Date of implementation or launch:

Launch Date: February 4th, 2014

Objectives and challenges:

This campaign was created for the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion – a rights group based in Toronto. In light of the Russian anti-gay laws and the upcoming Olympics in Sochi, the CIDI wanted an engaging and sticky idea that would bring international attention to this issue. With the challenge of a limited budget and zero paid media support, Rethink had the objective of raising massive awareness around the world of the struggle for gay rights in Russia leading up to the Olympics. The strategy was to create a piece of video content and a facebook initiative that would break through the clutter and inspire engagment and support -- a targeted PR plan was put in place to get maximum reach and engagement.

Insight and concept:

In June 2013, Russia passed anti-gay propaganda laws, breaking international law and making it illegal making it illegal to hold any gay pride events or speak in defense of gay rights. The issue was a serious topic leading up to the Olympic Winter Games in Russia. They wanted to show support for the basic human rights of all people – and break through the clutter to raise massive awareness of the issue around the world. They took a light-hearted approach to a very serious topic, to show just how absurd these laws are.

Execution:

The agency needed a simple and clear idea to break through the massive Olympic clutter. They created a video entitled “Luge”. The video shows two lugers laying on top of one another, thrusting back and forth in the traditional (and suggestive) starting motion. As they take off down the track, Rethink’s message supporting gay rights appears: “The games have always been a little gay. Let’s fight to keep them that way”. From there, people could show their support by changing their Facebook profile photo to one that mimicked the pink equals symbol on a red background. The only difference was that each line of the equals symbol was a horizontal luger.

Results and impact:

Luge became one of the most talked about stories during the Olympics. It was #1 on Buzzfeed’s list of “10 Ways Canada Has Already Won The Winter Olympics”. CNN also named it one of the top 5 stories of the Olympics. The Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion’s social interaction increased by over 30,000% and the video received over 10 million views on YouTube – making it the most watched ad of 2014 in Canada. Luge garnered over a quarter billion impressions and it is estimated that total media coverage is over 5 times that amount. All of that with zero paid media support.