It Doesn’t Matter How The Family Is, As Long As There's Love - SL Benfica | Clapboard Ad Archive

SL Benfica’s 2019 campaign It Doesn’t Matter How The Family Is, As Long As There's Love, crafted by o escritório, disrupts the entrenched male-centric football culture in Portugal by centering inclusivity and family diversity within the club’s core identity. This campaign, rooted in the sports category, responds directly to the reality that 78% of Benfica’s membership was male, addressing an opportunity to broaden its fan base through the introduction of a family membership program with special conditions designed to welcome all family structures, whether traditional or non-traditional. The film medium execution eschews a conventional narrative or problem-solution structure, instead opting for a FORMAT#10 ASSOCIATED USER IMAGERY approach, visually presenting a spectrum of family configurations that reflect the contemporary social fabric and invite audiences to see themselves authentically represented within the club’s community. By foregrounding love and unity as the defining attributes of family rather than rigid norms, the campaign challenges the football industry’s typical testosterone-heavy atmosphere and creates a more inclusive environment for women and diverse supporters. The result has been a tangible shift in Benfica’s membership composition, with over 4000 family memberships added and women comprising half of the newest members, signaling a substantive cultural and commercial impact. This inclusivity narrative resonated beyond Portugal, attracting media coverage from Italy to Brazil and endorsements from influential public figures including members of the Portuguese Parliament, demonstrating the campaign’s ability to engage audiences across political and rival club lines through shared emotional appeal. Social media amplified the campaign’s reach and engagement, reinforcing SL Benfica’s positioning as a progressive force within sports marketing. The campaign earns 71/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. This campaign matters to the industry because it demonstrates how sports brands can strategically leverage inclusive storytelling to expand their fan base and reshape cultural perceptions within a traditionally exclusionary category.