We’re proud to announce that Marty Davies (they/them) is now our Joint CEO, working alongside Lucy McKillop (she/her). Marty joined the Outvertising board of directors in February 2021 and has been instrumental in our recent successes – playing a critical role in the delivery of our first ever in-person Outvertising Live, launching our Activism & Advocacy workstream and spearheading our efforts to counter LGBTQIA+ discrimination associated with the FIFA World Cup and the Safe To Be More conference.
“This fire that Mark started, that we now call Outvertising, really is a precious thing to be made caretaker of. Over the last two years, I’ve been endlessly impressed by the passion, talent and determination to create change in our industry from every Outvertising volunteer. And it’s that energy that makes me very excited and hopeful about the changes we’ll see over the coming years, accelerated along by our supportive partners, as we all continue to drive change for our queer community.
Brianna Ghey’s murder reminds us all how much work there is to do to drive LGBTQIA+ acceptance in our society. I believe advertising can be a powerful force for good – it’s the most ubiquitous communication medium, adverts reach each and every one of us. Advertising is also responsible for funding 50% of the news media and commentary we consume. For these reasons, I believe that our independent voice, advocating for our queer community from within the marketing and advertising community has never been more necessary.”
Away from Outvertising, Marty is the Co-Founder of Trans+ Adland, a grassroots community group of trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people across the world of marketing and advertising. They are also the founder of creative consultancy Smarty Pants.
We caught up with Marty to find out their hopes for Outvertising.
Quickfire questions for Marty
Firstly, a huge congratulations on your new role. We wanted to start by asking what you hope to achieve as Joint-CEO?
Nothing big, just systemic change.
But like anything a planner says, it’s three things really:
Continue to cultivate an LGBTQIA+ inclusive environment for people working in industry.
Grow our influence within the network of agencies and among media and brand owners.
Get more connected to the LGBTQIA+ sector - charities and queer-owned businesses – so we can use the power of advertising to help where our community needs it most.
How would you describe Outvertising to someone who’s new?
The most wonderful bunch of kind and generous changemakers on a mission to change the world. Or at the very least make big strides toward a more LGBTQIA+ inclusive industry in the work we output and in our work environments.
What’s the biggest challenge for the organisation?
I think of our volunteer energy as the most precious thing Lucy and I have been made caretakers of. Without it nothing would progress. The challenge is how do we nurture, grow and channel that passion in the right ways to achieve the most impact for the community. That's the forever challenge.
But once harnessed the challenge is to have this energy find ears and eyeballs of our senior industry leaders with power and influence. To convert them into our allies and partner with them to affect change.
Why should someone get involved now?
I can tell you why I’m involved right now. Outvertising has built solid foundations, developed a reputation and has momentum. We can affect change, genuinely, and that is an exciting thing to be part of. Our organisation turns four-years-old this year, we’ve learned to walk, now it’s time to run.
As a member of the trans+ community, what advice would you give to LGB allies in the industry?
The Trans+ community is under particular attack at the moment. In January this year, in the weeks leading up to Brianna Ghey’s murder, there were 1,202 articles from the big newspaper outlets. That’s an average of 38 articles a day. The majority with negative framing.
You might think you know what trans issues are but you’re likely more aware of the issues people have with trans people as this is what’s sucking up the airtime.
So I’d say, make space for trans, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex voices. Lean in to learning about the range of experiences, those unique to each of us and those that we share.
Use your own voices and influence to support and fight for our community. I think a member of our community Jamie June Hill said it best when they said our buckets of water are depleted. “If you've got the capacity please grab a hose, a pale, a flipping firetruck if you have one, because it'll take all of us to start pushing the blaze back.”
And the most practical piece of easy advice to take away today? Correct people using our incorrect pronouns when we’re not in the room.
Do you have any heroes? And if so, who?
I’m not sure having heroes is altogether healthy, it creates unrealistic expectations for the person being chiseled from stone. But I have people I admire and who inspire me. I do my best to magpie how they operate so I can personally affect as much change as one person can.
I admire Valentino Vecchietti. She has an indomitable force for intersex rights and visibility. Creator of the Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, I admire their determination and the change they’re inspiring through this iconic cultural symbol that’s being adopted worldwide. But I think I most admire their generosity and humility.
And I admire Shon Faye, she wrote the The Transgender Issue in 2021. I admire her argument making and skill as a writer and persuader and ability to do so with levity.
Away from the bubble of adland, what inspires you?
I’m a bit of a theatre nerd. And very very part time music journo. So I guess art inspires me. As cringe as that reads. With friends I’ve been working on new British musical about friendship, love and survival, set in Soho across 60 years, featuring the songs of Marc Almond and Soft Cell. We managed to stage a showcase at The Vaults Theatre before the pandemic and we’re very hopefully we’ll gather some momentum with the project over the coming months.
Favourite LGBTQIA+ ad?
The work by M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment for Absolut recently. The Absolut Choir - I feel genuinely seen and empowered by that work. Olly Alexander of Years & Years worked with grassroots organisation Trans Voices choir and many other changemakers to work on a new version of the song Shine.
It’s a great example of working with the queer community and lifting up and platforming important changemakers. M&C Saatchi say of it that their intention was to “open a conversation on stage to raise the volume of causes including LGBTQIA+ rights, self-love, better disability awareness and body positivity; proving that when we mix together and raise each other’s voices, we have the power to change the world.”
But in terms of marketing and sustained positive impact for our community… ads that don’t help fund journalism and comment that’s positioning trans+ people as dangerous and a threat to society. Those are my favourite ads at the moment.
What can we all look forward to in 2023?
We’ve built real momentum and visibility in 2022. This year we’re focusing on growing our community in order to grow our influence. We kicked off 2023 with our recruitment campaign. Coinciding with the start of LGBT History Month and created by our friends at Across the Pond, the ads feature rewritten scripts and headlines for some of the world’s most well-known ads, reimagining them to be more inclusive of LGBTQIA+ audiences. Our invitation is simple, join us and help us to build this future.
We’re already thinking about our annual event Outvertising Live. In 2022 we brought our queer community and allies together - it was an event that aligned us, inspired us and galvanised our spirit. This year we want to influence more C-suite - so this year we’ll be asking you to BYOB - bring your own boss. So keep a lookout for that at the back end of the year.
Finally, what’s one thing we might not know about you?
While working as a music journalist, I once turned down the opportunity to interview Lady Gaga. ‘Just Dance’ was number 1 in the UK at the time. I wasn’t all that keen. It felt very ‘dance anthem’ and heteronormative and I pigeonholed it as a one-hit wonder. At that time Lady Gaga was very ambiguous and impenetrable as an artist - but I also didn’t do much research. So I was very wrong not to do this interview.
I still like to do bits and pieces of music journalism when I’ve got something I really want to say. I recently wrote about the transfem mirror that is Sam Smith’s Gloria era for DIVA magazine.