Missed the discovery of fire? Then be sure you don’t miss Expo 2020, says will.i.am
▶ Rapper is the face of Dubai event’s global advertising campaign, writes James Langton
The voice is unmistakable, the message intriguing. “You weren’t there when humans conquered fire,” will.i.am raps over an image of a caveman.
“You weren’t there when they first made paper,” he continues. “You weren’t there when they invented algebra, built the pyramids at Giza or painted the Mona Lisa.”
The teaser advertisement has been playing to audiences in British cinemas for the past month. And not only in the UK. In Germany it is “Du warst nicht dabei”. In Spanish it becomes “Tu no estabas ahi”.
There is also a Chinese and an Arabic version, the latter narrated by Emirati performer Hussain Al Jassmi.
“Whatever you missed in the past, you can be there for Dubai Expo 2020”, the “world’s greatest show”, will.i.am raps in the 65-second commercial.
“See a futurist festival filled with ideas new and radical, performances magical, in a sixmonth-long spectacle.”
With less than a year to go before the Expo, Dubai is telling the world to start planning a trip with the launch of an advertising campaign that will play in 29 markets and 14 languages and can also be viewed on its YouTube channel.
It underlines the ambition of Expo 2020, which will open next October and continue into March 2021.
“We want to encourage people from around the world to come to learn, discover and be inspired by how collaboration and an innovative spirit is helping to make the world a better place, one global goal at a time,” said Najeeb Al Ali, executive director of the Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau.
Organisers are expecting 25 million visits, about 150,000 a day, or more than the population of Dubai every two weeks.
This will be more than the combined number of tickets sold for the Fifa World Cups in South Africa and Brazil and the summer Olympics in London and Rio de Janeiro.
Dubai has already made it clear that the Expo is open to anyone in the world who wants to come or participate, with 192 countries taking part.
As well as promoting the image of the emirate and the rest of the UAE, it is expected to provide a major economic boost.
The consulting and professional services company EY published a report in April calculating that the Expo would contribute Dh122.6 billion to the UAE economy by 2031.
The six-month event is expected to add 1.5 per cent to the country’s annual forecast GPD. To make this happen, international visitors are key, filling hotel rooms, buying flights, eating in restaurants and shopping at malls.
Its legacy should support 53,000 jobs a year, even after Expo 2020 has concluded, with the knock-on effect boosting sectors from transport and construction to education and real estate. The spending by Dubai on Expo 2020 has been calculated at just over Dh33bn by financial consultants Deloitte.
Expo officials identified several markets they want to make a priority in terms of visitor numbers. They include the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, the Russian Federation, India, China and Saudi Arabia.
In terms of the number of countries taking part, Dubai will be larger than any previous Expo or World’s Fair, eclipsing the 170 members of the Bureau International des Expositions, which presents awards for the event.
Organisers hope it will be as memorable and successful as many of the most famous world’s fairs in the past, including the 1939 World’s Fair in New York and Expo 67 in Canada – the last time the number of visitors outnumbered the country’s population.
As will.i.am puts it: “This, you can’t afford to miss. It’s the best of humankind, in the greatest show of our time.”