Unplay The Hate

The FIFA World Cup 2022 took place in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. All Out, a global LGBT+ movement, wanted to take a stand against the hate and remind FIFA and Qatar that the rights of LGBT+ people must be respected.

Since protesting in real Qatar is impossible, Bandara and agency Freundliche Grüsse took the protest to virtual Qatar – FIFA World on metaverse platform Roblox. Two days before the start of the tournament, we gathered activists from around the world and took over the center stage in FIFA world. In order for our protest not to be banned, we spread the message across seventeen avatars, each protester carrying a single letter: “FIFA: UNPLAY THE HATE”.

On unplayhate.org, we set up a toolkit with protest shirts and instructions for everyone to use during the World Cup. More than 2000 people joined. The virtual protest was picked up by media across the globe and generated 2 million earned media impressions – with zero media budget. It was the first globally orchestrated protest in the metaverse.