MGM Resorts and McCann's 2018 film 'I Need a Woman To Love Me' features Kesha officiating a same-sex wedding at the Bellagio to promote the Universal Love
ARCHIVEHow MGM Resorts Used Kesha and a Las Vegas Wedding to Champion LGBTQ Love
MGM Resorts' 2018 film "I Need a Woman To Love Me" features recording artist Kesha officiating the wedding of same-sex couple Dani and Lindsay at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, serving as the centrepiece film for the brand's Universal Love album — a collection of reimagined wedding songs celebrating LGBTQ relationships, created with agency McCann and released in the United States in April 2018.
The campaign occupies an important position in MGM Resorts' evolving brand story. In September 2017, as reported by Airguide, MGM Resorts launched its first-ever corporate brand campaign — also created by McCann New York — titled "Welcome to the Show." That campaign repositioned MGM away from its casino-and-hotel identity toward a broader entertainment proposition, using the social expression "#OMGM" and spanning social, digital and mass media channels across the United States. "I Need a Woman To Love Me" builds directly on that creative foundation, shifting register from spectacle to intimacy and demonstrating that the entertainment MGM Resorts offers extends into the most personal moments of a guest's life.
The Universal Love album itself is the strategic vehicle. Rather than producing a conventional hospitality advertisement, McCann and MGM Resorts assembled a roster of prominent artists to reinterpret classic wedding songs through the lens of LGBTQ love. Kesha's contribution — a reimagining of the song that titles this film — anchors the visual narrative. The result is a single media asset that functions simultaneously as a music film, a brand film and an advocacy statement, produced by director Lagan Sebert of Magic Seed Productions and filmed on location at one of MGM's most iconic properties in the United States.
MGM Resorts identified a specific consumer tension in the United States hospitality and travel market: LGBTQ couples planning weddings and celebrations had limited visibility in mainstream resort advertising despite representing a significant and loyal guest demographic. The Universal Love campaign addresses that gap directly rather than through tokenistic inclusion.
The strategic rationale is rooted in MGM's competitive positioning. In the United States integrated resort sector, MGM Resorts competes directly with Las Vegas Sands and Caesars Entertainment, both of which have historically pursued broad mass-market leisure and convention travellers. As documented in MGM Resorts investor materials, the company's differentiation rests on a portfolio approach — combining live entertainment, dining, spa, nightlife and gaming within a single guest experience. Aligning the brand with LGBTQ advocacy through the Universal Love album allowed MGM to activate that entertainment breadth in a culturally resonant way that competitors were not occupying at the time.
Thomas Murphy, Chief Creative Officer at McCann New York, articulated the brand's logic directly: "And MGM was in a great position to help to make that happen." That positioning — a resort able to host and celebrate any love story — is inseparable from the Bellagio's physical presence in Las Vegas, the setting for the film. In the United States travel and leisure category, purpose-driven brand work was gaining momentum in 2018, and MGM's decision to anchor its advocacy in a tangible creative product — an actual album with real artists — gave the campaign material substance beyond a one-cycle media moment.
Director Lagan Sebert of Magic Seed Productions helmed the film, bringing a personal connection to the material that shaped its visual and emotional register. The production unfolds at the Bellagio in Las Vegas — an environment that carries its own cultural weight — and Sebert's approach grounds the grandeur of that setting in the specific, observed intimacy of Dani and Lindsay's ceremony.
Kesha's presence as officiant rather than performer is the creative decision that most distinguishes this film from conventional celebrity endorsement. She does not perform at a distance from the subject; she stands at the centre of the ceremony and delivers the words that make the marriage real. Her own public statement — "People should be able to love whoever they want to love. That's what love is." — clarifies that her involvement reflects genuine conviction rather than contractual appearance, and the camera work by Director of Photography Drew Dawson captures that authenticity in the faces of the couple and the guests surrounding them.
The production infrastructure behind the film is documented across available credits. Executive Producers Sandra Sampayo and Brandon Bloch of Magic Seed Productions supported Sebert's direction, while producer Melissa Daniels managed the production logistics. Editor Chris Franklin of Big Sky Editorial shaped the final cut, controlling the emotional pacing that moves the film from anticipation through ceremony to resolution. The single media asset operates as a complete short film rather than a truncated advertisement, a formal decision that respects both the subject matter and the audience's capacity for engagement. Production credits beyond those named here are not fully publicly documented for this campaign.
ARCHIVENo verified performance data for "I Need a Woman To Love Me" is publicly available in terms of paid media reach, view counts or measurable business outcomes attributable solely to this film. What can be assessed is the campaign's structural design and the conditions it created for effectiveness.
The film's architecture is built for earned media amplification. A real wedding, a globally recognised artist in an unconventional role, a named album with multiple contributing artists and a clear advocacy position each represent a distinct layer of newsworthiness. In the United States travel and leisure sector, campaigns that generate press coverage across entertainment, culture and business verticals extend their reach well beyond paid placement — and the Universal Love campaign's multi-artist album format gave media multiple entry points for coverage independent of any single film asset.
The campaign also arrives at a productive moment in MGM's brand trajectory. Following the 2017 "Welcome to the Show" launch documented by Airguide, "I Need a Woman To Love Me" deepens rather than resets the brand's entertainment positioning, giving McCann's creative platform narrative continuity across at least two campaign cycles. That continuity is itself a performance asset — it compounds brand recognition rather than requiring audiences to relearn a proposition. Clapboard scores this campaign 74 out of 100, reflecting strong creative coherence and cultural relevance anchored by genuine production craft, with room for greater measurable business integration to have lifted its long-term effectiveness ceiling.
"I Need a Woman To Love Me" is a 2018 brand film from MGM Resorts, created by McCann, in which Kesha officiates a real same-sex wedding at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The film served as the centrepiece of MGM's Universal Love album, a collection of reimagined wedding songs celebrating LGBTQ relationships, released in the United States in April 2018.
Lagan Sebert of Magic Seed Productions directed the film. Executive Producers Sandra Sampayo and Brandon Bloch also worked at Magic Seed Productions, with Drew Dawson serving as Director of Photography and Chris Franklin of Big Sky Editorial cutting the final edit of this United States hospitality campaign.
The Universal Love album is an MGM Resorts project featuring prominent artists reimagining classic wedding songs to celebrate LGBTQ love. Created with McCann, the album provided the strategic and creative framework for the 2018 campaign, positioning MGM as an entertainment and hospitality brand that champions inclusive celebration across its United States resort properties.
The film builds on MGM Resorts' first-ever corporate brand campaign, "Welcome to the Show," launched in September 2017 with McCann New York, as reported by Airguide. Where that campaign established MGM's entertainment positioning across mass and digital media in the United States, the 2018 film deepens it through intimate, purpose-driven storytelling.
Clapboard scores "I Need a Woman To Love Me" at 74 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative coherence, genuine production craft and meaningful cultural relevance in the United States travel and leisure category, while noting that greater measurable business integration could have elevated its long-term effectiveness.
MGM Resorts occupied advocacy territory that Las Vegas Sands and Caesars Entertainment were not actively pursuing in 2018. By producing an actual album with named artists and anchoring the campaign in a real LGBTQ wedding at the Bellagio, MGM created a culturally substantive statement rather than a conventional United States hospitality advertisement.
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