FCB/Six Turned the Pride Flag Into a Data Slider to Help LGBTQ People Travel Safely

Global travel can be a complex undertaking for anyone, but it's especially challenging for members of the LGBTQ community. Many destinations welcome them with open arms and offer ample social and legal protections. But in some nations, same-sex relationships are still frowned upon, or against the law, or in extreme cases, punishable by imprisonment or death. Now, as the centerpiece of a clever campaign from nonprofit group PFLAG Canada, the rainbow Pride flag, a symbol of inclusiveness since its creation 40 years ago, morphs into a data visualization tool designed to help LGBTQ folks travel safely. Developed with FCB/Six, the initiative, called "Destination Pride," boasts a digital hub that lets users quickly gauge a city's attitudes toward LGBTQ visitors. The locales are ranked based on six metrics: marriage equality, sexual activity laws, gender identity protections, anti-discrimination laws, civil rights and social-media sentiment. Each of these categories corresponds to one of the color bars of the pride flag: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Longer bars equal greater acceptance and protection. This data is also aggregated, Rotten Tomatoes-style, into a number that ranks each city on a scale of 0 to 100. Scores over 71 indicate extensive legal protections and positive sentiment for LGBTQ people; 51-70 means the cities are fairly safe and attitudes at least neutral. Lower scores suggest intolerance and, in some cases, outright hostility or danger. New York City, for example, tallies a 66, with three of the six color bars at full strength: On the other end of the spectrum, Tehran, Iran, scores a 6, with three of the bars not even visible, and the others stunted to varying degrees: Hong Kong places between the previous two cities, but still low overall, with a 33. Its color bars indicate strong sexual activity laws, but weak anti-discrimination statutes and no marriage equality: Rankings can fluctuate quite a bit over any given day, or even every few minutes, based on social chatter, which is represented by the purple bar. The number also changes, and the other bars grow or shrink, when new laws are passed or repealed. Such regulation tends to happens slowly, so that data gets update incrementally on the site. "The idea came from simple observation: Travel can be a little different for members of the LGBTQ community," Ian Mackenzie, executive creative director at FCB/Six, tells AdFreak. "As an example, some Caribbean islands are relatively friendly, others relatively hostile. So, navigating something as simple as booking a beach vacation can be complicated and even scary. Who wants to go to a beach where you can't hold hands with your partner? That's just one example … sexual activity laws, equal marriage laws, social sentiment—all can impact on this community's travel experiences in both large and small ways." "We started with a dream of being able to serve up all the data you'd need with a single geo-locating click," he says. "Then we looked at the data. Eventually, we had to visualize it, and treating the Pride flag as a bar graph just made a lot of sense to us." [kickout id="4"] To drive site traffic, brief geo-specific video ads will run on Facebook. Some of these ads target users in high-scoring cities like San Francisco and Sydney, while others appear in low-scoring places, such as Kampala, Uganda, and Moscow: "We're targeting 17- to 65-year-old users who have shown an interest in LGBTQ+ publications such as LGBTQ Nation or Buzzfeed LGBTQ, or who have shown an interest in LGBTQ+ activism," says Mackenzie. "We then segmented each ad by specific locations, targeting relevant 'Destination Pride' scores to each location: People in Moscow see a score for Moscow, while people in Sydney will see the score for Sydney." "All targeting is aggregated, which means we never see individual names or profiles," he says. "All information is freely provided by Facebook to anyone using its system to promote sponsored content. We're aware that we're targeting global LGBTQ+ Facebook users who may be at risk of persecution. We're doing so because we believe this platform can be of some help. But we're don't have access to any data that any other Facebook user globally wouldn't have." A trio of half-minute videos feature members of the LGBTQ community telling personal travel stories. These include tales of an engagement in Paris and flying for the first time as a transgender woman. Ultimately, the ads ask, "What if the Pride flag could help you see the world?" and invite viewers to visit the digital hub and "discover the data behind the destination." [kickout id="1"] [kickout id="2"] [kickout id="3"] "The role of the videos is to put a human face, so to speak, to the data," Mackenzie says. "It's one thing to use data to show that Kuwait's sexual activity laws are discriminatory, quite another to hear from a gay man about hooking up in that same place. The data is super important, but it's not the whole story. The reason we've built commenting into the platform is so that we can square hard data with real experiences." Louis Duncan-He, national director of marketing at PFLAG Canada, adds, "We wanted the stories to be honest, compelling and real. We felt they needed to accurately reflect the spectrum of victories, challenges and everything in between occurring in our community." In addition, digital out-of-home ads will run on hundreds of transit and elevator screen throughout Canada: [kickout id="5"] Though many woke campaigns have waved the flag or used rainbow imagery—and travel guides often rate destinations by their LGBTQ inclusiveness—this particular effort stands out for its focus on delivering timely, helpful data in easily digestible bites. "This will give both LGBTQ travelers—and everyone who cares about ethical travel—a fantastic tool that could even save them from harassment or worse," says Tom Megginson, a blogger for Osocio.org and creative director at social-issues agency Acart Communications. "What I love about this is how data, social media and advocacy come together to give people a reliable measurement of how dream destinations really measure up in terms of welcoming diverse visitors." Perhaps the ability to travel anywhere, freely and without fear, is the ultimate freedom. And as we make strides in that direction for LGBTQ folks, the world becomes a friendlier, more hospitable place for everyone. "I think we are making progress," says Duncan-He. "The ultimate goal is really to not require this tool. However, this is not our current reality." Mackenzie adds: "The fact that marriage is not equal everywhere, that gender identity protections are contentious in otherwise enlightened countries, that blood donation and adoption regulations continue to marginalize this community, and that no place on Earth that the 'Destination Pride' platform measures has a full flag means there are still many miles to go. We're hoping this work celebrates progress wherever it is, and becomes part of inspiring change where it needs to be." CREDITS Campaign: Destination Pride url: https://destinationpride.org Client: PFLAG Canada National Director of Marketing: Louis Duncan-He Agency: FCB/SIX Executive Creative Director: Ian Mackenzie Associate Creative Director: Dave Laing Associate Creative Director: Krystle Mullin Copywriter: James Ly Art Director: Devon Williamson Experience Designer: Patrick Stolk-Ramaker Associate Design Director: Stuart Thursby Art Director: Allan Mah Account Director: Shalta Dicaire Fardin Group Account Director: Andrea Barrett Project Manager: Ashley Whitaker Project Manager: Khizra Arshad VP, Head of Data and Technology: Jacob Ciesielski Director of Technology: Madara Ranawake Developer: Dov Atlin QA: Peter Panchine EVP, Strategy: Anna Percy-Dove Strategy Director: John Fung Strategist: Zac Matheson Strategy Coordinator: Mike Conte President: Andrea Cook VP, Managing Director: Elizabeth Sellors VP, Operations: Grace McCann Print Production: Joyce Jackson Print Production: Chris Costa Producer: Lindsay Hann Editor: David Rodriguez User Experience: Kristy Pleckaitis Front End Developer: Heung Lee Front End Developer: Jonathan Sanford Visual Effects: Alter Ego Designer/Animation Director: Edward Deng Creative Director: Eric Whipp Executive Producer: Cheyenne Bloomfield Music and Sound Design: Grayson Matthews Music & Voice Director: Mark Domitric Audio Producer: Kelly McCluskey Engineer: Vlad Nikolic Sound Design: Laura Titchner Sound Design: Ben Swarbrick Casting: Shasta Lutz, Jigsaw Casting Public Relations: Shannon Stephaniuk, Glossy Media Agency: Initiative Media President: Helen Galanis Director of Content Marketing: Katherine Fera

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FCB/Six Turned the Pride Flag Into a Data Slider to Help LGBTQ People Travel Safely

The bars show how welcoming a city is, across six metrics

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