SAN FRANCISCO — July 17, 2026 — Bospar, the “politely pushy” PR and marketing agency that puts technology and pharma companies on the map, today announced it has won a 2026 PRNEWS + Chief Marketer Experiential & Event PR Award in the Best Crisis Response Event Pivot category for its “Queer Joy Is Resistance” campaign with San Francisco Pride.
The campaign also received an Honorable Mention in the Best Cause/Community Event Campaign category.
“This marks our fourth year partnering with San Francisco Pride, and each year has challenged us to raise the bar,” said Shaun Leavy, senior vice president at Bospar. “Together, our campaigns have earned nearly three dozen industry awards recognizing advocacy, crisis communications, diversity and inclusion, LGBTQIA2S+ engagement and creative excellence, often competing against some of the world’s largest organizations while generating thousands of media placements and billions of impressions.”
“In 2025, we faced our greatest challenge yet,” added Leavy. “When corporate America pulled back and San Francisco Pride lost $2 million in sponsorships, many organizations would have quietly scaled back. Instead, we doubled down on Pride’s mission. By embracing the message that ‘Queer Joy Is Resistance’ and refusing to retreat, we helped generate more than 10 billion media impressions and inspired $2.5 million in new and restored funding. The lesson here is you can withdraw sponsorship dollars, but you can’t defund a movement.”
Turning a Funding Crisis into a National Movement
After San Francisco Pride turned to Bospar to help reshape the narrative, the agency drew on research into anti-LGBTQIA2S+ legislation and shifting corporate sentiment to position the 2025 theme, “Queer Joy Is Resistance,” as a national call for resilience.
Bospar paired radical transparency about the sponsorship shortfall with an aggressive national media campaign that secured coverage in The New York Times, NPR, The Guardian, ABC7 and dozens of other outlets. The campaign generated more than 10 billion media impressions, drove record-breaking livestream engagement and helped secure $2.5 million in new and recovered funding, transforming a financial crisis into a nationwide movement of visibility, solidarity and support.
“The best experiential campaigns don’t simply create memorable moments. They become stories people want to share,” said Kaylee Hultgren, associate publisher, Content and Awards, PRNEWS & Chief Marketer. “This year’s winners demonstrated exceptional creativity and strategic thinking while proving that experiential communications remain one of the most effective ways to build awareness, strengthen brand connections and create lasting audience engagement. We’re proud to celebrate the teams raising the bar for our industry.”
For the complete list of winners and honorable mentions, visit www.prnewsonline.com and www.chiefmarketer.com.
