This YouTube video from 2015 is part of a Diversity and Inclusion campaign produced by The Ad Council, a non-profit organization that creates social good campaigns.
The campaign was designed to encourage people to “reconsider the biases that we don’t even know we have” and “challenges us to open our eyes to our bias and prejudices and work to stop them in ourselves” and those around us. In the video, over the soundtrack of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s song “Same Love,” skeletons are shown dancing, kissing, and hugging on a black screen. The people who emerge from behind the screen reflect a range of identities, and stand in front of signs that say, “Love has no…” (gender, race, disability, age, and religion). Someone in the audience uses sign language. The video concludes with the people talking about their relationships and a sign that says, “Love has no labels.”

discussion

What is the message of this video? What does it mean to say “love has no labels”?

How did the Ad Council cast this video? Why did they use skeletons behind a screen? What other common or universal factors, like our skeletal structures, do all humans have, and how could you use that to your advantage?

Who do you think the intended audience for the video is? How is the public/audience important to the message the Ad Council is sending?

Do you think the way the Ad Council approached the subject of bias and prejudice is effective? Why or why not? How else would you approach someone who may have certain biases against others?