2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Since the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passed in Florida, homophobic and transphobic incidents in the U.S. skyrocketed. But in Canada, where the federal government stopped tracking anti-2SLGBTQI+ hate crimes in 2021, there was no way to convey that the 2SLGBTQI community was under attack.

Egale Canada wanted to make the rising tide of hate at home in Canada unignorable. Tangibly quantifying the impact of hate makes it possible to fight it.

Make the intangible hate the 2SLGBTQI community is facing tangible by creating a visceral symbol.

Without any official government data, Egale needed to prove the rise in hate through other means. It started with tracking every anti-2SLGBTQI+ protest in Canada, using the ‘Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project’ (ACLED). Then, using social media analytics platform Infegy Atlas, the brand scrubbed every social post from Canada against dozens of hateful terms used in conjunction with 2SLGBTQI+ terms.

Finally, the brand parsed the data to remove anything with a positive sentiment. The hateful incidents that remained were then sorted by month: January 2023 - 1,744 incidents. February 2023 - 2,127 incidents. March 2023 - 2,552 incidents. April 2023 - 3,410 incidents.

The next step was to create a visceral data visualization: A Pride flag with 6,423 missing threads – one for every act of hate against the 2SLGBTQI+ community in Canada, from just the first three months of 2023.

The stories behind these 6,423 incidents were printed and bound in a book using threads from the unravelled flag. Egale Canada sent these books to 35 Canadian government officials to lobby for action. A PDF version was made available to the public on the campaign website. The website also included safety tips and a bank of social media assets, which allowed people to make their own content to call out hate.

Finally, the campaign was shared online by three diverse voices from Canada’s 2SLGBTQI+ community: 1) Al Val (she/her), trans activist and entertainer. 2) Scarlett Bobo (they/them/she/her), drag queen, television personality, and Canada’s Drag Race star. 3) Hollywood Jade (he/him), choreographer and
Canada’s Drag Race judge.

The brand rallied a community, and a country, to take action. The government of Canada pledged $1.5 million for increased Pride event security and three months after the launch of the campaign, the released its first report on anti-2SLGBTQI+ hate in over 2 years.

The campaign received over 73 million earned media impressions and was covered in news outlets nationwide, all referencing ‘6,423 incidents of hate’.

Additionally, the campaign’s assets were downloaded over 11,500 times and were used by labour unions, schools, research centers and other advocacy organizations across the country.

Credits

Graham Lang, Chief Creative Officer, VML Canada
Allen Kwong, Executive Creative Director, VML Canada
Mike Richardson, Creative Director, VML Canada
Zachary Richman, Copywriter, VML Canada
Logan Franklin, Art Director, VML Canada
Logan Franklin, Designer, VML Canada
Valentina Fortun, Designer, VML Canada
Kyle Simpson, Designer, VML Canada
Anh Nguyen, Designer, VML Canada
Jennifer Yoon, Designer, VML Canada

Amy Delafontaine, Strategist, VML Canada
Michal Fetsum, Strategist, VML Canada
Andrew Ahern, Group Strategy Director, VML Canada
Samantha Glasbey, Account Director, VML Canada
Aaron Nilsen, PR and Communications Lead, VML Canada

Heather Hyland, Producer, VML Canada
Jonathan Lajoie, Producer, VML Canada
Andrew O'Driscoll, Retouching, VML Canada
Henry Eugenio, Print Producer, VML Canada
Jessy Stark, Digital Producer, VML Canada
William Lee, Banner Developer, VML Canada

Sparks, Photography Production Company
Regina Garcia, Photographer, Sparks

Jonathan Lajoie, Director, VML Canada

Ash Tailor-Jones, Cinematographer, Freelance

Rooster Post Production, Editorial House
Colin Murdock, Editor, Rooster Post Production

OSO Audio, Music
Fort York VFX, Online/Post
Alter Ego Post, Colour

Doris Chung, Liquid Ink, Book Binding

Rogers, Media Company

Jennifer Boyce, Egale Canada, Director of Communications
Mark Fellion, Egale Canada, Director of Development