Imago Ogilvy’s younger Slovenian sister Imago Bold made heads turn in Ljubljana today. Not accepting Valentine’s Day as purely heterosexual holiday, they organised guerrilla action with local LGBT community (Legebitra).
In the centre of the city, on the prominent city streets, heterosexual couples feel free to share their affections, while publicly showing love in a same-sex couple is still often accompanied by disapproval, surprised stares or loud inappropriate comments.
Despite the fact a lot has changed in the last years on the legal front, everyday stigmatization of same-sex couples is still very much present in the Slovenian public, which is why this year for the holiday of love, Imago Bold decorated window displays of prominently-located fashion shops with a big heart, surrounding two same-sex mannequins.
“The society still perceives same-sex couples differently, so we wanted to take the Valentine’s day as the opportunity to send a message that love belongs to everyone, no matter the sex of the person we fall in love with,” said Lana Gobec, the president of Legebitra cultural, information and counselling centre in Ljubljana.
The rainbow heart carries the message Love is Love, because Imago Bold & Legebitra wish for Valentine’s Day to be the holiday for everyone with love in their hearts, regardless of their sexual orientation.
With an easily removable static sticker in the shape of a heart, they wish to say the sticker is easily removable, but the stigma, which same-sex couples carry, is not.
The shops, carrying their message (H&M, Mango, Nama, Maximarket, Lisca … ) were sent a letter of explanation and a request to keep the stickers on their window displays for a day. Follow their social media to see the response of individual shops.
