The unity paper makes Sri Lankan history

Leo Burnett Solutions Inc. (LBSI), the local agency of advertising giant Leo Burnett Worldwide made history in Sri Lanka’s print publishing industry by collaborating with a leading Sinhalese newspaper to print the country’s first ever dual-language newspaper in Sinhalese and Tamil.

The ‘Unity Paper’ created by LBSI in partnership with Starcom was published to commemorate the National New Year, thus recognising the diversity of the country and whilst calling everyone to unite together to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

Commenting on the initiative Managing Director, LBSI, Ranil de Silva stated: ‘‘The Sinhala and Tamil New Year is a National celebration; it is a time for uniting and sharing. As a multicultural nation we feel it is the duty of each and every one of us to work towards creating unity to reinforce the stability of our country; therefore as a marketing communications company we have stepped forward together with a newspaper to create an innovation with the objective of creating unity amongst Sri Lankans. We hope that this initiative will strengthen the ties between the various ethnic groups in the country.

Sri Lanka’s diversity enriches the country and makes this island colourful and vibrant. This initiative was created to remind every Sri Lankan of the importance of national unity and integration in a country such as Sri Lanka which suffered many setbacks due to the 30 year civil war. The first dual-language newspaper brought together the most prominent ethnic groups together by publishing the news in the languages that represent the different ethnicities. It unites the country’s multicultural ethnic groups under the uniting banner of being Sri Lankan.

Speaking on the concept, LBSI Executive Creative Director Subhash Pinnapola stated: ‘‘We created this initiative to remind people that despite our ethnic origins there is one singular factor that unites us, which is that we are Sri Lankan. That is why this campaign was driven with letters from the Sinhala and Tamil alphabet, each letter in Sinhala was depicted in Tamil and vice versa. The response we have received for this initiative has been overwhelming.’’

This initiative has been further propelled by social media with Sri Lankans across the world adopting to change their profile picture to the first letter of their name in Tamil and mirrored in Sinhala and vice versa as a symbol of unity, recognizing that despite the differences in language, unity is at the core of being Sri Lankan.

Sri Lankan music sensations Bathiya and Santhush stated: ‘‘Great Idea! As artists who use multi-lingual lyrics as a medium of communication in our music, we find this a noteworthy effort. We wish this initiative every success and hope it is the start of similar inclusive efforts in the future.’’

The ‘Unity Paper’ by Leo Burnett Solutions Inc., is yet another simple yet singular approach of capturing the purpose of the company – ‘HumanKind’, which is to put a brand’s purpose at the centre of communications to truly connect with people.