Home Centre broke the adoption taboo and turned a furniture brand into a cause

Furniture retail in the Middle East competed on discounts and promotions. Home Centre, a leading home-furniture retailer, chose a different battlefield: adoption, a topic surrounded by religious and cultural taboo across the region. With 'The Homecoming', it became the first brand in the Middle East to propagate and support adoption among Arabs and Muslims.

The campaign opened with a short narrative film that travelled the region and went viral. When backlash came, influential voices joined to defend adoption. Home Centre then turned its digital hub — the brand's website — from a product catalogue into a place where would-be parents could find knowledge, organizations and emotional support to make adoption real.

The trans-media approach integrated the mediums most relevant to the audience and made the brand's purpose tangible rather than a slogan. As the initiative reached homes and hearts across the region, it earned the retailer reputation and respect — and, by the campaign's own account, unintended business growth.

By 2024 the work had helped more than 7,600 orphaned children get adopted into families, and it ranked among the world's most effective campaigns in the WARC Effective 100, the top-100 effectiveness ranking compiled from global awards in 2023.