Ads, or advertisements, as we all know is to persuade people to buy a certain product and well, to advertise the product and its content that set it aside from other competitors. Sometimes, these advertisements show representation for the oppressed (e.g. people of colour, the LGBTs, and persons with disability) which may or may not be a capitalistic move.
Close Up, a toothpaste brand here in the Philippines (I don’t know if it is in other countries), launched a campaign called #FreeToLove, a set of advertisements that features couples that has to face discrimination. Out of 5 advertisements videos, three features LGBT couples. While the other half, shows a couple which faces the hardship of being in a young-old relationship, and lastly, a world when two different races come together. These advertisements merged stories from countries such as: Philippines, Brazil, and India.
Before launching this campaign, I am extremely surprised to see data, a quantitative study, done by Close Up, the company itself. It is kind of a rare event to happen because most companies base datas from other researchers and in their studies, it shows percentages and statistics about things such as: feeling freedom to love, being in an “unconventional” relationship, barriers to openly come out of the closet or to address the relationship itself in all ages but mostly in teens.
However, sometimes people don’t bite into a movement because of the capitalism and hunger for power. People complain that maybe, just maybe, it is a false hope again. To give you a view of these, let me express something similar with these situations: (1) Some companies curate products LGBT related when it is pride month to boost their sales however, they don’t represent and truly respect LGBT people. (2) In the film industry, just like in Harry Potter’s (as I have read and is still discussed in different forums), it is said that the character Hermione Granger was supposed to be black however, was changed to white, to also, boost their sales and promote white supremacy.
I still have a long way to decide which certain companies to support but I am extremely against using people or a group of people to further expand dominance in the market. I would like to know yours, do you think that the situations I cited were rumours or some of these holds the truth?
It is said, you are #FreeToLove but most importantly, you are #FreeToChoose. Keep this a heads-up! See you in the next one!
I first saw the ads while i was browsing youtube and BOY!! I admire Close-Up with their idea of bringing up this topic, and using it on their platform to promote #FreeToLove. I think its really a great idea and it made me (a part of lgbtq) more comfortable on going out, i i hope more people would be more open to things like this!! Its such a fun ad i never hit SKIP :p
Seeing this ad over Philippine radio / television is a clear indication that we are slowly but surely accepting the existence of such relationships; in a country seemed as traditional and conservative.
Kudos to Unilever Philippines, makers of close up toothpaste for this.