In the US, people who oppose anti-LGBTQ rights are claiming that LGBTQ people are groomers and pedophiles who pose a threat to children. They use language like “protect our children” to sow misinformation about the LGBTQ community and pass legislation that attacks LGBTQ rights.

Protecting children is an easy idea to get people behind, which leaves scared, confused parents and voters susceptible to this misleading messaging. This has contributed to a rise in violence against the LGBTQ comunity and many harmful policies.

Brief

Create a campaign that humanizes the LGBTQ community and inspires empathy in the minds of parents and people who are susceptible to this hateful rhetoric.

Objectives

Create a positive dialogue about the LGBTQ community that counteracts and replaces the “groomer” narrative.

We set out to flip the narrative, de-weaponizing the “protect our kids” language and use it to humanize the LGBTQ community and protect their rights.

We showed photos of children with the simple call to action “Protect this kid.” We then revealed the children today: all prominent LGBTQ athletes, artists, and thought leaders sharing their personal stories.

By showing the children behind the people being villainized by anti-LGBTQ groups, we revealed the hypocrisy in their messaging.

Insight: The “Love is Love” campaign reframed gay marriage as a fight for family values. And everyone got behind it. We saw an opportunity to speak once again to family values. To combat the misinformation and hatred filling the airwaves we co-opted and de-weaponized the haters' very own “protect our kids” rhetoric, turning it into a message of positivity and love.

Key message: The LGBTQ community isn't a threat. Misinformation and hatred are.

Target audience: The “Movable Middle,” who fall in the middle of the continuum of LGBTQ acceptance. They are not allies ready to act but also not resistors opposing. This group believes in fairness but do not see enough accurate LGBTQ representation and believe LGBTQ issues don’t affect them.

Creation & Distribution:

April 12: Launch Press Release featuring 3 interviews and Times Square photocall with Beanie Feldstein to debut OOH.

April 24: Press Release debuting the featurette film

We partnered with LGBTQ celebrities as our campaign heroes and used multiple media placements to reach the Moveable Middle. First, we launched out of home across the country. Each OOH showed a hero's childhood photo with the CTA: “Protect this kid.” The boards linked to an interview with that hero as an adult, providing a virtual reveal of that child’s identity. Then we took to social media, where our goal was to replace “protect our children” as an anti-LGBTQ slogan with positive messaging. We launched a long form film starring our talent and featuring the Billie Eilish song “What Was I Made For?” and had well-known influencers share it. We worked with our talent to share their individual interviews and create a constant stream of content. To get everyone involved, we created a filter that allowed users to post their childhood photos, starting a UGC movement of solidarity and love.

The campaign launch has generated more than 2 million impressions from dedicated feature length articles placed across entertainment, advertising and queer media (such as: PR Week, Campaign, Hollywood Times, Little Black Book, The Queer Review and Advocate). The PR efforts are now concentrated on activating the movable middle with coverage to run in mainstream outlets including People Magazine, Time Magazine and Bravo TV.

The PR storytelling featuring LGBTQ+ voices challenges negative biases and presents a more nuanced picture of LGBTQ+ lives. By exposing the movable middle to positive and accurate portrayals the campaign is shifting public opinion towards greater acceptance and understanding and driving eyeballs to the website and featurette content.