Ep 20: Pride Campaigns 2023
Shownotes
In this weeks episode, Arima’s founder Joyann Boyce and Arima team member Jade Pett break down some campaigns from Pride 2023. This includes Adidas' "Let Love Be Your Legacy", Outvertising's "Stand Your Ground," and the Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light drama.
Watch the episode on YouTube here.
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Useful links:
Adidas Let Love Be Your Legacy.
Outvertising Stand Your Ground.
Transcript
Joyann Boyce 0:02
Welcome to the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast. I am your host Joyann Boyce. On this podcast, we're going to discuss all things inclusive marketing, from persona creation, campaigns, and even some of the mishaps we see in the media. Tune in and let me know your thoughts and how we can make inclusive marketing the industry standard. Welcome, and welcome back to the Marketing Made Inclusive podcast today you are with myself Joyann Boyce. And…
Jade Pett 0:32
Hi. I'm Jade.
Joyann Boyce 0:36
Jade, you act like you haven't been on the podcast before.
It's been a while.
It has been a while but we're back. We're back. And we're back with a fun segment we're going to talk about pride campaigns we are in the month of June. But this is something that occurs every year. And on the last episode, I kind of put the question out there, and we'll discuss it as a team. What will pride look like in terms of marketing in it in 2020? But to know that we kind of have to think about what we've seen thus far. And I feel like I've been out of touch. I have to be honest, I think I need to start watching TV again and stop working as much.
Jade Pett 1:21
Yes, same.
Joyann Boyce 1:24
Because I'm missing all the, I only ever see the extreme campaign. So the ones that are really, really good. Or, like we briefly spoke about behind the scenes the Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light campaigns, the ones that get a lot of backlash. But I've recently come across like some every day, you know, obviously we have all the companies changing their logos, I'm a bit immune to that now.
Jade Pett 1:51
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 1:52
Now it's kind of the opposite when I see a company not change their logo I'm just like, why, that company is homophobic which the logo thing has now become so normalised it means nothing. Either way.
Jade Pett 2:09
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's kind of pointless at this point. I feel like like it is taking a stand. But it is so normalised that like, no one even like, acknowledges that I feel like.
Joyann Boyce 2:22
I do give kudos to the companies that have the latest version of the pride flag, which has the Black and Brown in it as well. And not just the old version, I guess. One thing I haven't seen companies do is, is changed their logo to the various intersection flags. So you know, you have the lesbian flag, you have the trans flag, you have the old variations.
Jade Pett 2:50
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 2:52
I don't know how I would feel about that. Like, you know.
Jade Pett 2:54
No, it feels like it would be risky, I think because it's pay equal attention on to all of them. That's a lot. But at the same time, if they only spotlighted on one, then all the other ones will be like, what about us? So I feel like there's room for it. But that would be like an interesting one to try and navigate.
Joyann Boyce 3:15
Yeah, that is interesting. But they do it's funny, they don't do it the fly but they do it in the commercial. Because you see the ad and it would be like here is this happy quer couple who are buying life insurance. Okay, but why are they both men and their way and they're middle class. Okay, so it's still the same demographic you just swapped out one thing?
Jade Pett 3:41
Yeah, yeah.
Joyann Boyce 3:43
Oh my gosh, what campaigns have you seen lately?
Jade Pett 3:47
I haven't seen many. I had to like look, I feel like I used to see quite a lot but these days it's like an effort to look. Addidas is one that I've noticed. They don't have a full-on campaign for it though. I've seen on TikTok, like there is some kind of video clip, something. But they're not posting about it on any of their socials, which is interesting. Like, you think it's a full pride line. And they have like celebrities endorsing it.
Joyann Boyce 4:21
So they've created the pride product.
But they're not posting it.
But they're not.
Jade Pett 4:25
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 4:26
And this product was, was it launched during June, Pride month?
Jade Pett 4:31
This year. Fresh out. Yeah. A full, I think it's like a full line of clothes. I know, the only person is coming to mind is Tom Daley. He's the only one that, like I recognise but Tom's there, and other people are there and it's pretty. I mean, I always instantly look for like, what's the representation looking like and we've got like a good range of skin tones. Obviously, LGBTQ plus representation, and I think like, there's like different varying in bodies, like we have some more hardcore athletes and then some that are just like more like influencers kind of everyday people. So it's like a good range of people in there looks like. But they're not kind of, I had to look for it. I didn't know that this was a thing.
Joyann Boyce 5:16
So today is there not like one billboard or anything that you could we could look at?
Jade Pett 5:23
Not that I could find. I found this one TikTok.
Joyann Boyce 5:28
Good old TikTok. TikTok is our trusty platform. So is it an official campaign, or?
Jade Pett 5:37
It's an official campaign, like this is Addidas' clip and they have a page on their website about it, but they're not posting it. Like this is from another TikTok account that I found. That's reposting it.
Joyann Boyce 5:49
So for the individuals listening, it's essentially a beach, like a beach party scene. And the first thing I know is other than people's crotches because that's what they're showing us a lot of shots of, is the skin tone.
Jade Pett 6:05
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 6:05
The skin tone representation, the hair representation, body sizes, it is very intersectional. But the clothing is not. It's not screaming pride. Normally, they slap a rainbow on the side and you're like ooh, pride, product, love it. But it is just giving people moving in clothing, enjoying themselves. I like that one. I I always have a back and forth on whether the campaign should explicitly state it because there are people who are gonna watch it and not know that was a pride collection or not know that they were supporting it. But then again, yeah. Does all marketing have to be so? Direct?
Jade Pett 6:55
Yeah, in your face, they do have like I said, a web page. And I think there's like a little quote maybe from each person that's like, because they're all, well, at least a number of them. I don't, like I said only recognise Tom. But a number of them are kind of influencers or celebrities and it kind of talks about them and their story and who they are a little bit so they do break it down on the website. But it does seem to be very subtle.
Joyann Boyce 7:23
Is maybe that's where it's going. It's subtle. It's subtle. I don't know if I want to say better, or is subtle, the new normal and then when you make a stand you make a stand. You know, every single campaign doesn't have to be this big hole. Parade. Ironic. Doesn't have to be this big old parade. No, I like that word I but I'm not gonna I'm not a fan of clothing. In terms of visual.
Jade Pett 7:57
It's that person. I can't remember their name now. But like a person designed it as this is like a collection like Addidas and insert there name here.
Joyann Boyce 7:57
Okay, okay. And I'm assuming the person if they are not queer, that would be weird, but I'm assuming the person is.
Jade Pett 8:17
I'm pretty sure they're queer. Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 8:18
I always find that fascinating. Were like, we're going to put together a thing. And we're just going to hire everyone that doesn't represent the community to create it kind of defeats the purpose. But anywho, I'm not saying that non-queer people, straights, can't create queer campaigns. However, I think what is something intentional for pride, it would make sense to make it a 360 ecosystem. You are paying a software designer,
you're hiring queer models, you are profiting on queerness and pride. So put the money back into those individuals pockets now.
Jade Pett 9:11
Yeah, I agree.
Joyann Boyce 9:13
Okay, well, what else have you got in the spiel of things?
Jade Pett 9:17
Well, I found this which was really interesting. If I can find it now. So it's not a campaign per se. It's more like like a charter you know, when like, people have to release a statement and they have to standby it. It's more of that.
Joyann Boyce 9:42
You're gonna tell me which company it is and I'm just not going to. Okay, I do. Out-vertising.
Outvertising. Oh, that's clever. I only just got... I'd never read it aloud before.
Outvertising, I do know of them. So they're an organisation that is trying to encourage, as far as I remember, encourage people to advertise and include queer individuals and their story narratives. That right?
Jade Pett 10:23
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 10:25
So okay, now I'm not as sceptical because when you said, a pledge for people to sign up to us, it's like if you're gonna tell me, Coca-Cola, Unilever came out with a pledge. I'm like, I'm a squint. But this seems okay. So advertising tells brands stand your ground this Pride Month. Advertising remains absolute in continuing our pursuit to make marketing and advertising completely LGBTQI plus inclusive. With pride month upon us, we invite industry to join us in that pursuit. Oh, anti LGBTQIA plus groups are relentlessly attacking brands that demonstrate ally ship with our community. That is true. Yeah, as part of their efforts to halt and rollback LGBTQI plus inclusion in society at large. These fringe groups are attempting to erase our community in the media, including in the ads people see the trans plus community weathering the brunt of this target to the campaign of hate, and they must be protected. But this hate is not limited to our trans plus friends. The whole LGBTQIA plus community are feeling the effects. There is no room for performative gestures, or empty commitments in 2023. Love is love, but money talks. I just, I'm just gonna say that last bit again, love is love, but money talks. That, I, everything they've said in this is on point. It's clear. It's what they do. It's what the whole organisation is about. But I love a good snappy phrase. Yeah, because we see a lot of the time when we're talking about inclusive marketing. Everyone's just like, oh, that's so nice. And I'm like, yes, but also money. It's marketing.
Jade Pett 12:20
Yeah, definitely. And so what so they're basically asking people to stand their ground. Like brands with Pride ads, run them. Brands working with LGBTQIA plus talent, protect them. Brands with pride events plans, keep them. Brands with Pride products, display them. Like be proud about what you're doing and don't like, if you're gonna do it. Don't like have been have felt like do it? And do you know, do it with kind of pride? I guess? Haha, because you're representing like a big group of people. And if you're going to support them, then support them.
Joyann Boyce 12:59
Yeah, I just gonna continue on the other apps they have because this one's a good one. And I think we just saw it in the ad brands with rainbow logos back this up with declaration of meaningful action. So hiring the people, hiring the models, making sure. Brands that come under attack, brave the backlash. Brands with media spend, invest in the media that matches your values, divest from media that spreads disinformation. I love this. I love this because it's on two elements is not just the statement of action. It is practical, it still works in a capitalist society. Sometimes I have a lot of pushback, myself when I see organisations or movements, make statements that are somewhat idealistic. And I'm like, yes, we need to change things. Yes, we need to break things down. However, what can we do today in the society and the environment that we're in and this gives you clear whatever a brand is doing because you know that you know, when they do a campaign with their latest pride-related rainbow makeup, they're gonna fly up all the influencers to somewhere and this is like if you're gonna put on that event and fly these influencers to there and have them post content, back it up with spending the money to protect them, back it up with knowing that if backlash happens, you're not going to backtrack and remove the ad. I love it.
Jade Pett 14:30
Yeah, make it have meaning as well don't do it for the sake of doing it.
Joyann Boyce 14:35
I absolutely love it. So we're gonna link this with is this and then we're gonna link it in the show notes. Because I think yeah, it's straightforward. It's simple. Love is love but money talks is how I'm going to be.
Jade Pett 14:51
That is a good one.
Joyann Boyce 14:52
Good. Oh, my days I think an influencer recently came out with a track and it'd be great if we can find it where she's just like, you want to pay me in exposure but exposure to the pay my bills. I was just like, yeah. Because a lot of the time, especially for marginalised influences underrepresented, like, oh, no, we'll just give you the platform. Like, sorry, exposure doesn't pay bills. Love is love, but money talks have made my day with that one, Jade. That's good. That's good. I like that. Is there any other campaign that we have that demonstrates that money talks aspect, we can see they've put the money behind it?
Jade Pett 15:40
I can't think of any. What is coming to my mind after reading that though is the Dylan like, what happened there. I don't think Bud Light have even come up with a response to it, though. So I don't know. And it wasn't technically Pride, either. But I just think it's like on the top of my mind right now.
Joyann Boyce 16:00
Yes. So for those who don't know. Bud Light partnered with Dylan Mulvaney. Dylan Mulvaney is an individual who has been publicly going on their transition journey of becoming a girl. And going through that process. Now. I don't particularly want to go on to the whole. So my whole narrative of this is that I don't think Bud Light as a brand was one, ready or two, aware of how they've, they were perceived. I get why they wanted to do it. They wanted to skip a couple steps. I think they skipped a couple steps in trying to shift to attract Gen Z.
Jade Pett 16:56
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 16:59
Because I feel that that's what I feel like yes, it was obviously still in as a trans individual supporting trans and so forth. But also Dylan's also young. Dylan's beautiful and trendy and taken over TikTok all these things that you know, you know, you can go into the meeting like yes, we need to get the younger demographic we need to we need to be woke, quote, unquote. Like, yeah, let's just go in and do this without putting any of those things that we just listed into consideration.
Jade Pett 17:32
Yeah, it's interesting. I heard now this is hearsay. This is like I heard this from a news anchor talk in response. That was someone new was hired to Bud Lights when a lot younger and they wanted to kind of make Bud Light. Whoa. So everything you're saying makes a lot of sense. Apparently, they were sick of the like, the frat boy image but again, it's still young demographic. It's weird. And the response was so intense.
Joyann Boyce 18:11
But I, I, well, maybe I'm being biassed here. But I could have predicted that response from a mile off. Because I don't even drink Bud Light. I'm not associated this an American brand. We don't really have it here in the UK. But if I was to describe who their target persona and audience is having seen their branding in the past, it is someone who's out in the countryside fishing, you know, it is the stereotypically manly man. Do you know what also interesting contrast to that is the campaign we use a lot in our workshops, which was done by Gillette.
Jade Pett 18:52
I was just thinking.
Joyann Boyce 18:54
Gillette is one of those brands that when people think of it, they probably think of the same type of individual may be someone who is wearing a suit or really trendy but the way Gillette approached that was through storytelling, they still had an individual in the campaign. So they had an older black man teaching his trans son how to shave. Now, if someone wasn't aware of change, right, so wasn't aware of anything. They would just see that story and be like, oh, a dad teaching a son to shave. Cool, yeah. Then you have the other layers of okay, I connect to the older person or the younger person in that cool. Then when you get to the end of it, you realise at some point or you pay attention to the ad, and you connect that is a trans individual and then you're like, oh, okay, so they took their viewers on a visual journey, but also, it still was selling Shavers.
Jade Pett 19:56
Yeah.
There was no huge stand. It's like the main story of that that commercial was shave, buy our product. Whereas I don't think I have ever seen and I've seen Dylan's TikToks, I don't think I've ever seen them drink a Bud Light.
Now was it, just to clarify, well, was it posted by Bud Light or by Dylan? Because I think that makes a difference.
Joyann Boyce 20:25
I think I don't even know if I can find the campaign. I'm actually looking for it right now.
Jade Pett 20:33
I'm assuming Bud Light, just from the response, because otherwise, I don't know how so many people would have seen it. Because not everyone obviously is following Dylan, unless it blew up.
Joyann Boyce 20:46
I think it blew up. So that company that owns Bud Light, did put out an apology, there's so many elements about it that doesn't connect for a marketing sense. And I know, a lot of the reason why this was so controversial was because Dylan is trans. But even if Dylan wasn't trans and was a cis het woman with her aesthetic, with, it just doesn't make sense.
Jade Pett 21:16
Well, it's for March Madness, which I think is basketball. And the whole time, she's just saying like sports, yay, I don't know. Sure. Which is like if you're gonna get like, get someone trans but have someone interested in sports.
Joyann Boyce 21:34
The intentional intersectionality of it. I think back to, so another campaign, I remember seeing I think it's one of our Christmas campaigns we shared where, no, it wasn't a Christmas one. It was the period campaign. Where at some point in there, there's a lesbian couple in a doctor's office and getting scanned for their pregnancy. It was so subtle. It was so subtle, but it stuck to the narrative. And I think I mean, the narrative of the whole commercial, the story about, you know, period pains and the journey, a woman goes through having a womb. And just to circle back to what we were saying earlier, I think that is where pride and celebrating pride and putting on commercials is going. Is that
Yeah.
Sticking to the story, which is good advertising and good marketing, and sprinkling in intentional intersectionality.
Jade Pett 22:36
Yeah, yeah, there's a lot. These days, the ones that stick out to me are the ones with intersectionality, the ones that are they're not just focusing on Pride and LGBTQI people, but they're also showing Black and Brown skin tones, and they're showing disabled individuals, and they're showing like, you know, they're showing a realistic portrayal of how queer actually looks, because it's not all white and young and thin. It like, real, I'm gonna keep saying real, because it is supposed to be a reflection of real life. And it's not been for so long. So now, that's what I'm looking out for. I'm looking out for a variety of people.
Joyann Boyce 23:24
Yeah, I'm excited. I think we've got to saturation point with pride now that to be creative as a marketer. If you're going to put on a campaign during June and specifically brand it as a pride campaign, the creativity needs to be up there. It needs to be intentional, needs to be, it, we're now challenging a new phase of it. I think, but again, we are in the world, we constantly like a campaign. So we might have rose-tinted glasses on here. And I really want you listeners to let us know your opinion, let us know. Are we being too optimistic that this is where it's going? What campaigns have you seen, feel free to tweet us at Arima & co across all platforms. And if you want to keep up to date with the campaign's that we're looking at, and were enjoying, sign up to our mailing list. The link for that is in the description or the show notes. I'm excited for the next 10 years how market is going to change in terms of a celebration of pride. Yeah, thank you so much for listening and enjoying the Marketing Made Inclusive podcasts. Sign up for our mailing list, and we'll keep you up to date on all things inclusive marketing.
