Title	THEIR STORY IS MY STORY
Brand	URGENCE HOMOPHOBIE
Product/Service	MUSIC VIDEO
Category	A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
Entrant	FF PARIS, FRANCE
Idea Creation	FF PARIS, FRANCE
Production	COUSINES ET DEPENDANCES Paris, FRANCE

Name	Company	Position
Guillaume Mélanie	Urgence Homophobie	Brand Manager
Benjamin Gauthier	Urgence Homophobie	Brand Manager
Fred & Farid Fred & Farid	FF	Founders / CEO
Olivier Lefebvre	FF	CEO - Partner
Etienne Renaux	FF	Creative Director
Julien-Pierre Mallet	FF	Creative Director
Anthony Bober	FF	Art Director
Anthony Bober	FF	Copywriter
Anthony Bober	FF	Lead Social Media
Benoît Pétré	Cousines et Dépendances	Music Video Director
Juliette Maillard	Cousines et Dépendances	Second Unit Director
Patxi Garat	Cousines et Dépendances	Music Composer
Clément Duquenne	Cousines et Dépendances	Photographer
Marie Etchegoyen	Cousines et Dépendances	Executive Producer
Yann Girard	Cousines et Dépendances	Executive Producer
Marine Dufour	Cousines et Dépendances	Project Manager

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The central goal of of this project is to raise awareness about the increasing LGBTQ+ assaults in France for Urgence Homophobie. We collaborated with 70 french celebrities including singers, actors, tv animators, politicians (etc) to create a music video, viral content and an anthem against homophobia on social media to put the topic at the center of media attention.

Background

In France, acts of violence against LGBT people increased by 15% in 2018. That's about one attack every 33h. How can we alert public opinion on the urgency to act and react against the rise of homophobia in France?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Whenever something happens to a celebrity, everyone talks about it. So we decided to leverage celebrities and their communities to alert public opinion by having them share on their social platforms testimonies of assaults against LGBT people using the first person singular with the hashtag #TheirStoryMyStory.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

People love to see star power and celebrities showing off their fancy lifestyles on social media. To target a wide audience that is not necessarily engaged by the LGBTQ+’s cause and alert public opinion on the urgency to act against the rise of homophobia, we decided to leverage the influential power of celebrities by having them share on their social platforms testimonies of assaults against LGBTQ+ people. For the campaign to become viral we made them post these stories as if it were their own by using the first person singular.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

We collected, during a month, more than 300 genuine testimonials of homophobic attacks to create this campaign from a real background. All the stories collected have then been rewritten to fit in 280 characters. On December the 18th, 70 French celebrities shared on their social platforms testimonies of assaults against LGBT people using the first person singular along with the hashtag #TheirStoryMyStory. Immediately, their fans and medias picked up and related the assaults. The next day, with a music video they all featured in, the celebrities revealed that those stories weren't their own but those of LGBT people who had been assaulted. The hashtag #TheirStoryMyStory launched a movement on twitter enabling victims to express themselves without fear of reprisal.

List the results (30% of vote)

All the participants of this project were volunteers: celebrities, production & technical teams, and the creative agency. The campaign had so much impact that news channels, tabloïds and digital newspapers talked about it. It generated more than 972 million media impressions and 100k engagement without any media investment. The mayor of Paris shared the campaign on her Twitter account to praise the initiative. Thanks to the campaign, two deputies of the government received the president of the association to create a law project to fight against homophobia. The song "Some Love" was ranked 2nd before Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” in France’s iTunes store on the day it was released. On twitter, #TheirStoryMyStory was trending for 48hours, it became a movement and helped the LGBT community find their voice as they started sharing their own testimonies on social networks. All over the world the LGBT community welcomed the initiative and compared #TheirStoryMyStory to #MeToo and MeQueer .