ABOUT

our Director of Strategy Lucy Rennie and Creative Director Adam Kirby designed and facilitated a collaborative half-day workshop with a group of young people from akt, (a charity supporting the UK’s LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25), brought together by the British LGBT Awards team & hosted by Google.

We reviewed ‘inclusive’ ads with the LGBTQIA+ youth and asked what they and others really wanted to see in advertising or any content during Pride. The answer? They didn’t need more cliche Pride glitz, or sentimental survival story ads. Instead, they wanted to actually see and hear authentic and relatable older queer role models ‘who’ve been there, done that’ and are still smiling! Without it, it’s hard for young people to see what their future may hold.

We not only did a public call out to find and represent as much diversity of resilient queer joy in front of the camera as we could, but maintained representation ‘behind the camera’ too. With queer representation from all of the enabling partners, and the use of distillery’s studio d, we’ve been able to raise up and ensure queer people were at the helm behind the scenes with allies throughout.

At its core, this project is simply sharing unscripted diversity of resiliently joyful wisdom and tips from one generation of queers to the next. With our partners, we’re using a smart media mix to efficiently get it seen by young people across the UK, as well as engaging content creators and celebrities like Ian McKellen, and YOU to now help it be seen!