5 Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Campaigns
For marketers, being inclusive doesn't just mean making ads to appease people, but authentically connecting to pain points and issues that real people face.
For instance, using the right pronouns for someone, being inclusive of LGBTQ+ parents, working to dispel discriminatory practices against transgender people, are effective ways marketers can set the right tone both externally through ads and internally with work culture.
Creating authenticity in advertising is seeing people for who they are and allowing them to live their lives publicly, without shame or fear. Having people hide themselves out of fear for their safety and possible ostracization, whether at home or in the workplace, is not okay nor should it be the norm. However, feeling the need to hide is sadly still common.
According to BBC, almost 6 percent of adults in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+. And yet, as stated in a recent article, "as of 2019, 21 percent of all LGBTQ Europeans reported experiencing workplace discrimination; among transgender people specifically, that rate jumped to 36 percent. In the U.S., 36 percent of all LGBTQ people reported workplace discrimination, and 46 percent reported being closeted at work. In China, meanwhile, only 5 percent of LGBTQ employees reported being completely open about their identities at work."
However, effective storytelling in ads isn't just about the scenario presented, but how it's presented. Tokenization and stereotyping are two ways marketers often create ineffective ads. No one wants to be the "token" LGBTQ+ person at a company meeting or family function — and no one wants to see ads stereotyping the community (which itself is diverse).
Featuring drag queens and rainbow flags can be authentic, for example, but it's not the only way to showcase what the LGBTQ+ community looks like.
Gender and sexual orientation are just part of what makes someone's identity, just as being a parent or part of a religious group is; and while that needs to be included and acknowledged, the line between making fun inappropriately, tokenizing, and stereotyping can be blurry. And it's a marketer's job to understand that line — and understand how to connect with people in a true and honest way.
Kristen Voorhees, a director at D.C.-based public relations firm Clyde Group and cofounder of The QREW, a community group organizing events for queer women in the D.C. metropolitan area, wrote in LGBTQ Nation, "Yet today, many companies embrace a homonormative approach to Pride celebrations, pandering to cisgender, gay, white men in their marketing.
Following the recent wave of police killings and racial injustice, any Pride PR campaign that is not intersectional will be at risk of public backlash. Include Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), women, and trans and nonbinary people in your outreach — including visual representation and community-specific messaging."
Further, a Pew Research Center study found that four in 10 LGBTQ+ people are rejected by family or friends when they come out. According to Mastercard, transgender individuals still report unemployment at twice the rate of the population, and they are more likely to be unemployed or experience discrimination even compared to their cisgender peers within the LGBTQ+ community.
In addition, 68 percent of transgender people say that none of their IDs had the name and gender they preferred, as reported by Mastercard, and 32 percent who have shown an ID card with a name or gender that did not match their gender presentation were verbally harassed, denied benefits or service, asked to leave, or assaulted.
This illustrates the need for more companies, internally and externally, to be cognizant of what someone's preferred pronouns are — and educating its employees to understand not to make assumptions based on someone's appearance. Instead of assuming a pronoun, companies should create a culture where employees are encouraged to ask and share their pronouns.
Beck Bailey, director of the HRC's Workplace Equality Program, recently told SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), "Some companies are starting to do audits, identifying all the places where gender intersects in the workplace. Then they can start to make language and policies as neutral or gender-inclusive as possible."
Companies are already starting to implement these policies, such as Goldman Sachs. In a blog post, Goldman shared "tips for being an inclusive ally" and wanted to "enable our people to optimize their potential, we believe in fostering an inclusive environment where they feel comfortable to be their authentic selves."
Similarly, Virgin has also added an optional field for employees to write their preferred pronouns in their email signatures.
Below are some campaigns that capture authentic moments and connect with LGBTQ+ consumers and their families and friends — and may provide inspiration for success:
P&G's "You Can't Cancel Pride"
P&G partnered with iHeart to create the largest LGBTQ+ relief effort of its kind. Together, the two companies created "Can't Cancel Pride" — a virtual relief effort to help raise visibility and more than $4 million for LGBTQ+ communities most affected by COVID-19.
COVID-19 had a significant impact on the LGBTQ+ community and its fundraising efforts, especially as a disproportionate number of LGBTQ+ individuals work in restaurants, retail, arts and entertainment, and education, and these industries were greatly affected by COVID-19. Stay-at-home orders also closed community centers and support groups millions of LGBTQ+ individuals rely on.
Consequently, the LGBTQ+ community has been facing tremendous loss financially and emotionally. Pride Month represents a primary fundraising period for LGBTQ+ organizations. A lack of Pride events combined with the financial uncertainty due to COVID-19 created a sharp decrease in critical fundraising for these organizations.
For its Can't Cancel Pride campaign, P&G worked extensively to ensure that the entire LGBTQ+ community was fully represented — focusing on intersectionality. Over $4 million raised in benefitting six LGBTQ+ charities: The Trevor Project, GLAAD, Outright International, CenterLink, Sage, and the National Black Justice Coalition. In addition, the campaign earned a 99.8 percent positive social sentiment rate in a highly complicated social environment prompted by COVID-19, racial injustice, and ongoing anti-corporate sentiment toward Pride activation.
Los Angeles LGBT Center's "What's Love?"
On National Coming Out Day, the Los Angeles LGBT Center wanted to remind parents who are struggling to accept the gender identity or sexual orientation of their teenaged children that their rejection has the power to change the outcome of their family's story.
October 11 is National Coming Out Day, which celebrates the act of "coming out," or when an LGBTQ+ person decides to publicly share their gender identities or sexual orientation. According to the organization, recent research showing that LGBTQ+ youth from families who rejected their identities were more than eight times as likely to attempt suicide.
As such, the Los Angeles LGBT Center wanted to ensure that L.A.'s LGBTQ+ community, especially teens and their parents, knew the organization as a source of support and hope. To do this, it created its video, What's Love?, tells the story of teens who aren't afforded the luxury of "stereotypical" teenage heartbreak that comes at the hands of an unrequited teenage crush or being left out of the "cool kid" group at school.
This showed that LGBTQ+ teens can experience an altogether different kind of heartbreak: that of their parents' disappointment and disapproval at their "coming out."
Verizon's "Love Calls Back"
To help LGBTQ+ youth come out and feel accepted by family and friends, Verizon launched Love Calls Back. The company's work helped four families reunite with the LGBTQ+ loved ones they had shunned and turned reconciliation into a national conversation inspiring over 69,000 families to pick up the phone too.
Verizon didn't want to be another company that commercialized Pride, and instead the company asked the crucial question: What if a phone network famous for connecting people, could use its power to reconnect people? In response, Verizon took on the task of inspiring families who shunned LGBTQ+ loved ones to pick up the phone and reconnect.
Mastercard's "Acceptance Matters"
For many transgender and nonbinary individuals, the name displayed on the front of their cards represents someone they're not. In order to address this pain point, Mastercard created the True Name card as a way to allow people to identify the way they choose.
This campaign resulted in more than 10 national banks and partners expressed interest in adding the True Name feature to its products, with BMO Harris and Superbia Credit Union launching late 2019.
Pantene's "Home for the Holidays"
According to research shared by Pantene, 44 percent of LGBTQ+ people feel they can't come home during the holidays as their true selves, fearing their identity won't be accepted. Pantene's Home for the Holidays campaign brought awareness to the challenges many LGBTQ+ people face during the family-centric holiday season, while celebrating individuality, love, and true beauty.
In 2018, Pantene conducted a research study, which revealed that 60 percent of the LGBTQ+ community changes their hair when they have a life or identity change. Yet, 85 percent of the community faces stigma or judgment because of their appearances and behaviors, including their hair style.
Another Pantene study, from 2019, also revealed that 44 percent of LGBTQ+ people feel they can't come home as their true selves, fearing their identity won't be accepted. Because of this insight, Pantene wanted to raise awareness to this fact and help families come together.
Source
"5 Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Campaigns," ANA, 2021.