PINK TRIANGLE

TitlePINK TRIANGLE
BrandVANGARDIST MAGAZINE
Product/ServiceLGBT CAUSE
Category B04. Business Citizenship / Corporate Responsibility & Environmental
Entrant SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation 2 SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Idea Creation 3 PLAN.NET Munich, GERMANY
PR SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Production SERVICEPLAN FRANCE Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Dimitri Guerassimov Serviceplan France Chief Creative Officer
Fabien Teichner Serviceplan France Chief Creative Officer
Damien Veillet Serviceplan France Copywriter
Frédérique Auvitu Mediaplus France Media Nuying
Julia Meinetsberger Serviceplan Group Account
Leo Thielemann Serviceplan Group Account
Christoph Everke Serviceplan Group Creative Director
Alexander Nagel Serviceplan Group Creative Director
Rafael Angulo Serviceplan Group Art Director
Nedim Aktas Serviceplan Group Copywriter

Why is this work relevant for PR?

This campaign generated unhoped-for results. In one week only, the topic of the homophobia was relieved in the main national French media: TV, Press, radio achieving a reach of 371.655.691 potentials visitors (source ACPM / Alliance for press and the media figures). It also aroused lots of mediatized debates between people founding the campaign shocking and those who were convinced of its legitimacy.

Background

In a time when LGBTQI communities (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex) can evolve almost everywhere freely, the fact that they face persecution, imprisonment, torture or death in more than 70 countries* around the world is rarely reported by the media (*including; Chechnya, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Sudan, and Uganda). The Austrian magazine Vangardist decided to denounce the plague of the homophobia which persists in numerous countries, with raising awareness operation of international scale: "The Pink Triangle". Pink Triangle France is the latest stage in a continuing international campaign to #EndHomophobia with a petition imploring the United Nations to abolish homophobic laws: https://pinktriangleissue.com

Describe the creative idea

As the client explained “In France, we decided to show posters with unpleasant text lines that are difficult to digest. We know that they aren't made for easy reading, but this is the only way to emphasize the troubles faced by LGBTQI+ communities in Homophobic countries. But unfortunately this is the reality for many in the LGBTQi+ community, who are deeply troubled by news reports of persecution around the world. Because the situation in some homophobic countries is not always reported by the media, it’s not common knowledge how critical the situation really is.” As a result of this, we created an hard-hitting Billboard Campaign which headlines enlighten realities recently revealed in two articles : Homosexuality is still considered as a crime in more than 70 countries : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/27/gay-relationships-still-criminalised-countries-report In Jamaica, women are submitted to collective rapes to cure them to be lesbian : http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/corrective-rape-first-person-6626

Describe the strategy

We created posters with hard-hitting headlines underlining the little known fact that homosexuality is a crime in 72 countries, some of them just a 3-hours-flight away from us; another is additionally citing a news report about women in Jamaica being subjected to gang rape to ‘cure’ them of being Lesbians. To reveal our message to the widest public, and not only to passers-by in the street, we had to create a campaign with great organic distribution potential. This is why we chose to deliver a strong message with powerful words.

Describe the execution

To guarantee the impact of the message, we chose a white typography on a black background. We wanted to reveal this brutal reality in as brutal a way. Down the posters, the public is invited to sign the Pink Triangle Issue petition which appeals to UN Secretary-General António Guterres to add the rights of LGBTQI+ persons to Article 2 of the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. In Jamaica, women are submitted to collective rapes to cure them to be lesbian : http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/corrective-rape-first-person-6626

List the results

From the first day of appearance, the campaign and the subject of the homophobia became among the subjects the most relieved in the media. It became quickly a topical subject of debates in the main national media, press, tv and Frenchs radio channels : France Info, planet.fr, Glamour, Le Parisien, La Provence, RTL, Actu.fr, Le Point, Huffingtonpost, Atlantico, Égalité & Concilliation, BFM, CB News, La dépêche, Têtu, Terrafemina, Lamontagne.fr, Ouest-France, Néon, M6 (le 19.45), Sud-Ouest, Le télégramme, Arte (France TV), Pulpe, Le Dauphiné, Komitid...