The Angel Drones is an initiative by Al Rifai that aims to donate packages of clothes, food, and other essential items to needy families in Lebanon using drones that are labeled as “Angel Drones”. The whole campaign sounds pretty nice as it goes with the spirit of Ramadan in term of helping poor people and feeling with them. Moreover, technically speaking the video is well executed and kudos to whoever made the filming.

However, with the budget that seem to have been allocated for this campaign I really think Al Rifai could have done a lot better.

Even though the video started good and felt very touching, at the end of watching it I was only left thinking about drones and how much weight they can carry around… I bet I was not the only one who thought about that and I really doubt this was Al Rifai’s goal from “The Angel Drones”.

In addition, I really didn’t like the way they displayed the stories of the families they are helping on their website. I mean this is the kind of things that Tony Khalife and Joe Maalouf would do to score with the public… If you want to help poor people then either do it discretely or simply don’t reveal their identities, publicizing it actually goes against the values of Ramadan.

Giving the video a second thought will probably qualify the campaign more as a stunt than a socially responsible campaign. Social responsibility in our case lies in actually donating to the people instead of over-thinking a sophisticated and expensive way to deliver these donations.

In my humble opinion, what Al Rifai could have done instead is producing a video that motivates people to help each other. Take for example the videos that Pepsi Masr produces every year, they touch you really deep and inspire to do good to others or at least be good to them.

The idea is that you do not necessarily have to prove that you are socially responsible in order to score with the public. I think being an inspiration to them can promote your brand much better.