FCKH8
FCKH8

The Cause – NO TO Prop 8
On November 4, 2008 Proposition 8 passed in California, amending the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The defeat provoked a groundswell of initiative within the GLBT community at a grassroots level, with many new political and protest organizations being formed in response.
About FCKH8
FCKH8 is a new initiative by non-profit media campaigner Luke Montgomery in support of LGBT issues. The website gives a big, ol’ Fuck You to the haters of gay marriage and the proponents of denying gay couples benefits like health insurance.
Similar cause that is currently active within the united states is the “NO H8” cause (Foe further detail on this cause see the Appendix).
1. FCKH PROP 8
The original campaign started in the Fall of 2010 (September), with the first video being profiled on their website in October of 2010. This video, titled “FCKH PROP 8” outlined the main purpose of the cause and gave the middle finger to all haters of same sex marriage. An interesting fact about this campaign is that it mainly features heterosexual individuals who feel strongly about the equal right of marriage.
To view the FCKH Prop 8 video, click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1amIrR-VMAI
Note: the official colour of this campaign and merchandise is Pink
The campaign seeks to raise awareness about the rights of the GLBT community by engagement of all those who believe and value equal human rights. The cause is centered around selling custom T-Shirts and accessories with the FCKH8 logo and other slogans that clearly display their support towards equality.
For full merchandise listing please visit the following link: http://fckh8.3dcartstores.com/
Furthermore, even though Proposition 8 is only concerning the state of California, this did not stop the FCKH8 campaign to reach massive support by over 75 countries around the globe. The cause is set to donate $5 from each T-Shirt they sell. In just two months (October and November) they managed to sell over 40,000 T-Shirts in 75 countries, which raised a total of $200,000
The raised funds were disbursed to the following groups: American Foundation for Equal Rights, Equality California, Courage Campaign and Lambda Legal
2. FCK BULLIES
Due to the skyrocketing success of the initial campaign, after only two months, the organization decided to get involved in yet another cause that became a great concern of the GLBT community. Namely, in late 2010 there were a lot of reports indicating suicides caused by young teenage boys in the United States. The cause for the suicides was determined to be the social pressure and bullying by their peers, usually at school, solely on the fact that they were perceived as being different (in a negative manner) just for being gay.
Given this occurrence the FCKH8 cause started its second campaign titled – “FCK BULLIES.” This video and the corresponding merchandise is created in order to raise funds for queer youth suicide prevention, and the funds raised by this campaign go to benefit “The Trevor Project”
Note: The official colour of this campaign and merchandise is Purple
For the campaign video click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjFafCR6FOI&feature=related
3. GAY LOVE
This is the latest campaign produced by the FCKH8 organization. It got aired for the first time in the month of February 2011 and its theme coincides with Valentine ’s Day and gay love. This campaign follows the same theme as the very first one - FCKH PROP 8 and is centered around delivering the message that gay love is no different than heterosexual, or any other type of love.
Note: The official colour of this campaign and merchandise is Red
For the campaign video click on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A10PAxjtl58

Marketing initiatives
As noted before, this campaign is completely based on the use of nontraditional marketing media, such as;
(1) their official website: http://fckh8.com, (2) FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/FCKH8com/145318588840178 (3) Twitter: @FCKH8
But the most interesting part of the FCKH8 campaign is the video strategy. And this strategy is bringing a whole new perspective to how we think about virality and spreadability.
The interesting note to be made about this message, though, is that “Share the FCK out of it” meant more than just “Share the video, embed it, send the link to your friends, etc.” Instead, dozens of users were inspired and allowed to re-upload the original FCKH8 video on their own YouTube channels. Searching “FCKH8″ on YouTube yields to over 100 videos, most of which are the original with its iconic hot pink background, with a sprinkling of other response and support videos.
Unfortunately on October 15th, after only 2 weeks from its original air date, the FCKH8 Twitter account announced that the video had been flagged for removal by YouTube officials who rated the video “R” by their censorship regulations.
However this did not stop the users and the supporters of the cause to re-upload the video on their own YouTube pages, which gave YouTube no choice but to allow streaming of the video. Nevertheless, since the official FCKH8 YouTube page is an organizational account, they had to oblige by the censoring laws and only stream the videos to registered users that are age 18+. For the rest of the population the FCKH8 campaign has created a censored version of its videos that beep the coarse words.
The Case study
The purpose of this case study would be to fully analyze the environment in which the organization operates and then come up with a marketing strategy that would allow the company to improve its outreach and raise more funds for the fight against proposition 8 and gay bullying.

Appendix – NO H8 Campaign

The NOH8 Campaign is a photographic silent protest created by celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8. Photos feature subjects with duct tape over their mouths, symbolizing their voices being silenced by Prop 8 and similar legislation around the world, with "NOH8" painted on one cheek in protest.

Two years since its inception, the NOH8 Campaign has grown to over 8,000 faces and continues to grow at an exponential rate. The campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians from all walks of life and soon rose to include politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists, celebrities, and many more.

The NOH8 Campaign has received overwhelming support from around the world, appearing on various local and national news programs and publications. The images are currently being used on various social networking sites to spread the message of equality, predominantly Facebook and Twitter. Eventually the images are expected to be compiled for a large-scale media campaign.
The NOH8 Campaign is an approved 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
Funds raised by the NOH8 Campaign will be used to continue promoting and raising awareness for Marriage Equality and anti-discrimination on a global level through an educational and interactive media campaign.
Source: http://www.noh8campaign.com/article/about

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[ 1 ]. http://doalchemy.org/2010/10/a-new-perspective-on-viral-videos-fckh8/
[ 2 ]. http://fckh8.com/Bullies/MEDIA_FCKH8.html