In the logo saturated world of advertising, labels are everywhere, but in 2015 the Ad Council and R/GA teamed up to share stories that have no labels. This video shows a live crowd’s reactions to a giant, ersatz X-ray installation where two people are initially seen behind the X-ray and as they emerge…the unexpected happens.
An Adweek article summed up that the idea behind the campaign was to make individuals—even the most progressive and accepting of us—realize that we harbor our own implicit judgments. “This campaign really got people to start thinking about how they react to their own unconscious biases,” explains Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of The Ad Council. “Ultimately, the goal was to get people to start acting differently as a result of that.”
According to the Ad Council, while the vast majority of Americans consider themselves unprejudiced, many of us unintentionally make snap judgments about people based on what we see—whether it’s race, age, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability. The Love Has No Labels campaign challenges us to open our eyes to our bias and prejudice and work to stop it in ourselves, our friends, our families, and our colleagues. Rethink your bias at http://www.lovehasnolabels.com
Share your #LoveHasNoLabels story by taking three easy steps:
- TAKE a video, or a photo using our Faces of Love tool on http://www.LoveHasNoLabels.com.
- TELL us what Love Has No Labels means to you.
- SHARE your story and use #LoveHasNoLabels to submit it to our gallery.
Many of you may have seen this campaign previously, but with Valentine’s Day approaching, go ahead and take another look at the video and the wonderfully robust microsite with interactive features, socially sharable and customizable content.
If you’re a brand manager, creative director or someone else in the ad industry trying to build emotional connections with the hope of customers loving your brand, ask yourself how your brand can include love without labels.
Love is blind is a phrase that Shakespeare used in several of his plays and hopefully you can see the positive in being blindly in love too. Love doesn’t have to always be tied to similar appearances, traditional gender roles or certain abilities…and neither should your advertising. With my blindness and low vision I often can’t see the details of people’s facial expressions but I can still feel love.
Happy Valentine’s Day!