Screen shot from Rob Cham's Facebook account — Screen shot from Rob Cham’s Facebook account

MANILA, Philippines—In response to the defacing of the billboard on Edsa celebrating gender equality and love, social media users have taken to their accounts to post messages of support for the campaign using the hashtag #painttheirhandsback.

Screen grab from Mara Chua's Instagram account — Photo of the defaced billboard. Screen grab from Mara Chua’s Instagram account

The billboard showing magazine creative director Vince Uy holding hands with boyfriend Nino Gaddi has been defaced, with the hands of Uy and Gaddi being painted over shortly after it had been set up.

Apart from sharing messages of support for the campaign, netizens on Friday posted images of the couple’s billboard painted with digitally altered or cartoon-like hands.

The hashtag and the images have been getting a lot of buzz online, with artists and designers giving their own take on the couple’s hands, from covering them up with images of Mickey Mouse gloves to hand “emojis.”

The billboard, which is part of the latest advertisement campaign of lifestyle brand Bench, also features makeup artist Ana Paredes with girlfriend Carla Peña, actress Gloria Romero with grandson Chris Gutierrez and Solenn Heussaff with fiancé Nico Bolzico.

https://storify.com/inquirerdotnet/netizens-on-bench-billboard

Edsa billboard promotes gender equality, ‘all kinds of love’