Gazeta.pl and Stowarzyszenie Miłość Nie Wyklucza [Love Doesn’t Exclude Association] launched #Proud Promotion of Rainbow Poland on the date of the Equality Parade in Warsaw. Contrary to those who manipulate in order to smear and ban the “promotion of LGBT+,” the nationwide campaign of MullenLowe Warsaw demonstrates the real meaning of LGBT+ promotion: equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Although support for marriage equality, same-sex civil unions and other LGBT+ rights has been growing over the past decade in Poland, the authorities are trying to roll back positive changes. Political propaganda uses the slogan, “promotion of LGBT+,” to suppress the evolution of views evident even among voters of right-wing parties.

Contrary to these actions, in order to strengthen the positive social trend, Gazeta.pl, Stowarzyszenie Miłość Nie Wyklucza and MullenLowe Warsaw are launching a large-scale #Promotion of Rainbow Poland on the day of the Equality Parade in Warsaw. “In today’s public debate, the distorted slogan of “promotion of LGBT” is deliberately used to manipulate,” explained Marcin Nowak, creative director of MullenLowe Warsaw, the agency responsible for the idea of the campaign. “It’s time to oppose this. We want to restore the phrase to its proper meaning, which is the equal treatment of LGBT+ people and reliable knowledge about equality. And since we, at the ad agency, know how to invent ads, we came up with an idea through which we can all promote Rainbow Poland. A country without political stitching, a country of equality and social solidarity, without divisions,” he stressed.

The nationwide campaign, planned on an unprecedented scale on Gazeta.pl’s websites, will produce “promotional materials” containing important demands of the LGBT+ community. Among them will be materials on equal rights to marriage and rights for same-sex couples raising children, on support for young people and parents of LGBT+ children, on reliable equality education, on a rational and science-based approach to gender recognition, and on a politics free from instrumental use of the rainbow symbol. All these ideas of the movement will be shown as products or services promoted in traditional advertisements. They include, for example, Equality Lipstick. On everyone’s lips; Rainbow Sauce. Best for political nonsense casserole; LGBT+ Vitamin Complex. Replenish empathy deficiencies, and many others.

“A dozen or so years ago, when political opponents threatened us with the “promotion of LGBT,” deputy prime minister Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka kept saying that “you can promote chickens in the supermarket, not sexual orientation,” recalled Wiktoria Beczek, diversity and inclusivity content coordinator at Gazeta.pl. “Today, we want to reverse this narrative and show that there is nothing to scare people with; on the contrary, we are promoting equal rights after all,” she added.

All ads featured in the campaign are also clickable and redirect you to the website Dumnapromocja.pl, where you can learn more about the demands of LGBT+ activists and allies, and sign the petition of Stowarzyszenie Miłość Nie Wyklucza.

“Disinformation concerning LGBT+ people in Poland is often so absurd as to be downright comical,” pointed out Hubert Sobecki, co-chairperson of Stowarzyszenie Miłość Nie Wyklucza. “Just as student cabarets were the reaction to the propaganda of the People’s Republic of Poland, so today the nonsense spouted by politicians showing off their ignorance sometimes simply needs to be laughed at. Unfortunately, people believe these lies, and their consequences are sometimes tragic. That’s why the goal of #ProudPromotion is also to collect signatures under a call for concrete changes in the law that will help LGBT+ people live safely in their own country,” he pointed out.

The campaign is also supported by dozens of celebrities, including Anna Mucha, Agnieszka Holland, Małgorzata Rozenek, Maryla Rodowicz, Magda Cielecka, Elżbieta Cherezińska, Magdalena Popławska, Beata Tadla, Mariusz Kozak, Mama na Obrotach and many others. In a gesture of solidarity, they all publish their own ads with the logo of the #Proud Promotion of Rainbow Poland campaign.