The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
Puck gives Lebanese women its jars and shelf space — 'Selfless Shelves'
A cheese brand empties its own jars and shelf space so women hit by Lebanon's crisis can sell homemade mouneh; it wins three Dubai Lynx 2025 Grands Prix.
Puck · Arla Foods
What it had to solve
Lebanon's economic crisis, called one of the world's worst since 1850 by the World Bank, hit women hardest: UN Women reported a 63% rise in female unemployment. Many rural women were already selling mouneh (traditional preserves) in empty jars, but had no retail access or hygienic packaging.
How it works
Lebanon's economic collapse — ranked by the World Bank among the world's worst since 1850 — pushed women's unemployment up 63%, according to UN Women. Across rural Lebanon, women began selling mouneh, the traditional art of preserved foods, from reused jars, but without hygiene-certified packaging or retail access their income stayed marginal.
Puck, Arla Foods' Middle East dairy brand, launched 'Selfless Shelves' in January 2024. It repurposed thousands of sanitised cream-cheese jars, worked with food-safety-licensed partners, and gave five women — from different regions and backgrounds — 4,000 of their products on Puck's own shelf space in four Carrefour branches, plus e-commerce and a five-episode documentary telling each woman's story.
The gesture worked as both action and communication. FP7 McCann and Current Global MENAT framed it as using what the brand does best to solve a human problem; the campaign generated widespread praise in Lebanon and internationally and enhanced Puck's brand perception.
Industry recognition followed: a 2024 Cannes Titanium shortlist (the only MENA campaign among the 20 global finalists), a D&AD Wood Pencil, and three Grands Prix at Dubai Lynx 2025 — Creative Commerce, Direct, and Glass: The Award for Change.
Why it lands
- The idea used the brand's real assets — jars, hygiene processes, shelf space — so the support was operational, not just promotional.
- It flipped the retail hierarchy: a global brand gave its own prime shelf space to micro-producers, an unprecedented move for a multinational.
- Personal storytelling (five named women, five products) made the economic abstraction of a national crisis concrete and buyable.
- It met the brand's stated purpose of supporting women in the region and its sustainability goal of giving jars a second life at once.
What it did
The campaign sold out its jars, boosted the women's incomes, became the only MENA campaign shortlisted among 20 worldwide for the 2024 Cannes Titanium Lions, won a D&AD Wood Pencil, and took Grands Prix in Creative Commerce, Direct and Glass at Dubai Lynx 2025.
What you can take
Physical brand assets carry social ideas with more credibility than ads: handing over jars, hygiene standards and shelf space proved the gesture real, and the brand became the platform.
Since then
After the pilot, Puck announced expansion of the initiative to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other regional markets, and the campaign became a reference point for brand-led social action in the MENA awards circuit, collecting three Dubai Lynx Grands Prix, a D&AD Wood Pencil and a Cannes Titanium shortlist.
Sources
- Puck and FP7McCann Help Lebanese Women Navigate Economic Crisis
- Puck's 'Selfless Shelves' Campaign Shortlisted for Cannes Lions Titanium Awards
- Global Ads Spotlight: In Lebanon, a dairy brand's small jars help fill a void left by economic collapse
- All the 2025 Dubai Lynx Awards
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