What does real commitment look like, and what are the risks brands need to acknowledge before accepting it?
I try to get brands to do a minimum of a two-year partnership. Meaningful stuff.
There are three pillars that are the lightning rods for the right. One is LGBTQ+, using the dog whistles of trans and drag. The second is critical race theory or ‘wokeness’—that’s how they’re coming through on the intersectionality of Black people and reproductive health. Those are the three and then three intersect.
It’s navigating those things, so we work with brands and show them the entire landscape and tell them that the campaign should be talking about what you’re doing right now. ‘Love is love’ means jack shit to me. Also, if you’re gonna work with LGBTQ+ people, name us.
Depending on the client, it can be an uncomfortable process. But the end result for me is joyous, because we all grow from it.
Does that conversation prepare clients for any outcome once the campaign is released?
I think it depends on the brand. If you’re used to controversy, if you’re Nike, if you’re Adidas, you can deal with it.
If you’re some FMCG brand that just wanted to bring out, then it can feel deafening. But our experience has been that this too shall pass… with the caveat that we’re in unknown territory right now.
We just have to flex and move as we go along. I’ve always thought about, when we do LGBTQ or any marginalized [group] campaigns, the psychological and physical safety of the people we’re working with. And I’m not sure the Bud Light team understood that. I think about two separate things with Dylan Mulvaney: Dylan Mulvaney the business and Dylan Mulvaney the person. As a young person, I couldn’t handle that much vitriol. So there is a human being at the heart of this that has not been safeguarded.
When we’ve done campaigns in the past, we’ve not tagged LGBTQ people so that they don’t receive hate. We’re in a new era where, you know, sometimes you’ve just got to turn off the comments. Let it ride.
By pushing to cleave the trans community away from the LGBTQ+ spectrum as a whole, critics have pushed back on brands by targeting one of the most vulnerable segments of an already marginalized group. How do you convey to brands the importance of including everyone in their purportedly inclusive marketing?
I’m cisgender, gay and I center my trans and gender nonconforming siblings—and particularly trans and gender nonconforming siblings of color—in the work that I do because they are the most marginalized.
They are, like you say, the most vulnerable, and also some of the most joyous, abundant, amazing people in our community. They are the vanguard of my community’s movement and some of the bravest, and so I automatically center them in the work and in the benefits of the work—the labor, hiring trans people, gender nonconforming people, bringing them through the process, etc.