The post attempts a dark, tongue-in-cheek reference to a young boy who was tragically mowed down by a PML-N motorcade. However, the sarcasm fell a bit flat and was eventually deleted – followed by an apology.
We ask Shami how he manages political content for a coffee shop and why the apology was issued.
We wanted to draw attention to the seemingly casual nature in which a political leader’s entourage drove over a child and that, three days later, the nation seemed ready to move on and celebrate Independence Day. We didn’t feel like a celebration was warranted when things like this can take place and your culpable leadership isn’t being held accountable.
Yes, completely. We were trying to publicize an injustice and, instead, we ended up being blamed for insensitivity. We’ve run ads for Espresso before that have proven divisive, but it’s always straightened itself out as the majority of people seem to understand our intent and what we’re trying to communicate. The volume and pace of the negativity, along with the accusations of us making fun of a dead child were very overwhelming. We weren’t making fun of a dead child. The written word is a tricky thing though.
Sometimes, what you write isn’t what’s read and we have to live with that.
On the FB page the brand claims that Espresso has been misunderstood. What was the design brief you received?
Espresso has been a client of barely average . design’s for seven years and we’ve been granted a lot of freedom to come up with creatives without a brief. I felt strongly about the incident and wanted to shine a light on it. There was a lot of discussion about whether we should run it and, in the end, I think they ceded because I asked for their trust.
Do you think the brand has a responsibility to pull or explain itself, considering the sensitive situation?
I think so, yes. A statement was made in a public space and it wasn’t received well. You can either dig in and stubbornly defend yourself, or you can accept that you expressed yourself in a manner which caused offense. Intended or not, we offended a lot of people and felt that an apology was necessary. It was the decent thing to do.
As a commercial designer, how do you balance creating thought provoking images with mass appeal?
You find a client that trusts your judgement and lets you take chances. With Espresso, we’ve always made a conscious decision to create communications focused on social commentary — subjects that our customers were likely to be discussing themselves — even if they’ve been controversial. And, while doing that, we decided not to shy away from offering our opinion. That can bite you in the butt once in a while, but it feels like a necessary evil if you’re hoping to communicate with any integrity.
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