David Nutter and Lena Waithe Help Ad Council Inspire Love and Inclusion

“Rising is a poignant and powerful film that takes us back to where we started with Love Has No Labels, reminding everyone to see each other as humans above all else,” said Lisa Sherman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ad Council.

A closing montage in Rising features photos of real disaster survivors coming together despite their percieved differences.  Rooted in research showing that catastrophes have one of the most profoundly unifying effects on people, the film aims to inspire people to act inclusively every day.

“In creating Rising, my goal was to bring the Love Has No Labels message of inclusivity to life in the form of pure visual storytelling,” said David Nutter.  “It allows audiences to form their own opinions on what’s happening and then introduces something unexpected in the hopes that they’ll reexamine their own biases.  Through this film we want people to go from being defensive of those who are different to accepting and embracing our differences.  I watched a lot of videos and a lot of documentaries from Katrina.  I tried to put myself into that space and make sure everyone on set stayed in that sensibility, not just the people in front of the camera but all of us behind the camera.”

“Rising is based on the observation that the worst of mother nature can bring out the best in human nature,” said Eric Jannon, Vice President, Executive Creative Director of R/GA.  “In developing Rising we were struck by the selflessness and humanity people show during times of crisis.  We wanted to take the time to immerse audiences in a disaster scenario and depict our innate propensity for good during those moments.”

Love Has No Labels came to light in 2015 when the team at The Coca-Cola Company was working on a diversity campaign and came up with the idea of comparing love having no labels to products having no labels.  At the time Wendy Clark was president of sparkling brands and strategic marketing in North America for the brand and she realized the idea was bigger than Coke, so she brought it to the Ad Council.  The Ad Council then brought on a coalition of other corporate brands (today including Bank of America, Budweiser, The Coca-Cola Company, Google, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, P&G, State Farm, Unilever and Wells Fargo) and R/GA as a creative partner and produced a video of skeletons dancing and embracing before coming out from behind an x-ray screen to reveal themselves as diverse couples, friends and families.  The original Love Has No Labels video became the first PSA to win an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial and was the second most viewed advocacy spot in history at the time.

In 2016,  We Are America featuring WWE superstar John Cena celebrated the diversity of America on Independence Day.  In 2017, the Kiss Cam became a symbol for unbiased love with Fans of Love.  The goal of the campaign has always been to elevate messages of unbiased love to promote acceptance across race, religion, gender, sexuality, ability and age.  The latest film extends the campaign message further by encouraging people to take everyday actions to create a more inclusive community.

“When we launched in 2015 we knew that we had created something special, but I don’t think any of us could have anticipated the response,” said Sherman.  “In the three years since, we’ve seen how our message of diversity and inclusion has truly brought people together.  We’ve seen how  powerful storytelling, and tapping into key cultural moments, has been integral and the impact we’ve had.  Most importantly, we’ve seen that the power of the collective is so much greater than one person or one company.”

An impressive production team including cinematographer Peter Menzies Jr, hair and makeup artist Cyndi Reece, Emmy-nominated stunts professional Eddie Perez, Emmy-nominated sound designer Tim Hays and music supervisor Akila Robinson also lent support to developing Rising.

“The central concept of Rising is rooted in real-life stories and research showing that when disaster strikes we do actually come together,” said Chris Northam, Vice President, Executive Creative Director of R/GA.  “This film shows what we often don’t see on the news, uplifting moments where people set aside their differences to aid one another.  Some of the crew previously volunteered in disaster areas.  Their experience was invaluable and added a level of authenticity to the story.  We want Rising to unify communities around America – permeating the hearts and minds of viewers to help eliminate unconscious biases.”

Showtime will telecast Rising on its pay service and on-demand.  Clear Channel Outdoor will show Risingon billboards in Times Square.  NCM will run the film trailers in theaters across the country.  CW Good will feature the full film on its web site.  Risingcan also be viewed on the Love Has No Labelswebsite and social channels.

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