The Ad Council’s advertising campaign, “Love Has No Labels”, won the award for the Most Outstanding Commercial at the 2016 Emmy Awards, at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards Show on September 10. The integrated Love Has No Labels campaign was designed to challenge bias relating to sexual orientation, gender, race, age, disability and religion. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Selma March (March 7-25, 1965), the Emmys Outstanding Commercial 2016 was filmed at a live event in Santa Monica on Valentine’s Day 2015. A large x-ray screen is turned on to reveal two skeletons embracing and dancing. As the skeletons separate and walk out from behind the screen, the audience discovers who they really are. This reveal happens a number of times, each with a new set of skeletons highlighting different pairings of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, ability and age to challenge the viewers’ expectation and encourage them to take a closer look at their own implicit bias.

Since the Love Has No Labels video debuted exclusively on Upworthy, it has been viewed over 160 million times making it the 2nd most viewed social and community activism video of all time. As a result, there have been over 4 million sessions on lovehasnolabels.com, where visitors are offered a quiz to examine their own biases. Additionally, more adults report discussing discrimination and prejudice and saying that they are regularly accepting and inclusive of others, according to a recent survey commissioned by the Ad Council and conducted by Ipsos, Public Affairs. To date, the campaign has received over $40 million in donated media.

Love Has No Labels – Ad Council
R/GA, Ad Agency
Persuade & Influence / Mindride, Production Company

Other Emmys Outstanding Commercial 2016 Nominations

Also nominated for the 2016 Emmys Most Outstanding Commercial were “Dear Peyton” (Gatorade & NFL), “Marilyn” (Snickers), “Paper” (Honda), “Year in Search 2015” (Google).

Dear Peyton – Gatorade
TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, Ad Agency
Smuggler, Production Company

Marilyn – Snickers
BBDO New York, Ad Agency
O Positive, Production Company

Paper – Honda
RPA, Ad Agency
RESET, Production Company

Year In Search 2015 – Google
72andSunny, Ad Agency
Hecho en 72, Production Company