Everything you needed to know about Saudi Arabia. In a theme park ad.
After viewing the newest commercial/online film for Qiddiya City’s Aquarabia, the temptation to write a headline with the same emotion and style as the iconic ‘70’s Coca-Cola ‘Hillside’ commercial was strong. You know the one: “I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company”. The headline would have been something like this: “I’d like to sit the world down next to me and watch the ad for Aquarabia.” Because there’s something very special going on this in this film, which incidentally was shot and soundtracked by local companies Squint Opera and yours truly, WithFeeling.
Aquarabia, Original Music & Sound Design
WithFeeling’s role was to create the original music and sound design that powers Aquarabia’s world. Designed as a cinematic, high-energy score with a sense of playful adventure, the music brings pace, personality, and humour to the experience, guiding families through moments of excitement, surprise, and delight. Built to be flexible across attractions and environments, the sound design and score work together to amplify Aquarabia’s identity as a bold, joy-filled destination where fun and imagination lead the journey.
Almost anywhere else in the world, just one viewing would wet (that should be ‘whet’, but for pun value…) the appetite for an unforgettable family fun day splashing about adrenalizing and laughing without a care in the world. But we are not anywhere in the world. We are in Saudi Arabia which, outside the region, suffers from the type of popular ignorance which still insists that the country may have more money than there is actually money, but is culturally austere. This may fly in the face of the tremendous marketing drive the Kingdom has undertaken to brand itself as a global leader in tech and sustainability, coupled with the rise of women as a social and economic force on their own merits. These have painted a picture of a nation moving in a direction that the world is in accord upon. It’s impressive, from a distance. But what this commercial does is remove the distance and immerse you in a world as far from austere as it is possible to be. A world where families are just being families. Some females are not buried in swathes of robes and gasp! Some are not even veiled. And the perspective is largely from the p.o.v. of a feisty little girl, which makes her the star. This clever little technique turns the standard micro-tourism trope of creating an electronic brochure on its head. It’s breakthrough in the sense that too many such marketing projects here have focused on trying to impress the viewer through features, rather than emotionally connect.
One could conduct a seminar in say, London, about the ‘new’ Saudi Arabia. And one would show pictures of the thirteen giga-projects in the kingdom, show diagrams of incredible far-reaching ideas in waste and water management, even show the genius behind the country becoming a vital junction on the new Silk Road. And all of these will be greeted with a fair amount of revelation and awe. But then you close the seminar with a feisty little girl at a water park. And that will be the slam dunk of the whole seminar. The real connection point that makes you feel, not just think about the kingdom.
On one level, then, one may think the breakthrough lies in the little girl and the paucity of veils. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that Saudi Vision 2030 has actually brought us to this new stage of comprehension.
Of all the Visions 2030 around the world, about 150 at best guess, the Saudi version places the most emphasis on its population’s happiness and opportunities for self-growth.
And now that we’re seeing it, they don’t seem so foreign after all, do they?
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