Leading relationship charity Relate is launching a new out of home campaign tapping into Valentine’s Day to promote great communication by featuring close-up shots of lips, tongues and fingers with the tagline “Gifts Don’t Make Relationships. Conversations do”.
Relate is England and Wales’ largest provider of relationship support for individuals, couples and families of all ages, backgrounds, sexual orientation or gender identity, providing counselling, sex therapy, mediation, training courses and online self-help.
The campaign, devised by Ogilvy UK, remind everyone that happy relationships are driven by authenticity and honesty.
Relate director of communications and engagement Sarah Milsom said: “The best way to build healthy relationships of all kinds is to share feelings and problems rather than bottle them up or paper over the cracks. Especially now, when the effects of what we’ve all been through in recent times are still coming to the fore.
“This series of posters reminds people not to underestimate the gift of honest, authentic connection this Valentine’s Day.”
Ogilvy UK chief ECD Jules Chalkley added: “The simple fact is it that many of us need intimacy now more than ever, and communication is the bedrock of healthy and happy relationships. As a society we are obsessed with love and affection, it can be easy to forget that simple authentic conversation is what defines connection, happiness and intensity.”
In addition, Relate and Ogilvy UK have released a timely tactical ad celebrating sex and intimacy in later years. The posters and film go live this week and are a follow up to the 2021 campaign ‘Let’s Talk The Joy of Later Life Sex’.
The original campaign saw renowned British photographer Rankin shoot five older couples and one woman in their most intimate settings and explored everything from long-term love to new adventures, tender intimacy to the more risqué.
The follow-up poster and film is an arresting image that challenges the accepted norms of later life love.
Chalkley added: “We should continue the conversation about the joys of later life sex. The aim of this cheeky ad is to dispel the notion that older people shouldn’t, couldn’t and wouldn’t want to have sex and intimacy, which contribute to mental health, happiness and physical wellbeing. This ad builds on creating a new visual language of love.
Milsom concluded: “It’s a subject too many of us shy away from or rarely talk about. Sex and intimacy in later life are seemingly taboos, but why? We want to continue to encourage people across the generations to have a national conversation about the importance of these issues, and for anyone who needs support to be able to talk to their partner, friends, family, doctor or Relate.”
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