The idea was for volunteers to wear 'Angel Action Wings' which would link together to completely block out the protesters.

Over 48 hours, volunteers from numerous theatre groups worked tirelessly to build Angel Wings, giant costumes made up of white cloth and plastic piping. At the funeral, the volunteers stood alongside one another — directly opposite the hate group — and their wings (stretching 8 feet wide and 7 feet high) intersected with one another to create a giant angel shield, that kept the mourners safe.

Saturday, June 18, 2016 — A small contingent from the Westboro Baptist Church attends the funeral, carrying vile, hateful signs. However, the Angels completely shielded 1000+ mourners from them. Having been completely neutralized, the WBC left the funeral early.

This was not an advertising campaign, no agency was involved. $0 was spent on marketing. Everything was done by volunteers. Even the mobile tool that allows people to upload Angel Wing overlays onto their profile pictures was done by a volunteer. Despite this, the event received national coverage, including The Washington Post, NBC, BuzzFeed, Mashable, The Huffington Post, USA Today, BBC, newsy & Yahoo. Of course, the main result was that the mourners were completely shielded from the hate group, who left before long.