CASE STUDY
MEDIA RELATIONS: PRINCIPLE 6
The Challenge
LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofits Athlete Ally and All Out launched Principle 6 — a campaign inspired by the Olympic Charter — as a way for athletes, fans and supporters to celebrate the Olympic principles of non-discrimination and call for an end to anti-gay laws at the Olympic Games.
The Challenge
LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofits Athlete Ally and All Out launched Principle 6 — a campaign inspired by the Olympic Charter — as a way for athletes, fans and supporters to celebrate the Olympic principles of non-discrimination and call for an end to anti-gay laws at the Olympic Games.
The Strategy
The Principle 6 campaign’s main objective was to pressure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to follow its own Olympic Charter and ensure that all future cities selected to host the Olympic Games adhered to these principles. The TASC Group was hired to secure prominent media coverage for the campaign, drawing attention to the IOC’s failure to support LGBTQ+ athletes and rally the public to support its goals. TASC leveraged both traditional media and social media to raise awareness for the issues. Athlete Ally also launched an apparel line to support fundraising efforts for the campaign.
The Results
TASC’s media campaign generated 220+ unique media hits and 219 million media impressions. Media placements appeared in over 50 countries, with targeted messaging calling out the IOC’s hypocrisy. The day the Olympics began, Google launched a Google Doodle that depicted the Winter Games with a gay rights rainbow flag embedded in the image. Fifty-plus Olympic athletes joined the campaign along with dozens of celebrities, influencers, and NFL, NHL and NBA athletes who changed their social media avatars to the Principle 6 logo in support of the campaign. TASC booked celebrity and Olympic athletes on Sunday morning political talk shows including CBS News’ Face the Nation, on NBC’s TODAY and helped them byline op-eds in major national outlets including USA Today and CNN. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer also wrote a letter of support for the initiative.
The campaign ultimately declared victory when the International Olympic Committee announced that future host cities would be contractually obligated to adhere to the Olympic principles of non-discrimination.
MEDIA COVERAGE
