Finally, a viral video that didn’t lie to us!
Earlier this week, The Ad Council released a YouTube video called "Love Has No Labels." It quickly went viral, and after three days just the YouTube version of the video had amassed over 26 million views. Upworthy uploaded the video to their own Facebook page and pulled in another 38 million views. It's safe to say the video went everywhere.
The viral video, though, is yet another in a long line of viral stunts meant to tug at heartstrings, raise awareness of some ambiguous social injustice, and maybe not-so-secretly promote a brand. Except, possibly for the first time, the team behind the video put the message — and more importantly, its subjects — first.
"Love Has No Labels" might be the first of this kind of video to actually get it right. It wasn't done by some teenage YouTube star as "social experiment." It wasn't created by some home-brewed digital marketing firm. It didn't secretly use actors. And if you wanted to learn what brands sponsored the video you would have to click through to the Ad Council's Love Has No Labels website and then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.
The actual video, the one that has been probably viewed around 50 million times since Tuesday, is a stand alone, feel good video. And that's important.
Chris Northam and Eric Jannon are the masterminds behind "Love Have No Labels." The duo work as executive Creative Directors for R/GA, ad advertising agency based in New York. They told BuzzFeed News that when they were putting together the concept of the video they wanted it to be as real as viewers would want it to be.
"When you watch the thing you just want to truly believe the love," Jannon said in a thick French accent. "So it has to be true."
Northam, his Australian counterpart, echoed those same concerns. He said they hired a production company to find real sisters, real couples, and real friends. As for the audience you see in the video, Northam and Jannon admitted to dropping in a few casted audience members.
"Just to help invite an audience forward," Northam said. "We had hundreds of people coming past at any given moment. What you see on the screen was pretty arresting, so we had so many people filling up."
In fact, their premise was so arresting that they started getting audience members during a tech rehearsal the night before. Northam recalls that as they were putting the finishing touches on the technology that allowed their screen to simulate an X-ray, a couple walked by and started watching.
The couple you see doing sign language in the video decided to come back the next day and put their trip to Disney Land on hold so they could watch the real deal. "A male gay couple came past and started asking about the production and of course we told them all about it and they actually put their holiday on hold ," Northam said.
