In a time of division and partisan bitterness, love is what we need right now.
That was the overarching message in new a new campaign from The Love Project which has enlisted Lady Gaga, Ellen DeGeneres and ally Pharrell Williams to share what love means.
The spot – a collaboration with makeup giant Revlon – was created to benefit charities like The Born This Way Foundation, The Trevor Project, From One Hand to AnOTHER and The Women’s Heart Alliance.
Gaga co-founded the nonprofit Born This Way Foundation in 2011 along with her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, with a stated mission of “empowering youth” and “inspiring bravery” through kindness, sharing resources on mental wellness and creating a positive climate in schools.
the more love we put out there, the more the benefits multiply for all of us… It’s why The Love Project’s mission is to grow more love in the world by asking you to share you #Lovein3Words.”
There are lots of people in this world who don’t support same-sex marriages or civil partnerships. They don’t want same-sex couples to experience the nerves leading up to the proposal itself, the way the heart shudders against the chest as the proposer waits for their partner’s reply, nor do they want them to experience the beautiful moment when they both say ‘I do’ and get married for real.
Beverage makers Absolut (of Absolut Vodka) want to change some hearts and minds, which is why they’ve put together their #LoveIsLove campaign to show people that regardless of your gender, love really is just love. It’s also why the company teamed up with lesbian filmmaker Molly Schiot to help a woman named Paige propose to her girlfriend Amanda in scenes that will absolutely make you cry.
To pull off what could possibly be the sweetest proposal of all time, Paige and the Absolut team first had to convince Amanda that her and Paige were part of a documentary about LGBT relationships. Then, they took the two of them two the beach where they had their first date, with Paige having set up a whole host of extra surprises leading up to the Big Question.
Schiot explains what it was like to work with the couple:
The proposal had to be kept secret from Amanda for the entire span of production to keep the proposal authentic. Paige and I had to have code words and met secretly to create this. I was caught up in a very stressful web of lies but in the end when Amanda said ‘Yes,’ I could take a breath, and that night I think I slept deeper than I ever had.
These two beings are so kind and genuine and I truly believe that listening to them and seeing how supportive they are of one another, can open up minds, even if it is just a little. Paige is from a state that does not support gay marriage, so I know this piece was especially important to her.
It’s like what Ruth Bader Ginsburg said: ‘In recent years, people have said, “This is the way I am,” and others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbour — we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that “This is who I am,” the rest of us recognised that they are one of us.’ Ruth is right.”
Schiot also added that she too would like to warm the hearts of “non-supporters or on-the-fencers” and help them understand that love is love. Judging by the reaction to the video already and the amount of people who are talking about it, we think that Schiot and Absolut have definitely achieved their goal.
The One Billion Rising campaign is encouraging people around the globe to rise up to end violence against women, by taking to the streets and dancing in solidarity for women’s rights. The idea behind it is both simple and fantastically ambitious.
The campaign spearheaded by Vagina Monologues playwrite Eve Ensler, who suffered abuse from her father as a child. She says her life might have been different had pepole been dancing in the streets for women’s rights back then.
“If I had been dancing in the streets with my mother to end violence against women when I was eight years old — when my father was beating me or giving me bloody noses — I think I would have told him he didn’t have a right to do that. That’s what coming together as a community does — you realize there’s a billion of us! We’re not alone. “
Eve Ensler
According to UN figures, one in three women on the planet will be beaten or sexually assaulted. That works out at one billion women.
The campaign, now in its third year, has taken on many forms this year. In Washington state, coaches put up billboards encouraging boys to respect women’s rights. In the Philippines, 4,000 women did a rising outside a catholic school.
“Every single country in the world picked up the call.”
Eve Ensler
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