Are you accepting of other people? Tolerant of their difference? When it comes to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or even ability, are you free of prejudice? If you answered “yes” you’re not alone. Eighty-five percent of Americans consider themselves to be free of prejudice. Eighty-five. Now that’s a fantastic thing, but are you positive? We should recognize that, in practice, it is a lot harder to overcome bias and truly judge and love people on “the content of their character”than we may think. Although we have improved, we still have a ways to go.
The discrimination still exists is hardly news. As a nation, we see to be more divided than ever. We are a people that too often fall back on old stereotypes, that too eagerly mislead us and cling us to the safety of what’s knows and what’s changed. The stories that continue to dominate the headlines break my heart and remind me, as they should remind all of us that we are far from a prejudice free society.
Human rights and equality has been brought to the forefront of the public’s attention in recent years. Throughout the years there has been changes made, although it is mainly for equal rights within the LGBT community. We are still overcoming many prejudged ideas that happen when first seeing someone. How someone looks does affect the way people perceive him or her. It can be from a gay couple holding hands or kissing, to looking away when you see a disabled or mentally handicapped person, even making judgments based on the couples skin color, religion, or age. In the Love has no labels advertisement that Ad Council has aired on television as well as online, it focuses on these issues at hand. They draw you in and spark your interest within a thirty second clip that makes you want to see the whole thing, some have seen the whole advertisement, which was shown quite often on Facebook where if you end up watching a video they have the recommended videos that pop up underneath.
It starts off with two people behind a screen that projects them as skeletons shown to a crowd of people on the sidewalk with “Same love “ by Macklemore is playing in the background This song was an amazing song to pick for this advertisement. The song focuses on someone growing up and at first thinking they are gay because of the preconceived ideas that are associated with someone that is a homosexual. It goes on to explain that just because you have a certain sexuality doesn’t mean that the things we associate with that are true. You can be who you are without having to be ashamed of what you like and don’t like, whether or not it fits into the stereotype. They then continue into how people need to realize that this isn’t always a life choice and there is no need for anyone to make you feel ashamed and you can’t change who you are. Further in the song he goes on to talk about the slurs that are used and how it makes sense to feel like you are hated when you don’t fit into the social normal and you don’t have to apologize for yourself or for who you end up loving. After the skeletons dance, hug, kiss, wave, or are just plain goofy they come around from the back. It is meant at first to be as a shock value and changes to show people that when it comes down to it, we are all the same inside and all deserve the same treatment and opportunity to get to be known before making any judgments.
After they come out they hug and kiss again which it later shows the crowd starting to clap for them. At the end of the commercial it shows a box pop up on the screen next to them that says, “Love has no gender” and you hear them say, “Love is love” as they hug and look at the screen.
After that it shows two people dancing behind the screen that again you cannot see. When they come out it is an African-American woman and an Asian-American man come out from behind. They come out with big smiles on their face and then he passionately kisses her. The people in the audience start to cheer and clap with big smiles on their face. You can start to see that people are catching on to what is going on and they look forward to what is next to come. When it cuts to the couple again it shows a box next to them that says, “Love has no race” to which you hear them say, “ My heart doesn’t see race”.
The final pair is two smaller skeletons dancing who when they come around the corner it is a little girl and her mentally handicapped sister. She gives her sister a hug while holding her hand and it shows the crowd with big smiles on their faces clapping for the little girls. When it shows the box next to them it says, “Love has no disability” with the little girl saying, “I love my sister”.
The main point that it seems like they are trying to get across is we are all the same when it comes down to it. Once the outside that tells us apart is gone, you can’t tell one person from another, we all have the same bones and internal organs. With minimal talking in the commercial it lets you focus on the people and all the reactions that are going on. Seeing people’s reactions show that they might be surprised but that doesn’t change anything in the long run they still seem to find everyone adorable and happy for them. We are all humans and need to realize this before being quick to judge or saying something that is hurtful with or without knowing such things have been said.
On June 26, 2015 the supreme court granted same sex couples a constitutional right to marry. The 5-4 decision legalized gay marriage nationwide, including in the 14 states that did not allow gays and lesbians to wed one another. Public support has grown rapidly over the past decade, in 2007, Americans opposed legalizing same sex marriage by a margin of 54% to 37%. Although support has increased across the board, demographic divides over the same sex marriage remain, today 85% of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated favor same sex marriage, as do 68% of white mainline. Same sex marriages are on the rise that about one in ten LGBT Americans are married to a same sex partner.
They rely on an appeal to pathos throughout this advertisement. By not talking, it lets you listen to the music which is a major way to affect people’s moods. This song is slow and is mellow enough to make you feel good and happy. They then go on to use the visuals of showing you people having fun behind a screen as well as the audience, once they are aware of what is going on, smiling looking happy while clapping for all the people. It shows that all of these people have amazing people in their life and they did not start off with preconceived notions of the other person and based it on the character of the person within. We can’t help who we love, the color of our skin, or what we may be born with, but we can help to restore compassion and acceptance to everyone we see and meet.
This ad does a very good job of explain to you that it is for human rights and that love never judges and can hopefully concur all. It goes to show that there is still good in the world and that we need to realize we are all in this together and not see ourselves so different. When in the end we are all here for the same reasons and all have goals that we want to accomplish. If we work together and can overlook silly things that do not even matter then we can move forward in society and focus on making the world better as a whole. That someday your children or friends you know won’t be judged and mistreated just because they are gay or are in a biracial relationship. These things should not be important and it shows that those details that you don’t see when you take away the surface don’t matter anymore. It helps shed light on using terms like, that gay couple over there, look at that cougar, or this Mexican person did this yet not saying this white person did that just referring to them as person. It shows that we might not realize it but we could possibly be offending people and should try to think before we say things like that. The advertisement even gives you their website at the end that lets you view the whole 3:50 minute advertisement and gives you backstories on people and how they have felt mistreated whether it be on purpose or accident. It goes on to try to help show you what you say or do can be offense. Then end goal is to get people to realize we are all in this together and need to look out for each other instead of finding ways to divide.
In conclusion it needs to be noted, before this can happen though we have to see the changes here in the United States, once we can come together as a whole united front and lead by example, maybe then we can start to help other parts of the world realize the same thing. We are all humans who can’t help who we love, but in the end we all deserve love and happiness. In the end we all have to remember love has no labels.
“Love Has No Labels.” Love Has No Labels, The Ad Council, lovehasnolabels.com/.
This website is the main source of the campaign “Love Has No Labels”. It also provides all of their supports, sponsors and followers. The meaning of this video was clearly expressed and easy to find in this website. It helped understand the campaign they have.
“’Love Has No Labels’ Video Aims to Address Our Inherent Biases.” PEOPLE.com, people.com/celebrity/love-has-no-labels-ad-council-video-goes-viral/.
PEOPLE.com really narrowed down the viewers reactions and popularity of this video as well as the impact it made and the movement it is for. It talks about the diversity in our country and generation and how the video should be treated as a wake up call and inform us on what we have turned into.
Nudd. “The Ad Council and R/GA’s ‘Love Has No Labels’ Wins the Emmy for Best Commercial.” – Adweek, Adweek, 12 Sept. 2016, www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/ad-council-and-rgas-love-has-no-labels-wins-emmy-best-commercial-173437/.
The ad council provided the credibility of this video and the awards it has received such as a grammy. With the popularity and how viral the video got in just a matter of 48 hours it was well deserved as this PSA showed a great amount of diversity.
Laporte, John. “Topic: Homosexuality.” Www.statista.com, www.statista.com/topics/1249/homosexuality/.
This website provides information all throughout the nation on the rise of same sex marriage since legalization through the supreme court as well as statistics on public opinion.
“Gay Marriage Statistics .” Statistic Brain, www.statisticbrain.com/gay-marriage-statistics/.
Statistic brain provides a neutral opinion and statistics on the topic of same sex marriage and those that agree and disagree as well as different scenarios of statistics.
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