Qatar is one of the most homophobic countries in the world. And in 2022 the biggest sporting event in the world was set to happen there. So, we thought: why don’t we highjack the tournament’s media exposure and coverage to send a message of free love?

It sounded good as planned. But once the tournament started, dozens of peaceful manifestations of love were met with violence, detainment and confiscations. LGBTQIAP+ pride was being shut down.

So, Corner Magazine hacked the rules and made a pride flag that people couldn’t ban or confiscate. Transforming the biggest sports event in the world into a huge LGBTQ+ protest.

Before the Qatar World Cup started, there was a lot of apprehension toward the country's treatment of the LGBTQIAP+ community.

When people tried to protest, they were detained, having their rainbow attire confiscated. So, we decided to create a pride flag that was impossible to ban or confiscate.

We developed a Snapchat filter that uses augmented reality to transform all World Cup flags into digital rainbow flags and gave people a protesting tool that was safe to use anywhere across the country. We ended up creating a global movement that hacked both media coverage and local rules.

We needed to take the message of respect for the LGBTQIAP+ community in a smart way that wouldn’t get people in trouble, within the biggest sports event in the world, hosted by one of the most violent countries against LGBT+ people. Without their biggest symbol: the rainbow flag.

To get our message out there in Qatar and encourage other fans to join, we created a built-in tool that would work in a popular app, with no further downloads and easy to share through social media. We came up with a Snapchat filter that uses augmented reality to transform all World Cup flags into digital rainbow flags.

The idea happened during the 2022 Qatar World Cup, with protests happening during the entire tournament, from the first match on November 20th to the big final on December 18th.

The activation took place in Doha during the World Cup, and people were able to use the Snapchat filter in all Qatari Stadiums, at FIFA Fan Fests and everywhere (even in other countries).

We needed a solution that was invisible to the Qatari authorities but visible to the whole world. So, we created a Snapchat filter that uses augmented reality to transform all World Cup flags into digital rainbow flags. We gave people a protesting tool that was safe to use at stadiums, streets, fan fests and literally anywhere.

With every match, user-generated content swarmed social channels and the movement made itself to global press, highjacking the World Cup coverage and using it to spread a message of free love.

The campaign achieved 62 million in earned media, with over 145 million impressions globally. We had hundreds of protests on every game day, with 0 flags taken and 0 people detained by the Qatari police.

We spread the word of respect in a hostile environment for it, using a free tool to protest, encourage others to join freely and speak up in an organic and natural way.

Pride Nation is an idea for all LGBTQIAP+ football fans who felt silenced during this last World Cup. A right of reply and a cry of resistance for those who suffer in silence in countries where being who you are is still a crime.