To mark the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Mawbima produced a unique back-to-back centre-spread ad in the shape of a food cover - one side depicting a beautiful Sinhala design and a Tamil design on the other. With it, we urged Sinhalese and Tamils in their respective languages to share a plate of their traditional sweets with each other rather than themselves in the same ethnicity, using our unique food-cover ‘Friendship Ad’. Our creative idea was based on the local insight that during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year which is the most important cultural celebration in the country, both ethnicities prepare traditional sweets and shares it amongst each other of the same race. However, we added a unique and pertinent spin on this insight and urged them to share their sweets with a household of the opposite race.

Mawbima implemented our ‘Friendship Ad’ on its center-spread on the day of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The newspaper itself was the media channel whilst it ran on one day which was the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The ad was also printed on every newspaper which was on the print run for the day.

All copies printed on the day SOLD OUT! But more importantly, our ‘Friendship Ad’ created a national movement that made enemies become friends, also garnering massive praise and PR locally and internationally.