Ad Council’s Lisa Sherman and the Love Has No Labels Campaign. To Be Honored During CES.

In this interview Sherman pictured below talks about the campaign about unconscious bias why the campaign has had so much impact and other upcoming Ad Council projectsKathy Newbergeramp160 You used to run Viacomamp8217s LOGO networkamp160 How did that experience shape your feelings about diversity Lisa Sherman LOGO was the first adsupported cable channel targeting the LGBT community and it provided the last of the underserved audiences with their own home on televisionamp160 Within the Viacom family Nickelodeon was talking to kids and BET was talking to AfricanAmericansamp160 CMT was talking to country music fans and it seemed like there was a cable channel for every group of people but before LOGO gays and lesbians didn39t have their place on televisionamp160 We realized the importance of creating this our internal guiding line was quotif you can see yourself you can be yourselfquotI quickly learned how powerful the media is in shaping perceptionsamp160 We knew that if we could tell truly authentic stories not only would we help our own audience feel better about themselves weamp8217d have an opportunity to shape and change perceptions of how other people viewed us and break the stereotypesNewbergeramp160 The Love Has No Labels campaign is outstanding creatively and speaks to all of us whoamp8217ve ever felt different in any way or realized we had an unconscious biasamp160 You work on a variety of hugely important issuesamp160 What makes this campaign important to you Shermanamp160 There was and continues to be something very powerful about the element of surprise which RGA used to get people to confront their own unconscious biasesamp160 As a lesbian who lived in the closet for a long time and who often felt misunderstood I was brought to tears when I first saw the rough cut of this workamp160 And I wasnamp8217t aloneamp160 The audience reaction and the amp8220viralityamp8221 that we saw immediately on posting illustrated just how many people related to the pieceamp160 That one video has had 164 million views online 17 million likes and 26 million sharesamp160 People want to share this content because they see themselves in it and they want others to see their storyWhat I find so extraordinary is just how much we39ve actually moved the needle on attitudes toward bias since the campaign launched in 2015amp160 Our continuous attitudinal tracking research has shown that we39ve gone from 61 percent of adults saying that they can do something to create a more inclusive environment to 74 percentamp160 And on adults agreeing that bias can lead to discrimination weamp8217ve gone from 73 to 78 percentamp160 Itamp8217s a tremendous jump in a short period of time proving that the creative is having a tangible effect on our societyNewbergeramp160 How did the campaign originate and how has it evolved Shermanamp160 The story of how this campaign came to the Ad Council makes a statement about how generous our industry really isamp160 The team at Coke was working on a diversity campaign and they came up with this idea of comparing love having no labels to products having no labels Wendy Clark who was president of sparkling brands and strategic marketing in North America at the time was moved by the idea and realized it was bigger than Coke or any individual brand so she brought it to the Ad Councilamp160 Clark is now president of DDBamp160 We then recruited RGA who turned this wonderful brand activation idea into a powerful and iconic public service campaignamp160 Today not only has Coke been involved but weamp8217ve also brought on Pepsi and PampampG and Unilever State Farm and Allstate Bank of America and Wells Fargo and Google and Johnson ampamp Johnsonamp160 All of these brand partners have been amplifying the campaign content and activating on the groundIt was truly Wendyamp8217s great insight and instinct coupled with RGAamp8217s brilliant creative team and our ability to convene major brands that has enabled Love Has No Labels to have the powerful impact it does todayamp160 Another key to this campaign was right message right time right messengeramp160 The first piece of film was shot on Valentineamp8217s Day in the middle of the national debate about marriage equalityamp160 A year later we launched another piece WeAreAmericaamp8221 on July 4th this time in the midst of a difficult election and debates about what it means to be American and to be patrioticamp160 For this one WWE Superstar John Cena was an unexpected spokesmanamp160 He allowed us to talk outside of our core supporters and outside of our own echo chamber and reach people who we hadn39t reached the first timeThis past year postelection we partnered with the NFL to launch Fans of Love turning the idea of a kisscam on its head again reaching beyond our coreamp160Newbergeramp160 The Ad Council Dinner is on November 30amp160 Can you offer a previewShermanamp160 Last year we changed the format of our Annual Dinner warmly parodied on Saturday Night Live to profile the stories of real people whoamp8217ve been in our campaigns and have been impacted by our causesamp160 Iamp8217ll put the plug inamp160 We still have a few tables left to sell and itamp8217s going to be a very moving eventamp160 And weamp8217ve got a number of brand new campaigns for the industry to support in the coming year among them LGBT acceptance teensuicide prevention and a breastcancer awareness campaign with Susan G Komen focusing on AfricanAmerican womenamp160 We have a lot of work to doThe Ad Council will be joined by Unilever Nielsen Interpublic Group and its CEO Michael Roth EY IABamp8217s iDiverse program Kay Koplovitz and Ruth Hedges as inaugural inductees into the Diversity Hall of Honors at the Advancing Diversity Honors event on January 10 at Caesaramp8217s Palace in Las Vegas from 4 to 8 pmamp160 For details on attending click hereClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

Ad Council’s Lisa Sherman and the Love Has No Labels Campaign. To Be Honored During CES.

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Kathy Newberger

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

Ad Council’s Lisa Sherman and the Love Has No Labels Campaign. To Be Honored During CES.

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Kathy Newberger

Stay in the know with more from MediaVillage

Cookies