Some brands take the tradition of Valentine’s Day seriously. Others make fun of it. In 2015, the Ad Council and R/GA gave Valentine’s Day an important job to do. It was used to film their Love Has No Labels campaign to promote acceptance of love in all its forms. The campaign launched a few weeks later in March.
This year, the partners have kept up their own “tradition”.
The Kiss Cam is one of those cheesy American traditions. But it’s one that never fails to make everyone’s heart glow more warmly – American or not.
The Ad Council and R/GA have used the Kiss Cam for a special Valentine’s Day 2017 edition of Love has No Labels. Like it did on the original, R/GA worked pro bono on the new edition, called Fans of Love.
The Kiss Cam, the Ad Council points out, was used as a symbol for unbiased love in this edition. The Valentine’s Day Kiss Cam film was shot during the BFL Pro Bowl in Orlando in January. But rather than feature traditional couples, as is usual, R/GA played with that expectation to make its point. The first two people surrounded by the Kiss Cam heart are a man and a woman. But they are not a couple. The man turns to the man on his right side and kisses his real partner. And the crowd cheers.
From there, the Kiss Cam discovers all sorts of real people in all sorts of relationships. And the aim of the two and a half minute film is to promote acceptance and celebrate diversity.
The film encourages people to visit the Love has No Labels website to learn about ways to reduce bias. One of these is a quiz to help people re-examine their own biases.
The online video is being supported with TVCs and digital banners in the US. An interactive Fans of Love video will present relevant campaign facts and links to educational content to audiences as they are watching the film.
The campaign is backed by six leading nonprofits—the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights Campaign, American Association of People with Disabilities, AARP and Perception Institute. It is supported by brand sponsors, PepsiCo, P&G, State Farm, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Company, Bank of America, Google and Johnson & Johnson, who will promote Fans of Love content on their channels.
