Virgin Mobile is marking WorldPride Toronto 2014 with a campaign to “spread the love” on its website, through video and by plastering new posters across Yonge Dundas Square in support of the LGBTQ community.
The often cheeky mobile brand, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson and operated in Canada by Bell, says bench wraps, street-side inventory and subway window clings have been updated across the downtown Toronto landmark with messages like “Love is Love,” “Loud & Proud,” “Come Out & Play” and “Love Always Wins.”
Virgin Mobile has participated in Toronto’s Pride Parade in previous years, but wanted to do something different this year, says Sheryl Davey Kerametlian, the company’s Toronto-based associate director of public relations and social media.
“We leveraged our sponsorship of Yonge and Dundas Square by re-branding all of our ad space with messages of love,” she says. “This was our way of sharing something positive to the community and celebrate World Pride.”
The company also revamped its webpage VirginMobile.ca, updating it with information about why the company believes it’s important to celebrate the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning) community.
VirginMobile.ca
It points out that LGBTQ are disproportionately represented among homeless youth, and that discrimination is one factor that may force youth to live on the streets.
The advertising creative and website changes will be live until the end of Toronto’s World Pride on June 29.
The company also created Virgin Mobile RE*Generation, which it says supports at-risk and homeless youth in Canada. It created a video for the #NotAChoice campaign that supports LGTBQ homeless youth.
