The National Hockey League launched a ban on Pride Tape on October 10, sending a message that hockey isn’t for everyone. The rainbow-colored hockey tape had been a symbol of 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion in hockey for almost a decade.

Scotiabank, one of the NHL’s biggest sponsors, is committed to making hockey more inclusive through its longstanding hockey for all platform, and is a proud supporter of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

When the Pride Tape news broke, we saw the opportunity for the bank to use its influence to put an equally strong message into the market: Our support of 2SLGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities must be as relentless as the forces that try to hold them back.

With the future of hockey for an entire community at stake, we used the entire supply of now abandoned Pride Tape to start a protest against the NHL’s ban – fighting for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

Since the NHL wasn’t going to allow Pride Tape on the ice, we used it to start an unignorable protest in every other space connected to hockey. We used the NHL’s banned tape to start a grassroots protest against our own partners – putting our values over the value of the sponsorship. Scotiabank supplied thousands of rolls of Pride Tape in branches nationwide; supplying fans, athletes, and 2SLGBTQ+ leagues and organizations – putting thousands of rolls on the ice in local and national rinks across the country – empowering all hockey fans to flood the sport with support for the 2SLGBTQ+ community and turning hockey sticks into protest signs.

In 2021 Scotiabank launched hockey for all - a platform committed to making hockey more inclusive and accessible at all levels of the game. With the NHL’s Pride Tape ban, the future of hockey for an entire community was at stake. Despite our billion-dollar investment in the sport, we did what no other sponsor was willing to do. We used the NHL’s banned tape to start a grassroots protest against the NHL – putting our values over the value of the sponsorship and empowering hockey fans and players at all levels to stand with the 2SLGBTQ+ community against the NHL’s ban.

To launch Pride Tape For All, we announced the initiative through Scotiabanks’ social channels – generating awareness and driving hockey fans and teams to the branches that carry the tape. This action was met with massive support on its social channels, with consumers praising the bank for its allyship. Media coverage spanned across the globe, appearing in NPR, The Daily Mail, and ESPN. Scotiabank’s initiative yielded more than 250 million earned media impressions, across broadcast, online coverage, and social posts. All pickup was totally organic.

Less than 2 weeks after Pride Tape For All launched, the NHL rescinded their decision. Media coverage around the NHL’s decision heralded Scotiabank’s action as a huge contributing factor.