"Whether it’s deliberate or with good intentions, it’s still your loss and ours.” Under this slogan, the Egyptian government has launched an advertising campaign dedicated to combating corruption; commercials began to be broadcast on a number of channels starting with the beginning of Ramadan earlier this month.

One ad, which targets wasta — a term that roughly translates to cronyism, and refers to using one's connections to bypass or speed up procedures — depicts an official exploiting a government position and his ties to the head of an agency where he works in order to appoint the son of a personal friend to a position that he doesn’t deserve, without conducting any tests to determine his suitability for the position. Before the ad concludes, an outside voice stresses the gravity of such actions that destroy the possibility of a decent job for everyone.

The ad campaign includes four televised ads whose messages include: raising awareness of the role of cronyism and nepotism in securing positions, raising awareness among the bureaucracy inside government departments, “trembling hands” (an Egyptian colloquialism that refers to officials being afraid to take decisions for fear of being held accountable for mistakes) and raising awareness about bribes in the customs process. However, it is not explained at the end of any of these ads which government body is funding the ad campaign or which media agency is producing the ads.

Samy Abd al-Aziz, a professor at the College of Media at Cairo University who has developed concepts for anti-corruption ad campaigns, told Al-Monitor, “These advertising campaigns are seeking to modify citizen’s behavior and values, to stress that corruption doesn’t just mean financial profit, but also encompasses other areas, such as nepotism, cronyism and the bureaucratic procedures by which the employees of government ministries impinge on citizen’s interests.” He said this sort of advertising is common throughout the world, such as in the United States, where spending on media campaigns designed to raise public awareness reaches into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.