Rhiannon Lewis: “Fly the Pride Flag and Fight for Real Change”

It's June - the time when brands go rainbow mad. It’s also a time, in the lead up to which, my queer friends in the industry and beyond - the ones who are activists and spokespeople - get endless calls and emails asking for their hot take, and to generally to work for ‘exposure’ or for some free products. It’s a tale as old as time.

I sometimes feel a little bit cynical about Pride from the advertising angle. This year it’s feeling very different.

On one hand, I get the hypocrisy of companies who promote pride flags while receiving funds from homophobic organisations; we often see huge companies changing their profile pictures to one with a rainbow and then doing nothing else. That’s really not good enough and, just like green-washing, is now being rightfully called out and rejected as pink-washing by members of the LGBTQIA+ community and their allies. Pride is a protest first and foremost.

Things are markedly different this year and that’s why I'm saying, bring it on, to every Pride flag - physical or digital. Here's why...

2023 has been an awful year for LGBTQIA+ people and their rights, with governments here and across the pond weaponising the law and access to health services in order to curtail their rights.

In March, Florida’s ‘Don't Say Gay or Trans’ bill passed, which will be in effect from July. It's similar to Section 28 that Margaret Thatcher passed in the UK in the ‘80s, meaning that schools in Florida can't teach any material that discusses sexual orientation or gender identity to students. It’s basically a ban on any information about the existence of gay or people. This is concerning to say the least and the sentiment is spreading among the American right.

Don’t believe me? A quick glance at the news will confirm all this, as does the recent example of Budweiser’s campaign starring the transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney. What was so egregious about Dylan showing off her personalised can of Bud Light on her personal TikTok account? You decide - the brand’s sales dropped by more than 29% in the first week and now the brand has lost its top spot as the best-selling beer in America.

Sadly, on our home soil, we’re not faring much better. Protests of drag performances are becoming more commonplace, like a recent incident of the fascist group, Patriotic Alternative, holding protests outside Drag Queen Story Hour events in the UK. Have they forgotten that taking the kids to see panto is one of the UK’s most beloved Christmas traditions?

So now I feel like we should put the rainbow flags everywhere. Let's drown the right with rainbow flags. If every single company has a Pride symbol on their channels and in their product range, then the homophobes and transphobes won’t be able to boycott them all.

Above: stills from the Missguided campaign

I was lucky enough to produce Missguided's shapewear campaign - the first UK fashion campaign to feature transgender and non-binary models. We created some really powerful images - the kind I wish I'd seen when I was a kid, and images I'm proud to show my kids because they represent that there are different kinds of people in the world.

Above: stills from the Missguided campaign

Let’s not stop there and let’s not let a rainbow profile picture in June 2023 make us forget about making changes at the material level too.

We still have to look at inclusivity and representation beyond the screen to create long-lasting change. Brands, agencies, production and post-production companies, casting - we need more LGBTQIA+ people in every kind of company and across all levels of seniority. As a producer, I know that we can't make diverse content without the support of brands, but brands cannot be truly diverse until their businesses have diversity from the inside out. Think ‘nothing about us without us’, which is a helpful shorthand when addressing LGBTQIA+ issues in the industry, whether that’s a brilliant new campaign aimed at members of the community or inclusive initiatives.

Also, I’m very conscious that I write this as an ally. I want to add my voice to the conversation, but I do not want it to overshadow the many powerful words and calls to action from members of the LGBTQIA+ community already out there, like Macaela VanderMost’s sobering words to allies on how to best show support.

So, let’s fly the pride flag and fight for real change, inclusivity, and visibility whenever the opportunity presents itself.