Kiss the Kremlin
Ssex Bbox
Issue 44 | September 2017
Agency
DM9DDB
Creative Team
Nizan Guanaes, Aricio Fortes, Eduardo Battiston, Paulo Coelho, Adriano Alarcon, Gonzalo Ricca, Carlos Schleder, Hélio Máffia, Leandro Vilas Boas
Production Team
Pedro Bueno, Rodrigo Luchini, Joca Guanaes, Leandro Nichida, Panela Daniel Gali, Filipe Trielli, David Mazzuca, João Janjão Vasconcelos, Jonathas Joba, Chandra Lima
Other Credits
Marcelo Passos, Luciana Leal, Paula Bezerra
Date
May 2017
Background
In Russia, the LGBTQ community was threatened with violence and prison. Any sort of gay parade was banned for 100 years.
When protestors took to the streets to demonstrate against the incarceration in concentration camps of homosexuals in Chechnya, 18 people were arrested.
Even the 'Gay Clown' meme of President Putin wearing lipstick was censored.
If LGBTQ sympathizers wanted to protest, how could they in a place where dissenters were placed at considerable risk?
Idea
The LGBTQ community was invited to post photos of themselves kissing. Then all they had to do was set the photos' location at the Kremlin in Moscow, and use the hashtag #kiss4LGBTQrights.
It was a new way to use Instagram's "Add Location" tool and it allowed the LGBTQ population to protest in Russia despite being prohibited from doing so.
Whenever people searched for Moscow in Instagram, they were served thousands of pictures of embracing couples.
Results
The idea spread quickly and thousands of people from 68 different countries participated. Overall, the photos impacted more than 58 million people on Instagram. News of the global kiss-in came to more than US$ 13.2 million dollars in media value, even catching attention at the United Nations. It also created a new tool for cyber-activism. Now, any cause, anywhere in the world, can use Instagram to protest safely, even where freedom of expression is restricted.
Our Thoughts
In my book (shameless plug here), How To Use Innovation & Creativity In The Workplace, I define an innovation as an extension to an existing idea, which people are prepared to pay for.
Marketers who are at the sharp end of commercial reality are often reluctant to innovate because there is no proof that the innovation will work.
NGOs and charities, on the other hand, often feel they have nothing to lose and are more experimental.
In this instance, it is true that a consumer brand would probably incite outrage if it hijacked a new Instagram feature such as this one but, for the warrior marketer, there have never been so many opportunities to be a first-time mover.