The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2024
Pride Code turns same-sex marriage petition signatures into Spotify codes
In Japan, each same-sex marriage petition signature becomes a Spotify Code that opens audio of LGBTQ+ artists speaking on the cause.
The Asahi Shimbun · Spotify
What it had to solve
In Japan, same-sex marriage is not legally recognised, and the petition calling on the government to change that was pure paperwork: a form to sign, with no way to hear the people it concerned. Pride Code set out to add design to the one civic act no one had ever redesigned.
How it works
In Japan, same-sex marriage is not legally recognised, and the petition urging the government to change that is one of the oldest civic acts there is. Its weakness is also its nature: a paper form collects names but carries no sound, no voices of the people it concerns. Pride Code, a project by The Asahi Shimbun with Spotify, treated that form as a creative medium nobody had designed.
The petition form was printed as a barcode readable by Spotify. When the form is scanned, it opens audio content in which LGBTQ+ artists and influencers talk about same-sex marriage, so the document that asks for a signature also delivers the voices behind the cause.
The design does not replace the petition; it gives the paper act a digital continuation. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Press & Outdoor, and the archive page shows no figures — the case rests on the mechanism itself.
Why it lands
- It innovates the one object nobody innovates — the petition — instead of adding a separate campaign layer on top of it.
- Every signature becomes an entry point to the voices of the people the law affects, so the act of supporting also informs the supporter.
- The bridge between paper and audio is native: a code printed on the form opens content inside Spotify, a tool the audience already has.
What it did
The petition stopped being an endpoint: the same paper that collected a signature could also hand the signer the voices behind the cause. The work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Press & Outdoor; the page records no signature or listening figures.
What you can take
When a medium feels exhausted, redesign the act itself: the form you already ask people to complete can carry the very message you want them to hear.
Since then
Pride Code is preserved in the D&AD awards archive under Press & Outdoor, which records no signature counts or listening figures. What remains is a reusable mechanism: any cause that collects support on paper can print its own gateway into the voices behind it.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card