Globo Condé Nast owner of the magazines Vogue, Vogue Living, GQ and Glamour wanted to have a more relevant role in promoting diversity. But how to do that in Brazil, one of the most unequal, racist, sexist and homophobic countries in the world? And governed by a racist, sexist, homophobic president as well, known for his prejudices speeches. We needed to turned the conversations into actions showing that in the fight against prejudice words matter.

So knowing that Portuguese language has more than 300 racist, homophobic, xenophobic and sexist words and expressions that, unfortunately, are still widespread. And that in Brazil more than 90% of smartphones owners have Whatsapp installed, we launched an anti-prejudice keyboard with over 450 prejudice words in 3 languages that became one of the most download apps in Brazil in just one week.

Brazil is one of the most unequal, racist, sexist and homophobic countries in the world. Besides that, it’s currently governed by a president known for his prejudices speeches that end up encouraging even more prejudiced acts against gays, blacks and women.

As a result, today, every 25 hours an LGBT is savagely murdered victim of “LGBT phobia”, which makes Brazil the world champion in crimes against sexual minorities. More homosexuals are killed here than in the 13 countries in the East and Africa.

Black Brazilians suffering the worst of police violence, having limited access to education, making up some 64 percent of the unemployed and being almost three times as likely to be victims of homicide.

For women, according to the Violence Against Women Dossier1, the rate of feminicide in Brazil is 4.8 per 100,000 women, the fifth highest in the world.

And even with all this, the vice president of brazil says that prejudice doesn't exists in Brazil. But it does.

And starts in Portuguese language with more than 300 racist, homophobic, xenophobic and sexist words that, unfortunately, are still widespread.

The anti-prejudice keyboard app is available only for Android System and can be downloaded from the Google Play. The app identifies over 450 prejudiced words in Portuguese, English and Spanish. Suggesting more appropriate synonyms every time one of those words is typed. So words such as black market, black list, black ship, uppity, and gyp, among hundreds of others can be literally replaced in real time by a more appropriate synonym during conversations.

For example, every time someone writes “Gyp”, which has a prejudiced nature related to Romani people, the keyboard will suggest the synonym “cheat”. When the typed word is "uppity”, a pejorative term, the keyboard will suggest "arrogant”. As well as changing “wife beater” to “sleeveless t-shirt”.

We launched the app with an integrated campaign?called “Words matter” with film, OOH, print, digital and social media.

We wanted people to understand that in the fight against prejudice words also matter. And in a country where instant messaging is key and more than 90% of Brazilian smartphones have WhatsApp installed, use an anti-prejudice keyboard app was a great hit because it turned just words into actions in real time.

To launch the app we use Globo Condé Nast magazines ( Vogue, Vogue Living, GQ and Glamour ) and its social media platforms with an integrated campaign called Words Matter. Through film, OOH, prints, digital and social media posts and videos and PR strategy, we spread the message to many people as possible.

The project took more than a year to be developed by the production company Savoir, under the guidance of linguist Tomas Finbow, PhD by the Department of Linguistics at USP who mapped more than 300 prejudiced words in Portuguese and more than 150 words in English and Spanish.

The keyboard app was developed exclusively for the Android system, the most used in Brazil with more than 90% of users. In other words, 9 out of 10 smartphone users in Brazil use the Android system.

It was launched on January 15th with an integrated campaign called Words matter and it’s still running in print, film, social media and digital.

Since every language has its own history and all are loaded with prejudiced words, we mapped more than 150 prejudiced words in English and Spanish so the keyboard can be downloaded from the Google Play and be used globally.

The keyboard app took over the social conversations heating up the discussion about prejudice in our language, with full media coverage, and became the most downloaded app in Brazil in the week of launch.

118 million people were impacted by the campaign.

Artists, influencers, teachers, everyone has been talking about the importance of the anti-prejudice app.