew Tate, given the dearth of male role models and authors writing intelligently about the trials of coming of age, J D Salinger style. It is no great shock that adolescent men are embracing these nastily sexist archetypes, when the male caricatures that they are bombarded with by advertisers are nastily misandrist – by the own admission of industry insiders, oscillating between 'the comedy buffoon who doesn't know how to turn on the washing machine or the Stoic provider'. And it is little wonder that men from working class backgrounds feel like they have no prospects, when the biggest sources of mass employment in the post-industrial era, such as social care, are again hyper feminised. There are many who are keen to interpret the growing tensions between the sexes as a problem of 'toxic masculinity'. When the crisis is framed in this way, the temptation is to simply double down on the feminist cause while demanding ever more robust safeguards to protect women from male anger. Labour's latest calls for a teacher in every school to 'tackle violence against girls' is typical of this attitude. Perhaps worst of all, the relentless negativity towards men is distracting us from the real issues still facing women in Britain today: the rise in domestic violence, the reported increase in FGM. By broadening the 'problem' to encompass all men, we are not confronting the truly menacing few. Feminism has overreached. The consequences are proving dangerous and divisive. We ignore this at our peril. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
