About Love Has No Labels
Love has No Labels was a campaign conceived by The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service initiatives on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations, non-government organization and agencies of the US govt. They communicate and connect with Americans across various communication channels to inspire, inform and save lives.
Campaign background
In Feb, 2015 was in annual celebration of love which soon turned into a surprising act of love in Santa Monica, California. The Ad Council and R/GA (agency) set up a giant X-ray screen which displayed skeletons dancing and embracing each other. The onlookers were just filling the blanks. When the people stepped out from behind the screen revealing their true identities.
Business Objective
‘Love Has No Labels’ campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our implicit bias and prejudice and work to stop it in ourselves and our close circle. Many of us unintentionally make quick judgments in the first few seconds of interacting with a person based on their color, creed, race, age, gender, religion, sexuality and disability. Subconscious prejudice called ‘implicit bias’ which can influence our behavior towards the other person can hurt them or even harm them emotionally. To the extent that it can shake their confidence in doing daily chores of life. This campaign will help us realize if we are ruled by implicit bias and if yes how can we change and touch the other person’s life more beautifully. A small realization will be a giant leap from each one of us to make this world a better place to live.
Strategy Adopted
Outdoors
A giant X-ray screen was fixed in Santa Monica, California, on Valentine’s Day. It found real people of different genders, abilities and sexual orientations and had them perform little dances and embrace each other and then step out to reveal their identities, catching the crowd’s reaction in the process.
Prints
Ads supporting the cause were published in all leading dailies across US as an extension of the campaign.
Online Support
The campaign extends to a micro-sites “Love Has No Labels. This site allows visitors access to first-hand accounts of prejudice and provides quizzes to gauge your own level of prejudice and “illustrate unconscious bias in own approaches to queer and race identities.
8 videos on ‘love has no labels’ were consequently uploaded in you tube to grab eye balls and it soon lead to millions of likings and sharing.
The “Love Has No Labels” website offers tips that will help visitors address bias and prejudice and help start the conversation with others to question themselves and their behavior. The website also offers tips for preventing bias in the home, in public, in the work space, in communications, in neighborhoods, in schools, and in social circles.
Result Achieved
Facebook & Twitter
With the immediate release of the videos in you tube and Facebook, it went viral with 40 million views in 3 days. The hashtag #lovehasnolabels has been tracked on Facebook and twitter and other social media to generate awareness and engagement among consumers
On Twitter, the campaign has had a reach of 8.5 million so far and on Facebook, the campaign page has reached more than 1.8 million people. Since its first publication on Facebook, the video campaign has received more than 11 million views, 50,000 likes and 100,000-plus shares on Facebook. As various media continued to spread the message so dis various tweets including celebrities like author, EL James, football player Mario gutsy and first lady of United States, Michelle Obama.
Other Brands Joining Hands
All rival brands like Coco cola, Pepsi, P & G, Unilever etc. agreed to unite for the cause. All moving their own label in their profile and sharing the viral film.
Online Extension
A social photo tool also allowed people to share their lead with the world.
Learning
The campaign took off with lots of raised eyebrows and trying to fill in the blanks in minds of onlookers of Santa Monica, seeing skeleton dancing and embracing behind the screen. Later this campaign was conceived in various social media platforms to reach millions out there. Creating a very interactive micro site to upload your picture in support to the campaign, taking up quiz to evaluate how each one of us are implicitly biased was a huge success in self-realization. This campaign was then taken to twitter to reach out to highly targeted audience. Once the update reaches to any follower, the same can then go viral by tweeting and re-tweeting. And when taken to the Facebook page, the videos was liked and shared by more than 1.8 million.
Image Credits: Love has no labels, Facebook and Twitter