In June 2013, just 8 months before they were to host the Winter Olympic Games, the Russian government enacted new ‘anti-gay propaganda’ laws that effectively made it illegal to show any kind of pro LGBT symbol in public.

GLISA wanted to peacefully protest these laws but also wanted to support the athletes at the same time. They needed a symbol that would do both and a method of distributing it that would circumvent the new laws.

So CLM BBDO created 88 uniquely designed flags, one for every country competing in the Olympics, incorporating the gay pride colours into the national flag designs.

We also created a mobile distribution platform so that people could circumvent the new laws by turning their phone or tablet into a national gay pride flag and sneak it past security at the Games. And we made it easy to spread the flags through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Weibo (China) and VK (Russia).

The campaign spread through the digital landscape with involvement from digital influencers, celebrities and sports people. The topical campaign created an overwhelming 93% of positive comments that argued against a mere 7% of negative comments sparking a persuasive argument for the issue and the campaign.

It reached over 50,000 hits on Facebook and increased traffic to the GLISA site by over 1000%. The campaign peaked in the middle of the Sochi Olympic Games with people spending an average of 9 minutes, 7 seconds on the site.

Working with GLISA we designed 88 flags, one for each country competing in the Sochi Olympics, incorporating the gay pride colours into the national flag designs.

We also made a mobile distribution platform to avoid confiscation of our protest material and publicised the campaign through digital influencers, celebrities and sports people sympathetic to the LGBT cause and the Russian LGBT situation.

In social media, each flag self-publicised allowing the flags and the message to spread rapidly through the medium.

The campaign spread through the digital landscape with involvement from digital influencers, celebrities and sportspeople. The topical campaign created an overwhelming 93% of positive comments that argued against a mere 7% of negative comments sparking a persuasive argument for the issue and the campaign. It reached over 50,000 hits on Facebook and increased traffic to the GLISA site by over 1000%. The campaign peaked in the middle of the Sochi Olympic Games with people spending an average of 9 minutes, 7 seconds on the site.