Shahir Sirry, Global Creative Director at Aramex, speaks about "Between Two Alleys"

Can you walk us through the creative rationale of the campaign?

The starting point for us was a very simple but timeless truth: Ramadan is not just a month of rituals — it’s a month of human connection, kindness, and light in all its meanings. But in today’s world, especially in the Middle East, communities are facing fragmentation, conflict, and rising tension — so we wanted to remind people of what’s possible when we focus on what brings us together, rather than what divides us.
The idea of two alleys, two neighbors, two faiths was a metaphor for society. You can either live side by side and ignore each other, or you can find beauty in your differences and light up the darkness together.
Creatively, the story is told without heavy dialogue, because emotions don’t need translation. Our belief, always, is that ads need to make the audience feel something first - and think later. That’s the rationale behind everything we do.

The campaign emphasizes religious coexistence in a world getting more and more torn. Why stress on this angle?

Frankly, because someone has to.

Brands today have a responsibility beyond products. We live in a region - and a world -where the narrative is becoming more polarizing by the day. Ramadan, at its heart, is about peace, generosity, and human empathy, and we wanted to reclaim that.
It wasn’t about preaching or being political - it was about showing that in the little streets, in old neighborhoods, people of different beliefs have always shared bread, light, and stories. We simply mirrored that back to the world.

Also, for a logistics brand like Aramex, which connects people across borders, coexistence isn’t a campaign theme — it’s literally the business we are in.

In terms of art direction, you went for a palette of warm colors. What was the reasoning behind this?

The entire visual world was built around nostalgia and warmth. We wanted viewers to feel like they were stepping into a place that felt familiar, safe, and timeless — whether you grew up in Cairo, Beirut, Sharjah, Amman, or Marrakesh.

The warm palette wasn’t just aesthetic. It visually represented the idea of light, comfort, and community. Even in the night scenes, the light between the alleys was deliberately warm and inviting, because this campaign was about melting the coldness between people.

The entire film is a nod to spaghetti western genre and more current western movies, from which we took a lot of inspiration, also for the final grading.

One of the most difficult things in advertising is for the product not to be placed without logic, yet Aramex seemed to blend seamlessly in the reasoning and execution. How was it thought of for the product to be this natural?

Thank you for noticing. That’s something we are very conscious of.

We didn’t want to force a product into a story about humanity. But we felt that the entire narrative was about delivery — not parcels, but the delivery of light, kindness, and effort from one alley to the other.

So, Aramex’s role was woven into the message: We deliver more than packages; we deliver hope, warmth, and human connection.

We are the “silent enabler” of that light, without making it too much about us – or trying to save the day. It’s part of the story’s logic, not an interruption.

Are there any specific technical elements which were involved in the ad? And if so, which? Also, where was the ad shot geographically?

I wanted every element in the film — from the locations, art direction, to the costumes and props — to feel like it could easily be in Middle East or Egypt in this case. But when composed together visually, I intentionally crafted the scenes to evoke the aesthetic of a Western, amplifying the tension and playful rivalry between the two neighbours, almost like a duel.

From a technical standpoint, I chose to balance steady, composed camera movements with dynamic cinematic techniques such as fast whip pans and crash zooms. Which is again inspired by cowboy movies and spaghetti westerns, bringing a sense of drama and humour to the storytelling.

The same approach extended to the music and sound design. The score was deliberately built on a spaghetti western foundation, but layered with Arabic musical elements — grounding it in the cultural context of the Middle East while keeping that unmistakable Western flair.

The ad was filmed in the historic neighbourhood of Al-Hataba in Cairo, right next to the iconic Cairo Citadel. We specifically chose this location because of the authenticity and intimacy of its alleys — they felt raw, real, and intertwined, reflecting the emotional alleys of our story. Additionally, the proximity to the Citadel and the Mohamed Ali Mosque gave us a unique visual anchor. I wanted the Citadel to appear at both the opening and closing.

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/rErfJJAGvDU?feature=shared