STOCKHOLM PRIDE – GOWEST INTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN
In 2012, Russia passed an anti-gay propaganda law that banned gay parades for a hundred years. Subsequently, Russia saw a surge of hate crimes motivated by homophobia. No one acknowledged this or came to their support and since a strict control of media was imposed, we needed to find new ways of reaching out and spread the word about the situation. We started the #GOWEST movement.
After only 3 days, GOWEST reached its first milestone, becoming a trending topic on Twitter. An incredible wave of tweet-invitations was sent from the website reaching over 3,7 million native Russian Twitter-accounts. International media and influential celebrities picked up on the story, which resulted in the festival being mentioned 10x more in media than previous years. Number of attendees to Stockholm Pride rose by 33%.
The GOWEST movement also came to inspire many other initiatives supporting the Russian LGBT-community. The campaign picked up accolades and recognition in Cannes Lions, Clio Awards and New York Festivals among others, but more importantly: what started as a single tweet contributed to placing a serious issue firmly on the global agenda.
GOWEST AND SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENT FEAUTURED IN:
Fast Company / Huffington Post / LGBT Weekly / Wall Street Journal / Swedish Television / Aftonbladet / Yahoo / DN / RT / ESPN / QX / Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt / Swedish Radio / Gay Star News / Salon.com / BuzzFeed / Huffington Post / Out.com / CBC / Femen.tv / Huffington Post / Pink News / The Local / Nyheter24 / Finest.se