Anti-homophobia ad campaign receives major award

An anti-homophobia campaign produced in the wake of last year’s Rip & Roll gay safe-sex ad controversy has been recognised with a major award from the Public Relations Institute of Australia at a ceremony in Queensland late last week.

The Queensland State Awards for Excellence held at The Tivoli in Brisbane on August 24, saw brand communication agency Grand Brands take out the Low Cost/Pro Bono category for its Embrace Acceptance campaign which was created in partnership with goa billboards and advertising agency BCM mid-last year.

The three companies came together in June 2011 after the Australian Christian Lobby orchestrated pressure on a number of Queensland-based billboard companies, including goa billboards, to remove posters of the Rip & Roll gay safe-sex campaign from bus shelters and other outdoor advertising in Brisbane.

The first image used in the Embrace Acceptance campaign was taken from last year’s Rip & Roll poster, with the campaign also using images of other couples who supported gender and sexual diversity.

Grand Brands director of public relations and marketing, Anna Streater, said the goal of Embrace Acceptance was to create attitudinal change among the Australian community to not just tolerate same sex relationships but accept them.  by putting the issue on the agenda and encouraging the sharing of stories

“We are humbled and honoured to receive this award, because for us we were working on something we strongly believe in,” Streater said.

On the day it was launched, Embrace Acceptance was the second highest trending topic on Twitter in Sydney while its Facebook page was in the top seven in Australia the week it launched.