Love Has No Labels
Love Has No Labels is a campaign created and promoted by the Ad Council. The Ad Council creates public service announcements about select issues. According to the council’s website, its “think tank”, the Advisory Committee of Public Issues, determines what issues the council will put its time and resources into.
Love Has No Labels was launched in 2015. The campaign uses print, social media, television, and other forms of media platforms to display different pairings of race, gender, ethnicity, ability, and age in loving, everyday couples.
The campaign has a strong focus on race and ethnicity in expressing diversity in love. America has come a long way in its journey to accepting and embracing diverse relationship. However, it wasn’t until 1964 that the U.S. Supreme Court stated that state laws banning interracial sex violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Therefore, up until only about 50 years ago, states were still attempting to ban interracial sex. It was only 17 years ago in 2000 that Alabama became the last state to legalize interracial marriage. To put this in perspective, it was only 17 years ago that an interracial couple would need to move out-of-state to marry the spouse of their choice.
Though America has made leaps and bounds from arresting a black man for looking at a white woman incorrectly in the 1800’s to now, the stereotypes, social norms, and judgments all still remain a part of our society.
The campaign was strategic in how it promoted itself. For example, John Cena is a celebrity figure for the campaign that is married to a white woman. There is no immediate level of diversity between John Cena, a white man, and his wife. Therefore, other people with little to no diversity in their own relationships can relate to this celebrity figure. If the campaign had used a celebrity like Ellen DeGeneres, instead of John Cena, because of her own diverse relationship, then the very audience the campaign desires to target would have no one to relate to.
Another great way the campaign promoted itself was by featuring diverse couples on the “kiss cam” in the NFL Pro Bowl this past Valentine’s Day. Not only did the kiss cam show romantic interracial relationships, but the camera also featured interracial families. This took the tactic a layer deeper by showing that not only can interracial relationships be embraced, but they can also flourish create more diverse beauty in the world. Featuring these relationships on a platform as traditional as a kiss cam was a strategic move on the campaign’s part because it merges our more accepting generation with a traditional aspect of our society.
In addition to the campaign’s strategic tactics, all media for the campaign is simple, letting the featured pictures and videos do all of the talking.
It would be difficult for someone to argue that the campaign is not successful. Love Has No Labels won an Emmy for ‘Best Commercial’. The campaign started in 2015 and is still making successful moves in 2017.
Though all of these strides are strides in the right direction, accepting and embracing interracial relationships does not mean that are society has solved racism. It’s a very far cry from it. In fact, these strides can sometimes be taken as a push to make our nation colorblind. Acceptance of interracial relationships does not mean that race and ethnicity should be overlooked. Race and ethnicity should be acknowledged and embraced in interracial relationships and society in order for our society to continue to love, learn, and grow from one another.
Acceptance of interracial relationships should not be mistaken with fetishzation. For example, a man cannot say that he is open to a relationship with a Latina woman because all Latina women are sexy. Likewise, a woman cannot claim that she is open to a loving relationship with a black man because black men have larger penises.
It is also important to recognize that the Love Has No Labels campaign does not just point out the divide between whites and blacks in relationships. In fact, the campaign does more than just point out race and ethnicity differences in relationships. Love Has No Labels encourages the acceptance of all types of diversity in relationships. Society should not only embrace the relationship between a black female and a white male, but also the relationship between an Asian female and a Latina female.
Though many people in America pride themselves in being open-minded, Love Has No Labels forces every person to step back and evaluate themselves. The campaign states that 98% of a person’s thinking is done in the subconscious mind. Love Has No Labels states “Most Americans agree that people should be treated respectfully and fairly. Yet many people in the United States still report feeling discriminated against. For example, one in five LGBT people report feeling there is little or no acceptance of their community”. If every person deserves to be treated fairly, there should be no exceptions.
Not only does Love Has No Labels work hard to catch the eye and thought of society, but the campaign also provides resources for parents and caregivers to start these discussions on diversity in their homes.
