In February 2015, the Ad Council launched an anti-discrimination campaign called Love Has No Labels. Our agency led the creation of the LHNL brand and the development of the campaign.

To fight discrimination, the most important objective was to build awareness around implicit bias. According to the Perception Institute 85% of Americans don’t consider themselves biased, yet 70-80% of Americans show some level of implicit bias. Left unchecked, implicit bias can lead to discrimination and harmful behaviors.

Our second objective was to drive engagement with the message, that is share the message and seek out resources to learn how to fight bias.

We also needed to drive social impact by making American’s understand that bias can lead to discrimination, that there are actions they can take and that being accepting of specific discriminated classes matters.

Lastly, we wanted to build awareness of the Love Has No Labels brand in order to create a brand that could become a leading voice in the conversation around diversity and inclusion.

Over a period of two years we launched three films and supporting content that empowered people to recognize and check their implicit bias. To provoke introspection in people who did not consider themselves biased, the executions all contained an element of surprise, leveraged the current cultural mood, and always took a positive tone.

The first execution featured a variety of couples interacting behind a large X-Ray installation. As the skeletons kissed and danced, viewers mentally filled in the blanks. When unexpected pairs stepped out from behind the screen, the surprise gave viewers a simple demonstration of their implicit bias.

The second execution reminded people that to love America is to love all Americans. Billboards and prints promoted unity by showing a diverse array of Americans.

The third execution took an iconic part of culture, the Kiss Cam, known for showcasing straight, same race relationships, and turned it into a symbol for love in all its forms.

The campaign was an instant success in making American’s aware of implicit bias.

Including the second film, which didn’t win at Cannes, the three films have hit over 338 million views.

The campaign has received 11.7 billion donated media impressions and 254 million earned media impressions.

In terms of engagement, cumulatively, the films have received 4 million likes and 5.1 million shares. There were 4.9 million visits to the site with an average time of 2:03 per visit.

We also changed people’s attitudes:

From 61% to 72% agree that they can create a more inclusive & accepting environment.

From 33% to 43% agree that supporting diversity around race, gender, sexuality, religion and disability is very important.

From 73% to 78% agree that bias can lead to discrimination.

This campaign showed the creative industry that tackling a difficult and uncomfortable topic effectively means finding unexpected, relatable ways in. It also shows that awareness can still be the most effective metric to make a positive impact on society.