The campaign is being funded by provincial government andconsists of unique TV, radio and web ads that aim at fightingstereotypes.
The first two TV advertisements were aired on March 3, causingquite a stir in the Quebecois community.
The main point of the campaign is for the viewers to take amoment to question their own stereotypes on the issue.
Both ads show couples going about their day, with the viewerfinding out that both couples are gay at the very end of the ad,when each of them shares a kiss. Afterwards, a question isposed:"Does this change the way you thought 20 secondsago?"
"We learned in our research that Quebec is viewed as open tosexual diversity — but homophobia still exists," MartineDelagrave from Cossette Communications, a firm that was hired todevelop the ads, told CBC. “We believe it'll take Quebec societyfarther down the path of openness.”
In preparation for the campaign the French-speaking province hasconducted a survey of 800 residents to understand where each one ofthem stands on homophobia.
Ninety per cent of respondent said they were open to sexualdiversity and 78 per cent stated that they are comfortable withgays and lesbians, while 40 per cent stated that they were notcomfortable with seeing two men displaying affection in public.
The lowest acceptance rate was for transgender people, with only45 per cent of those surveyed saying they were okay with theidea.
Since the launch of the campaign, the provincial government hasreceived nine written complaints about the ads.
"The tone of the complaints [was that] many were jolted bythe sight of two men or two women kissing in a governmentadvertisement," spokesman Paul-Jean Charest told the CBC.
Other complaints criticize the campaign as a waste of publicfunds on a topic that is not viewed as an issue in Quebec.
Charest stated the idea is to entice personal reflection on thesubject and not to shock people.
Simultaneously with the TV ads, the campaign launched a website,which has been gaining popularity on a daily basis, with 48,000‘Likes’ on Facebook already and over three thousand re-tweets.
"It's got people talking and, if we were in a situation whereeveryone was entirely accepting, we wouldn't be talking aboutit," Delagrave said.
The two ads will run until the end of March and be followed upby a second survey to see if attitudes have changed.
"We don't think that a four-week campaign will changeeverything, but we believe it'll take Quebec society farther downthe path of openness," explained Delagrave.
More advertising is planned for 2014-15 that will target thetopic of same-sex parenting.
Quebec’s Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud said that this kindof a campaign is the first of its kind, not only in Quebec, butalso in Canada and North America.
Quebec is not the only one in the spotlight this week when itcomes to fighting for gay issues, with Britain’s Queen about tosign a charter dubbed the ‘21st Century Commonwealth Magna Carta’which promotes gender equality, but considered by many to actuallybe a gay rights bill.
The move is viewed as one of the most controversial in her61-year reign.
The charter states: “We are implacably opposed to all formsof discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, color, creed,political belief or other grounds.”
The key is to promote gay and gender issues across theCommonwealth, a move that resonates in Quebec already.
