In 2018 B&J was a newly established brand in Poland (1st year on the market), fighting for shares in a small category of high-quality ice-cream. The problem was that it was twice as expensive as its key competitors: Haagen Daazs and a strong local brand Grycan.

With a budget allowing to only target big cities online and organise a few small events, we had to reach a demanding target of urban activists: people 18-34 y.o., Polish Millenials. They are a demanding group in terms of brand communication, targeted by many local and international marketers.

The client wanted to focus on a few local samplings, talk online about brand’s philosophy with focus on clear air and organise one special activation supporting the brand.

Ben&Jerry’s is a “hippie brand” - fighting for a better world, supporting justice, democracy, peace, ecology. This is close to the hearts of our target - urban activists - but the social mission for a small brand must be highly resonating to break through all the communication clutter. So we needed an issue much stronger than the proposed topic of clean air.

We decided to go bold and focus on LGBT rights. In Poland - the second most homophobic country in Europe - there is a lot to be done in this field. Especially when in 2015 right-wing party “Law and Justice” came to power, with many people who are against homosexualism becoming high-level politicians.

We found a strong symbol of homophobia in Poland: artistic rainbow installation in Warsaw. The art installation built in 2012 on Savior’s Square was supposed to evoke positive feelings related to the rainbow, such as love, peace and hope, and was intended to be a universal, apolitical symbol. However, far-right nationalists and Catholic groups identified it with the flag of the LGBT movement. As a result, it was burnt and rebuilt 7 times within 3 years. Finally, the city decided not to rebuild it anymore.

We knew that officials would never rebuild the rainbow in current political situation in Poland.

This is why we restored the rainbow in its original place and size, in unbreakable version - as a water-light hologram that cannot be burned. Showing that love, regardless of its colour, is unbreakable.

In social media, we informed about being partnership with Equality Parade, and in the week preceding the projection we teased the event, not revealing its form. The day before we organized press breakfast for selected journalists to present brand's cooperation with NGOs and design of the installation. On the day of the event, we published public invitation in social media, streamed it live on FB and encouraged participants to share their photos. Throughout the evening, participants were treated with Ben&Jerry's ice cream limited edition cups, with logos of all the cooperating NGOs.

Thanks to teasing phase the rainbow was highly anticipated and gained a mass coverage: 65 600 publications worldwide in both social and traditional media (40% of them also mentioned the brand). It went beyond the local market - information appeared even in The Washington Post, The Telegraph, China Post, The Guardian, Fox News, MS NBC. Many Polish celebrities shared it, even actor and comedian James Corden and German European Parliament deputy Terry Reintke mentioned it in their social media. “Wysokie Obcasy”, weekly influential magazine, issue appeared with NGOs’ and brand’s representatives on its rainbow cover.

We reached an estimated 47.5 million people and the number of love reactions in social media to our content exceeded 355k, proving that despite wide homophobia, LGBT people in Poland can feel some support. As a result, in 2019 Ben&Jerry’s in Poland decided to fully devote all brand-building communication in Poland to LGBT support.

Polish society tends to be socially conservative with LGBT rights. Majority of Poles affiliate with the Catholic Church and its values. Therefore the ruling party (Law and Justice) stays in power by finding various “threats to Polish values”: at first refugees, now LGBT people.

Legally, homosexual people have equal rights in most areas - but this does not include marriage as the Polish constitution states marriage “as a union of a man and a woman”. Any activities in the field of same-sex marriage or being LGBT-friendly are now treated by officials as “homosexual propaganda” and the government tries to ban them if possible.

A good example is the latest pressure and official threats directed at 200 schools which in result cancelled planned the anti-bullying campaign "Rainbow Friday" - which was to build a greater acceptance for LGBT students. Yes, this happened in November 2018. In the middle of Europe.