TOW #14 - Video: Love Has No Labels

Set to the tune of Macklemore's "Same Love", this video explores the boundaries society has learned to set with love.  In front of a crowd of people on Valentines Day in 2015, the "Love Has No Labels" campaign set up a screen in the middle of a crowded street and had various couples, families, and friends stand behind the screen.  Only visible at first were the skeletons of these people, showing love in its most basic and human form.  After a few seconds the pair or threesome would step from behind the screen and reveal their identities.  First, a lesbian couple.  Then one after the other came various religions, disabilities, ages and genders, proving that in fact, love has no labels.  The video has over fifty-six million views, and the campaign is expanding greatly.  The purpose of the video is to juxtapose our assumptions of who will step out verses who will actually step out from behind the screen.   The video is effective because of its use of reversal in tricking the audience into making a stereotypical inference, and then being completely surprised. Once the first pair steps out from behind the screen, the rest of the video is spent tugging at our heartstrings, and forcing an understanding of the video's overall message.  The real-life love shown by the pairs behind the screen completes the campaign's message, and is truly and undeniably real.  The campaign is effective because of how it plays off of the stereotypes that we have about love.  In this day and age, the steps being taken towards legalizing all kinds of love have been great, but it is the change in culture that comes next.  Seeing these various kinds of love from all walks of life shows the strength in a future of acceptance and trust.  The crowd's reaction was one of bursting affection and understanding.  People were cheering, clapping, hugging each other, waving, and smiling from ear to ear.  The participants on stage could be seen completely relieved at the crowd's reaction, and this relief proved the adversity that these people have gone through to prove their love is just as legitimate and real as anyone else's.  The "Love Has No Labels" campaign was one-hundred percent effective in their purpose, and likely got an even greater reaction than they had originally hoped for.