All Love Is Smart Love – Smartfood X Glaad Valentine’s Day Influencer Kits
Category: Print Media | Design | 52. Packaging/Label
About Project
Valentine’s Day is a holiday that can come with a certain amount of cultural pressure to celebrate love in a prescribed way. Because of this, people often feel they have to do something extra special and romantic on this specific day, but it can end up feeling contrived. For members of the LGBTQ+ community, the typical Valentine’s Day celebrations may not resonate, because the imagery and messaging surrounding this day of love doesn’t actually reflect them. This Valentine's Day, Smartfood® set out to raise awareness and accelerate the acceptance of love in all its colors, highlighting and honoring the diverse LGBTQ+ identities.
Typically, the focus lands on the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month, but Smartfood wanted to celebrate the idea that “All Love is Smart Love” with an inclusive campaign during the 2022 Valentine’s Season. So, we partnered with GLAAD and queer artist Ari Liloan to celebrate an authentic, inclusive and compelling love season that would challenge traditional takes on the day of love. The Design Team worked collaboratively with GLAAD as our guide and commissioning queer artist, Ari Liloan, to express a compelling and meaningful message about love and its expression for the LGBTQ+ community. The resulting influencer kit was a confectionery style, heart-shaped box with a black velvet base, nodding to traditional Valentine’s Day gifts, but with a colorful twist.
We chose to expand beyond the expected narrative by celebrating all different hues of love and honoring varying identities within the LGBTQ+ community. In creating the rainbow-painted box lid, we chose to go a different direction than the typical bold pride colors, referencing a range of identity flag color palettes. Liloan’s whimsical illustration is full of symbolism about how relationships thrive and different types of love infused by the artist's own moments, captured in symbolic, meaningful, unique scenes.
In light of Frito-Lay’s Smartfood donating $150,000 to GLAAD, the ‘All Love is Smart Love’ campaign and limited-edition packaging encouraged more consumers to get involved, donate, and show their own support. In addition to the limited release bag, each influencer kit came with a collectible zine that highlighted different identities within the LGBTQ+ community and their flag’s symbolic color palettes to help raise awareness and education. Each kit also included a stationery set to encourage people to reach out to someone they love.
