In June 2021 Hungary passed a law banning the promotion of (therefore education about) homosexuality or gender change to children under 16.

The following week, UEFA banned Munich’s Allianz Arena and the LGBTQ+ community from displaying a rainbow flag wrap around on the arena in protest at the law during the high-profile EURO 2020 football match between Germany and Hungary.

The match was taking place at the height of Pride Month – a month of awareness and celebration for the LGBTQ+ community.

AXE believes that attraction is ‘for everyone and between anyone’. It doesn’t matter your race, sexuality, or pronouns. If you’re into it and they’re into it, AXE is into it.

So AXE wanted to show its ongoing solidarity to the LGBTQ+ community and encourage fans to do the same and to deliver a powerful message that love is ‘for everyone and between anyone’

AXE has an open-minded Gen Z audience and the LGBTQ+ community is a crucial part of this.

• 57%of Gen Z know someone who uses gender-neutral pronouns

• 35%of Gen Z identify as bisexual to some extent

In protest to the queer-hostile laws in Hungary, the Allianz Stadium in Munich was to be lit in the colours of the rainbow flag for the Germany vs. Hungary match at UEFA EURO 2020 (delayed one year due to COVID).

However, at the last minute, UEFA banned the move, citing it as being politically motivated and against its rules. This led to strong opposition from football fans and the public who wanted to support the community and show Europeans as an open and tolerant people.

Axe, which has the position that ‘attraction is for everyone, and between anyone’ saw the perfect opportunity support the LGBTQ+ community that is core to its target audience.

Time and history were against AXE with the game taking place in just 24 hours and UEFA being notorious for enforcing rules around non-sponsor led advertising, both inside and outside stadiums.

However, little did UEFA know, AXE already had the perfect canvas on which to show its support…the pitch - a carpet of green grass that gave AXE a ready-made green screen on which to overlay whatever it wanted…in this case a football pitch sized rainbow flag!

During the Germany vs Hungary match, AXE partnered with Snapchat to create an AR lens that picked up the green of the grass and turned it into a Pride flag 105 meters long and 68 meters wide.

Snapchatters could use the AR lens to create the flag and then share their images to show support for freedom of expression, spreading love and pride around the world.

Within Twenty-four hours AXE had teamed up with Snapchat and was ready to defy UEFA and show support for the LGBTQ+ community.

AXE worked with Snapchat to create an AR Lens and a filter (production usually takes up to 6 weeks) which was implemented and supported with paid media within hours.

To spread awareness of the filter we teamed up with two partners of German national team players - Cathy Hummels and Lina Meyer (who are also both Instagram Influencers) - and got them to share their photos and videos of support from inside the stadium.

For those not in the stadium, we created a national filter with a dynamic username overlay to let everyone in Germany express their support from home and for people around the world we enabled the AXE pride lens to work on their TV from anywhere in the world.

In just 24 hours…

• More than one in ten football fans inside the stadium used the filter

• Fans spent 3x average time engaging with filter

• More than half a million people pledged their support via the national filter

• Filter was shared 70% more than average benchmark

By standing as an ally with the LGBTQ+ community against a law that negatively impacts the core of their audience, AXE created an authentic brand experience in a culturally relevant moment that demonstrably increased engagement with the brand.