Love Has No Labels:
the Arts and Sciences
behind the Campaign
Beauty may be only skin deep,
but love is in your bones.
The Ad Council, in partnership with eight other non-profit organizations including AARP and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), launched a yearlong Diversity & Inclusion campaign in mid February, titled “Love Has No Labels.” With the support from Allstate, The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, P&G, State Farm, and Unilever, the campaign began to gain awareness and grow an online community on Facebook. Not until this Tuesday did the campaign receive attentions across the country and around the globe, when a poignant three-minute Public Service Announcement (PSA) spot was released and went viral shortly after.
As the song “Same Love” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with Mary Lambert plays at the background, the clip opens with gorgeous views of Santa Monica, California on Valentine’s Day. The camera soon cuts to two skeletons kissing, hugging and dancing on a massive X-ray screen in front of which a crowd gathers. As the two step out from behind, many in the audience are captured surprised, learning two women were sharing an embrace moments ago. Challenged about the way to think about romantic “love,” the audience then see pairs of real people of different ages, genders, races, religions and abilities interacting with each other behind the screen before revealing, demonstrating “love has no labels.”
First uploaded to Upworthy’s Facebook page, the emotionally-charged video, at the time of writing, has cumulated over 37 million views, 465,057 likes and 1.2 million-plus shares. In addition, more than 15 million views were garnered on YouTube in less than 48 hours.
Aiming to make people aware of their “implicit biases” — snap judgments about others made subconsciously—the Ad Council and R/GA, the agency works pro bono for the account, extend the campaign online with a microsite featuring stories from those who have experienced different forms of prejudice, a quiz about various types of implicit bias, and tips on how to stop them.
Designed to start a conversation about prejudice and unconscious biases, and to promote diversity and inclusion along with acceptance, the campaign is off to a great start. And such success is no accident.
First of all, the campaign is authentic. Inspired by and based on research findings, and deeply rooted in basic universal truths, the campaign engages many that feel related to the topic. According to the Perception Institute, most Americans agree that people should be treated respectfully and fairly regardless of their race, religion, gender, sexuality, age and ability, etc. and consider themselves to be unprejudiced; however, many still report feeling discriminated against: a 2013 Pew Research Center survey shows that 88% of African Americans said there was a lot or some discrimination against them, with 46% seeing a lot of discrimination; another Pew Research Center study found that 45% of 1,504 adults surveyed say that Muslim Americans face a lot of discrimination, and 28% say they are subject to some discrimination. Research also illustrates that a large number of people hold negative associations against those whom appear to be different from themselves.
Secondly, the campaign is relevant. Successfully taping into the cultural conversation on relations amongst people of different races, sexual orientations, religions, and so on, the campaign is receiving attention from wide arrays of communities. Recent cases including the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, brutal attack on two gay men by a group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the shooting of three muslim students nearby University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus have once again shined a bright light on serious issues such as racism, hate crimes, etc. in the society and ignited massive debates on such issues. Additionally, the campaign also strategically releases its PSAs in the eve the 50th anniversary of the the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march, reminding people that as a society, we’ve come far, yet there’s still a long way ahead.
Then, the campaign is social. Sufficiently and skillfully employing a mix of paid, owned and earned media (only in this case, paid is free) and catering the content according to the nature of each medium, the campaign amplifies its impact throughout the society. Since “Love Has No Labels” is a PSA campaign, it will receive broadcast airtime donated from broadcasters across the country, including local television stations and radio stations. As all the slots that are donated are unsold, no one know what time or space it will be, the campaign provides various cuts of the video, ranging from 15-second to 60-second, so that broadcasters will be able to air with flexibilities, with options. Beyond that, by partnering with major brands and nonprofits, the campaign gets to utilized all their channels of communication to maximize the initial exposure to a large audience. Due to the viral nature, the campaign soon receives widespread news coverage both domestically and globally. And then, the Twitterverse and the Facebooksphere takes over the cause with opinion leaders opening up new conversations and engaging their followers on social media.
Last but not least, the campaign is highly participatory. All the PSA videos of various lengths are available on YouTube, ready to be shared. Besides, the UX of the microsite is designed so that viewers can easily share the site or specific information on the site with their friends on social media. At last, the campaign also offers a set of pre-designed images for people to download and use as their profile and cover pictures on Facebook and Twitter to support the cause.
The campaign has seen major short-term successes in terms of views, likes, and shares, mentions, etc. on social media; however, in the long run, whether or not the campaign will ultimately help end implicit biases in the society…let’s wait and see.
