In Dubai, people have been spotting empty number plates on cars driving down streets and parked in malls as well as in parking lots across the city. The photographs they’ve taken have filled social media. It turns out the plates are part of a campaign by Publicis Groupe and Saatchi & Saatchi UAE, a brave campaign for a government client, the UAE Government Media Office, to stop hunger throughout the world.
The empty number plates represent the empty plates on food tables worldwide. Every year, 800 million people suffer from hunger globally. Were it not for campaigns like this, the problem would remain largely unnoticed. The empty number plates aimed to start conversations about hunger and draw attention to an auction to raise money to solve the problem.
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The campaign video was shared with high-net-worth-individuals in UAE to drive bidding at the Most Noble Number Charity Auction, an auction of desirable number plates. The first auction was held on April 16 with one number plate selling for 35 million dirhams (US$9.5m). AED 53 million dirhams (US$14.4 million) were raised in less than two hours.
The campaign, 1 Billion Meals, is running during the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims are called upon to feel empathy for the less fortunate, to raise awareness about the millions of empty plates that often go unnoticed. It was launched by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives to get 1 billion meals to underprivileged families across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. This initiative is supported by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and aims to provide the equivalent of 1 billion meals to less fortunate people such as refugees, displaced persons, and those affected by humanitarian crises and natural disaster.
