Earlier this month, Toronto high schools were flooded with a new poster campaign by Toronto PFLAG.
Created by JWT Canada, the posters feature the LGBTQ flag marked with a series of words signifying sexual orientations and gender identities, such as “lesbian,” “trans,” and “two-spirited.”
The ads encourage students to take a flash photo of the poster with their phone – an action that reveals a second, hidden set of words. Read together, the copy is a nod to the social roles LGBTQ students play at Toronto District School Board schools, like, “gay teammate” and “trans friend.”
In a release, Toronto PFLAG president Anne Creighton explained, “We wanted to send a positive message to students that we are all more than just our gender identity and sexual orientation. Our mission is to get students talking about these things. So the novel and shareable nature of this poster was a perfect fit for our message.”
JWT senior vice-president and executive creative director Ryan Spelliscy added, “School hallways are a busy place, so trying to compete with everything else on the ways is a challenge. By taking a traditional medium like print and adding an interactive component that’s triggered by student’s phones, our message has a greater likelihood of being shared.”
Toronto PFLAG previously collaborated with JWT Canada and Shantytown on a Twitter-enabled Pride flag that moved up and down based on the sentiment of tweets – a project that went on to be shortlisted at Cannes.
Take a look at the poster in action:
