Immediately following the murder of Heather Heyer at the counter-protests against the alt-right in Charlottesville, MTV launched "Extinguish Hate", a multiplatform campaign created to spread messages of love and hope in the midst of white-supremacist hate-messaging. Through a dual digital and linear approach, MTV worked to educate, inspire, and provide resources for action.
Within 72 hours post-tragedy, MTV began airing a PSA and pushed out a social media graphic to its over 100 million followers across social media with the phrase "extinguish hate." Acting quickly, MTV became one of the first major brands to release a strong statement condemning the attacks. MTV News produced urgent on-the-ground coverage for digital and editorial platforms detailing eyewitness reports, interviews with UVA students, and more.
Just two weeks later, MTV invited Susan Bro, Heather Heyer's mother, to the Video Music Awards, MTV's biggest night of the year, in order to amplify her voice and take a stand against violence and racism. This act was met by both celebrity and audience support and continued its mission of lending MTV's platform for education, inspiration, and action. In the midst of all this, MTV continued direct coverage of young people continuing to fight against the alt-right in Charlottesville, to ensure this crucial moment would not get overlooked.
MTV's extinguish hate campaign focused on three major activations:
MTV's campaign to condemn white supremacy gained positive response, even garnering press coverage from major outlets including CNN, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Buzzfeed.
During the VMAs, MTV's tweets about the Susan Bro and Rev. Robert Lee moments received hundreds of thousands of impressions and retweets. The MTV video of Rev. Robert Lee's speech garnered over 13K engagements on twitter. The Los Angeles Times reported that "the person MTV clearly wanted to represent the 2017 edition of its annual Video Music Awards — to communicate its heart and soul — was Susan Bro, whose daughter Heather Heyer was killed this month as she protested the white-supremacist rally that erupted into violence in Charlottesville, Va."
MTV's audience responded incredibly positively to the "extinguish hate" graphic with many viewers so moved by the PSA aired that they stopped to record their TV screens with their phones to repost the video on their own social media accounts. Celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and Big Sean showed support for the campaign through social media, which helped extend the campaign's reach and keep the issue top of mind for MTV's audience.
Video coverage by MTV News from Charlottesville received over 1 million views on social media.
