UN Women Egypt releases intricately illustrated print ads to highlight gender divide at work

Ad agency DDB Dubai has worked with Japanese illustrator duo IC4Design on a campaign for UN Women Egypt, highlighting the fact that women make up only 23% of the workforce in Egypt. The series of three illustrated print ads draws on Where’s Wally style puzzle books, depicting immensely detailed workplaces full of people and asking the viewer to find the women.

Finding Her focuses on three particular up-and-coming industries in Egypt: technology, politics and science, showing a multi-storey cross-section of a space station, a parliamentary building and a research facility. Each image is adorned with a banner stating the campaign’s message: “Finding women in [technology/politics/science] shouldn’t be this hard. Let’s work together for equal representation in the workplace.”

Firas Medrows, executive creative director at DDB Dubai, says: “Even though the percentage of women in the workforce is so low, the issue still goes largely unnoticed. By creating these elaborate ads that you really spend time looking at, we wanted to raise awareness for the cause.”

The campaign ran in several magazines across Egypt.