The Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) is tackling homophobia in sports reporting with a new campaign mocking the focus reporters put on athletes’ sexual orientation.
Saatchi & Saatchi re-dubbed a series of sports clips for the pro bono campaign, creating faux TV broadcasts in which the hosts refer to athletes as “the gay guy,” “the homosexual” or “the lesbian” rather than using their names.
Brian Sheppard, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi, explained the ads were designed to point out the unnecessary emphasis that’s put on LGBTQ athletes. “If there’s a gay athlete who’s out, the media makes a point [of saying] he’s a gay athlete. Nobody ever says, ‘Oh, that’s a straight athlete,'” Sheppard said. “That occurs in professional sports, right down to schoolyard sports.”
CCGSD sports inclusion coordinator David Couturier said the organization decided to tackle homophobia in the sports world after learning many LGBTQ people refrained from getting involved in sports for fear of bullying or persecution. While the campaign’s topic is serious, he said the group wanted to approach it using humour, which led to the tongue-in-cheek ads.
The series of four spots were released earlier this week online and will be airing on specialty channels, including OutTV and TSN. Print ads are set to launch during a later phase of the campaign this fall. According to Sheppard, the CCGSD decided to launch the campaign after the Olympics rather than during the Games to avoid a crowded media environment.
Beyond awareness, the campaign is promoting the CCGSD’s workshops. The ads direct viewers to the group’s site, where coaches and trainers in Ontario can sign up for free workshops that arm them with the skills they need to combat homophobia and transphobia.
Saatchi & Saatchi previously collaborated with the CCGSD on “The Gay Sweater,” a marketing stunt that saw the agency create a sweater out of LGBTQ people’s actual hair in an effort to stop people from using the word “gay” as a derogatory descriptor. The Gay Sweater went on to win Gold at the 2016 Marketing Awards.
The campaign is also reminiscent of two recent efforts — one by John St. that pointed out the gendered way sports reporters treat female athletes, and Dove’s “Have Your Say” campaign that pulled comments from gendered sports reports in real-time and displayed them on the brand’s OOH ads.
