Today in America, there are many social issues that the citizens are divided on. Politicians along with many more people of power try to think of solutions to get the country to unite and treat everyone equally. Roughly three years ago, the company Ad Council released a campaign that changed millions of lives – Love Has No Labels. The campaign was created by the company R/GA and produced by the company Mindride. The Ad Council published the ads and gave it the coverage it needed to impact all of the people it has thus far. The first video came out on Valentine’s day 2015, and the video has more than 58 million views on Youtube. Lisa Sherman, the President of Ad Council, created the campaign with the mission to stop bias (implicit bias) and prejudice. The goal is for society to forget labels and embrace our diversity. The strategic plan behind the project was to create advertisements illustrating that everyone is human and judgement should not exist based off of how someone or a couple looks. The campaign also wants to create awareness of the bias that we all employ without realizing it. Ad Council made their voice heard by discussing the inclusion of everyone no matter what background through there videos. They also partnered with the NFL to make one of their ads, and are supported by companies such as Coca Cola, Human Rights Campaign, Anti-Defamation League, and P&G. Ad Council’s headquarters are located in New York City, but most of their ads are filmed in Florida. Love has no Labels is a campaign that went viral across the country in it’s debut, and to this day it still carries a powerful message that all Americans should listen to.
Love Has No Labels has published several ads that are shown on various media platforms such as: TV, social media, and print. Their ads also converge across those media platforms, making its content equally impactful across the platforms. The main focus of the ads is to illustrate the blindness of love and how it intertwines with diversity. In the campaign’s first ad, two or three people are standing behind a big x-ray screen. The skeletons are only visible to the audience, but what actually lies behind the screen is people who share love with each other whether it be through friendships, families, or relationships. When the people step out from behind the screen, you see that they aren’t just average relationships that society is used to. They aren’t all just boy/girl, white, straight, or christian relationships. The actual relationships shown are interracial, gay, old, accepting, and disabled. Overall, the campaign is promoting a message of love and progressing society toward the end of implicit bias.
From our viewpoint as teenagers, we are greatly impacted by the Love Has No Labels campaign. We feel impacted by their statements, and want to work toward breaking our our own biases. We believe that the world around us has made progress on making sure to include everyone, but believe there are still some major underlying issues that must be addressed. In the past few years of our lives, we have noticed bias toward the LGBTQA+ community, POC, the disabled, non-christian religions, different generations, and people of varying body weights. Love Has No Labels supports everyone being exactly who they are, and encourages them to express their true self. Because of the biases they face, many people suppress their actual identities and struggle with the discrimination and prejudice targeted at them. Fortunately this has improved some through the progress communities have made in recent times. From gay marriage being legalized to bills passed to improve the lives of those with disabilities, progress is occuring everywhere. This makes us hopeful for the future and hopeful that the Love Has No Labels campaign actually makes a difference in society.
Works Cited
“Love Has No Labels Continues to Extend the Message of Diversity through Brand Partners.” AdCouncil, www.adcouncil.org/News-Events/Press-Releases/Love-Has-No-Labels-continues-to-extend-the-message-of-diversity-through-brand-partners.
“Penn Staters Share ‘All In,’ ‘Love Has No Labels’ Messages in Daylong Event.” Penn State University, ConsumerAffairs, news.psu.edu/story/463948/2017/04/20/impact/penn-staters-share-all-love-has-no-labels-messages-daylong-event.
Shayon, Sheila. “Unilever and The Ad Council on Why Love Has No Labels Hit Home.” Brandchannel: 10 Mar. 2015, www.brandchannel.com/2015/03/10/unilever-and-the-ad-council-on-why-love-has-no-labels-hit-home/.
Sherman, Lisa. “We Are America.” About Bias | Love Has No Labels, lovehasnolabels.com/.