EE Hope United

GAYVAR

Credits

Senior Creatives
Myself & Neil Ritchie

CD
Ali Dickinson

Design Director
Kris Miklos

ECD
Will John

Director
Glenn Kitson @ Iconoclast

The brief

The most common form of online hate footballers receive is homophobic abuse. Often defended as ‘banter’ its toxic nature excludes players and fans from the LGBTQ+ community from a sport they love.

The Idea

GAYVAR. Football’s queer eye in the sky making sure homophobic abuse didn’t go unchecked. Taking a tool people were familiar on the pitch to check behaviour on the stands and online with a witty and irreverent tone that avoided finger wagging.

The execution

Over one footballing weekend, including 3 spicy derby’s, we launched the tech that shouldn’t exist to check the hate that shouldn’t exist. Our GAYVAR refs Tom Allen and Joe Cole were live reacting to the abuse fans and players received online and in the stands. With supporting DOOH, roving advans around from the clubs themselves.

The result

National press coverage over the weekend. The campaign drove positive behavior change: 56% said they’d now have a conversation with their mates about homophobic abuse or ‘banter’. With two thirds saying they now understood the prevalence of homophobic hate in the male game.