The Lebanese crisis and social media marketing

The Lebanese crisis and social media marketing: resuming “business as usual” in the context of a revolution?

There is a question that is being raised quite recurrently  these days: is it somehow OK to resume posting on social media about our brand / our work / our store while we ?

The first weeks of the #thawra were prone to a general silence, with brands muting their communication or solely posting about the thawra as a collective wish to hold its momentum.

Everybody is concerned and affected as individuals but also as business entities by thirty years of restless ongoing corruption. 

And as much as we may share different views of how this needs to be addressed (my motto remains كلّن_يعني_كلَن#) the reality is that 24 days of disrupted activities is not easy to handle.

Local fashion brands who are based in #Lebanon are generally  B2C-oriented, most of the time with majority of local customers instead foreign, and they mainly market their products through social media. 

They employ local workers (sales assistants, stock keepers, delivery/drivers, seamstresses…), get their supplies from local shops, and also outsource their packaging, their graphic design work and  photography also locally, not mention other services such fabric embroidery, printing, etc, from local factories…

Lebanese designers are usually micro/small/medium size companies whose activities involve people from various socio economical backgrounds, it is not a blogger-fashionista bubble. 

Businesses who are trying to benefit from the thawra by promoting “thawra-themed” products whether apparel or other commodities are perpetuating the concept of overdose-milking an occasion like it’s usually done in Lebanon, when it’s valentine’s day or fathers’ day or any special occasion. I personally don’t like it, I think it’s bad taste. 

But to disrespect or bully local designers or the stores that sell local designs because they need to maintain some sort of activity to survive, it’s NOT OK.

It’s NOT OK to bully anyone.

If you have the means to buy local fashion instead of imported, then you should do it. If you don’t want to, it’s OK, but don’t demean people who have started honest businesses in Lebanon and who are currently hoping they’ll survive just like everybody else.

I’m sharing pictures of my work taken by Myriam Boulos in 2014, who was cyber-bullied due to her pictures published on Oct 22 in a Time magazine article about Lebanon uprising.