A clean-shaven, suit-wearing heavy metal rocker. A tattoo-clad, shaven-headed bookworm, and a skydiving adrenalin junkie in a wheelchair. They say it takes seven seconds to build a prejudice based on someone's appearance, but when Coca Cola proved that seeing is not believing in the case of six Dubai-based men earlier this year in a bid to remove stereotypes, the advertisement captured the hearts of millions around the world - and earned them a nomination for the YouTube Ads of 2015. Released on July 4, Remove Labels This Ramadan took the number two spot on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard that same month. Since then it has garnered more than 17 million views on YouTube and earlier this month it was pitted against 24 of the most iconic ads of 2015. On December 1, Google announced the nominees for the YouTube Ad of 2015 and selected five nominees, including 'Remove Labels This Ramadan', for each of the following categories: #TheYouTubeAd You Wish You Were In; #TheYouTubeAd That Gets You Going; #TheYouTubeAd That's Your Guilty Pleasure; #TheYouTubeAd That Gives You Feels; #TheYouTubeAd That Restores Your Faith in Humanity. Listed in the 'Ads That Restore Your Faith in Humanity' category, Coca-Cola said the message behind its advertisement was simple: 'Labels and designs are for cans, not for people'. Featuring six contrasting residents in Dubai, the men were placed in a pitch-black room during Iftar. Each man was asked to reveal his biggest passion in life before the others had describe how each thought the other looked. From reading books on cognitive psychology to playing guitar in a heavy metal band, each man differed in his own unique way - yet their consensus on stereotypes matched perfectly. For the heavy metal musician, all had visions of a tattoo-clad, long-haired rocker. And for psychology major, Loy, "nerd" was the unanimous response. But reality was quite the opposite. "My god, you two should switch places," one of the men said when the lights came on, revealing that in fact the man covered in tattoos was the bookworm and the smartly dressed professional was the heavy metal enthusiast. Speaking to Khaleej Times following the ads nomination, Jarrett Martin, who featured in the video as the wheelchair-bound skydiver, said he thought the whole concept was "incredible". "I thought the 'restoring faith in humanity' motto perfectly summed up the whole experience. It was so cool to be a part of such a global experiment. It's message was so strong," the Skydive Dubai master rigger said. And for Martin, the biggest shocker of all was when Loy - whose face and body is covered in tattoos - revealed himself. "For me, Loy stole the show. I got the shock of my life when the lights came on, but what a fantastic guy. I think the whole mix of people was pretty diversified." Produced by Coca Cola in partnership with advertising agencies FP7 DXB & Memac Ogilvy UM MENA, Tolga Cebe, Marketing Director at Coca-Cola Middle East told Khaleej Times late on Wednesday that voting for #TheYouTubeAd had closed "and we expect to hear the news on (our ranking) shortly". Speaking of the campaign, Cebe said they are "very pleased" to have received the nomination because it means they have been successful in encouraging consumers to "think about an important topic". "The insight that gave birth to the campaign was the tendency to judge others before having the opportunity to get to know them." And the fact it proved so popular online means people were able to relate to it. "To us, that's the core of it all. We want people to feel empowered enough to question and rethink their biases and to overcome them by opening their hearts." kelly@khaleejtimes.com
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