R/GA’s “Love Has No Labels” campaign is now worthy of, among its assorted other plaudits, having a TV Academy label affixed to it. Last year the signature “Labels” X-ray piece for the Ad Council–with its message of inclusiveness, featuring dancing and kissing skeletons–won the coveted primetime commercial Emmy. And now two more PSAs in the “Love Has No Labels” campaign–”Love Cam” and “We Are America”–have earned Emmy nominations as R/GA bids to score a second straight Emmy Award.
The sense of déjà vu from last year’s spot Emmy derby to the current competition isn’t confined to the R/GA fare. Also nominated this year is 72andSunny’s “Year in Search 2016” short for Google. This marks the second consecutive year that the Google year-in-review piece from 72andSunny has garnered a nomination.
Rounding out the current field of primetime spot Emmy nominees are Squarespace’s “Calling JohnMalkovich.com” from agency John X Hannes, and Gathering For Justice’s “Why I March” from mcgarrybowen.
Nominations were announced this morning (7/13) at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' headquarters in North Hollywood, Calif.
Miles Jay of Smuggler directed the Squarespace entry which aired during this year’s Super Bowl. In the humorous ad, actor Malkovich is in his design studio talking on the phone to someone who has already claimed the domain name JohnMalkovich.com. This raises the question of who is being John Malkovich as the famous thespian tries to convince the other Malkovich to give him back his “rightful” domain name.
Nanette Burstein of Hungry Man directed “Why I March” in which celebs and others explain what drives them to participate in the then upcoming Women’s March (which took place in 370 locations worldwide in January 21, 2017), a show of support for women’s and civil rights, intended to send a message to the new Trump administration in Washington D.C.
Google’s stirring retrospective of 2016 was produced by 72andSunny’s in-house studio Hecho en 72.
Rocky Morton of MJZ directed Ad Council’s “We Are America,” a three-and-a-half minute video in the “Love Has No Labels” campaign. “We Are America” introduces us to a diverse mix of folks, underscoring that the country is blessed by a full spectrum of age, talents, sexual orientation, race, religion and gender. Featured in the piece is mega WWE wrestling star John Cena.
And helming the Ad Council “Kiss Cam” was Floyd Russ from Tool of North America. The video puts a twist on the traditional sports stadium jumbotron “kiss cam” by replacing it with an unbiased camera depicting positive expressions of love, unity, diversity and acceptance across race, religion, gender, sexuality, ability and age.
The winner of the primetime commercial Emmy Award will be announced and honored during the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, which takes place in Los Angeles come September.