WE, THE LOVER

TitleWE, THE LOVER
BrandSANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE
Product/ServiceSEXUAL HEALTH
Category B02. Non-profit / Foundation-led Education & Awareness
Entrant BABEL Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation BABEL Paris, FRANCE
Production CAVIAR Paris, FRANCE
Post Production FIRM STUDIO Paris, FRANCE
Post Production 2 CIRCONFLEX Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
LAURENT NUYEN BABEL CREATIVE DIRECTOR
JEAN-LAURENT PY BABEL CREATIVE DIRECTOR
LOUIS GRZESKOWIAK BABEL ART DIRECTOR
CEDRIC HAMELIN BABEL COPYWRITER
JEANNE HALFON BABEL Head of TV prod
ORIANA BERZIG BABEL AGENCY PRODUCER
ERIC ZAJDERMANN BABEL PARTNER
NICOLAS KABASSAKALIS BABEL BRAND DIRECTOR
HAPSA DIA BABEL ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
LAURA DELBOURGO BABEL BRAND MANAGER
COLINE MOREAU BABEL BRAND MANAGER
JULIE ESPALIOUX BABEL PARTNER
CELINE MOUQUET BABEL HEAD OF SOCIAL MEDIA
LUCY LUSCOMBE CAVIAR DIRECTOR
MACIEK POZOGA FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
CLAUDINE TANGUY SANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE Head of Prevention and Health Promotion Department
NATHALIE LYDIÉ SANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE Head of Sexual Health Unit
LUCILE BLUZAT SANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE Communication manager
NICOLAS ETIEN SANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE Communication manager

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

This campaign aims to implement structural society change, and to move toward acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. We tried to represent multiple point of views across available media: · the film portrays LGBTQ+ love · the straightforward key visuals – print and digital - address their relatives · the podcasts present long testimonies of relatives that successfully took the path toward acceptance On top of those, we decided to go mainstream with the message. We formed a partnership with the national TV show The Voice, for them to carry the campaign baseline and sing the campaign song to a greater audience.

Background

While society seems to be moving toward acceptance, its members still perpetuate strong discriminations against the LGBTQ+ community. 1,870 people were victims of homophobic or transphobic offenses in 2019, mainly insults or assault, which represents an increase of 36% compared to the year before, according to French government. In addition, due to quarantine, many young LGBTQ+ persons faced violence at home or saw their mental health degraded. This film emphasizes the discrepancies within the society on this matter and aims at enhancing positive changes in problematic behaviours. This campaign is the first major public statement in favour of the LGBTQ+ community carried by the French government.

Describe the creative idea

The campaign objective was to foster LGBTQ+ integration into the society. As we investigated the subject, we realized that society seemed to be moving toward acceptance. The extreme signs of violence, of discrimination that we saw reminded us that the change was in motion. That is why, instead of coming up with an injunctive campaign, about laws and penalties, we decided to encourage positive behaviors : living your LGBTQ+ love in the open (film), supporting your loved ones in their struggle and daily life whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity is (key visuals), or admitting that the path toward acceptance can be as rough as it is essential to reach happiness. “We, the lovers” aims at being a mainstream campaign that does not corner LGBTQ+ people for what they are but chooses to deconstruct the social standard by pointing at unacceptable behavior from outside of the community.

Describe the strategy

Surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and discriminations we had to address different types of targets with specific messages. First, people of the LGBTQ+ community to represent them through the film “We, the lovers”. To do so, we worked with LGBTQ+ associations to convey the right message and avoid all types of missteps. Then, we aimed at their loved ones as they are the ones who must make a change to assure the safety of the LGBTQ+ community. To do so, we decided to address them in both prints and podcasts. While the prints show moments of tenderness; the podcasts deliver testimonies of people who tell their path toward acceptance. In addition, we used the song “Us, the lovers” to carry our message in one of the biggest TV shows of the country: The Voice. We made a special showcase about love and acceptance to go at the encounter of the general public.

Describe the execution

The film's conception focused on a desire for authenticity regarding the daily life of LGBTQ+ people, as reflected in the choice of an open casting call. We shot the 14 scenes and the 5 key visuals in October 2020. 2021 marked the beginning of the post-production but also of the campaign outreach strategy. We launched the podcasts to pull the thread of the campaign surrounding acceptance of LGBTQ+’s relatives. Meanwhile, we started the deal with The Voice as part of the PR outreach of the campaign to put a focus on the song “We the lovers”. As the media strategy was global - using TV, VOL, press, prints and podcasts - we had to adapt the creation to fit on those multiple supports. For instance, the film was declined in various formats to match media distribution and to focus on some of the issues portrayed in “We, the lovers”.

List the results

As we are reaching structural changes within society, it is hard to quantify in the short term the concrete impact of the campaign. Nonetheless, it was a historic campaign in which a public institution took position on a major and cleaving social issue. The first numbers surrounding the campaign’s release are showing a great success : 60 press coverage on the day of the campaign's release 350 000 views of Santé publique France posts related to the campaign and the showcase +1 300 000 listenings of the podcasts mediatize posts Almost 15 millions views of the film on VOL In addition, according to Santé publique France socials post-tests carried by BVA Institute “60% of the people surveyed said they were encouraged to take action against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender thanks to this campaign”.