“Love Deserves Respect” Campaign: The portrayal of ethnic minorities in advertising

The first piece of advertising that I saw in Berlin was a billboard of two men, one of Middle Eastern features and the other of white descent, kissing outside of our hostel. Since I was aware of the fact that Berlin’s gay population was standing at approximately 300,000 making the Capital the third largest in Europe (1), seeing this was not shocking to me, on the contrary, I was excited to see such an expressive poster. Although the copy was not in English, this billboard symbolized all that Europe stands for when it comes to openness, freedom of speech and existence. Little did I know this poster was a part of an ongoing campaign to promote the respect of different sexual preferences amongst all ethnicities living in Berlin. To my surprise, this was one of the only advertisings I saw that also targeted minority groups living in Germany.



Discussion:
The “Love Deserves Respect” campaign was started in Vienna where discrimination against gay and lesbians was so intolerable that the rate of attempted suicide among homosexuals in Austria had risen seven times higher than among heterosexuals (2). This campaign, targeted at the residents of Vienna, was transferred to Berlin and thus became an international campaign. Due to the fact that there were no language barriers, the campaign kept the same exact advertising with same images and copy in German, Turkish, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. Although it was targeting two different markets that are different in many aspects, the showing of three couples, gay, lesbian, and heterosexual kissing in public appeared to be influential to both Berliners and residents of Vienna.

Highlights:
- Posters were put up primarily in schools, youth centers and other youth institutions.
- The choice of background, in public scenarios, was deliberate as kissing in public was often the presumed cause of violence.
- This campaign was transferred from Vienna to Berlin reaching both natives and immigrants through three languages and a variety of images.
- It was based completely on three images and the rest was done through programs targeted to the young and upcoming generations.

Check out: http://www.zeig-respekt.de/

Source:
1. http://www.visitberlin.de/english/zielgruppen/e_zg_gay_geschichte.php
2. http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/14519