Love Has No Labels: Watch This Stirring Ad Of A Gay Couple Kissing At An NFL Game

The National Football League is paying tribute to diverse relationships in a new ad that celebrates gay, mixed race and other non-traditional couples kissing at a professional football game. The ad called "Love Has No Labels," also features a woman in a wheelchair kissing her husband and a survivor of the Orlando nightclub shooting last year carried out by an Islamic State group supporter.

The ad shows a man and woman sitting next to each other at a game before the camera spans to the man kissing his husband sitting on the other side of him. The spot was created through a partnership between the NFL and creative agency R/GA and The Ad Council, the non-profit behind many of the nation's most popular public service announcements, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

“We noticed that [the iconic kiss cam] was often focused on traditional notions of love. We thought, what if we could showcase a more modern take?” said Chris Northam, an executive creative director at R/GA. “We hope it does cause conversation and, more than anything else, that the fans embrace this message and help spread this movement.”

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, State Farm, Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and Wells Fargo were among the many brands sponsoring this year's public service message. The ad showcases real relationships as the roving kiss cam popular at NFL games searches a stadium audience to highlight happy couples.

"On Valentine’s Day ‘Fans of Love’ highlights that love has the power to bring people together regardless of our differences – a message that is more important now than ever,” said Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council. “We hope that this new creative will encourage all of us to reflect on our own biases and the role we can play in creating a more accepting and inclusive world.”

A similar "Love Has No Labels" ad in 2015 also featured LGBT and interracial couples. “Love is love,” a character in the ad told the camera at one point.

“The message is not political, it’s apolitical,” said Eric Jannon, an executive creative director at R/GA, of the most recent message. “We’ll keep embracing diversity regardless of what’s going on in the White House.”

The ad spot comes at a time when LGBT, black, Latino, Asian and other non-white directors, actors and activists are pushing Hollywood to display more diverse characters on television. Of the 895 series regular characters written into primetime shows in 2016, only 43 were openly LGBT, according to the civil rights group GLAAD, which tracks media representation in its annual report.