Ant Jackson Joins Outvertising

Ant Jackson (she/her) - Senior Creative Group Head and ED&I Lead at independent creative agency, Space - joins our board as Co-Director of Outvertising’s new workstream, Advocacy and Activism.

Known for writing Lidl’s tagline, ‘Big On Quality, Lidl On Price’, Ant has created award-winning work for some of the world’s leading brands. She also consults for organisations with social purpose at their core, and teamed up with Janette Hall (former Head of Strategy at WeAreFearless, now Creative Campaigner at Greenpeace) to help launch and position inclusive research organisations, Queer Voices Heard and The Diversity Standards Collective.

Ant has co-led several ED&I industry groups, where she’s been involved in projects and initiatives that aim to improve inclusivity and belonging for marginalised people. These include Outvertising’s Queer Female Representation Open Letter, WPP Unite and One Club For Creativity’s Behind The Stonewall Riots project to improve Queer Black representation, and most recently Pride Crits, a collaboration with Young Creative Council, Outvertising and Toaster to help LGBTQIA+ creatives entering the industry. Ant is also an Outvertising mentor, and a proud neurodiverse member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“We live in an unequal world, where corporations, brands and agencies (including you and I) have capitalised at the expense of marginalised people for way too long. And it’s no longer hidden behind smoke and mirrors. Now that we recognise our own privilege and fragility, every person within the industry has a choice: to continue creating short-term solutions that look great as a case study film, but wash over the bigger picture issues (and in many cases make them worse), or work together to create long-term strategies that can help solve some of the world’s real problems.

I firmly believe that brands and agencies have both a responsibility and a key influential role in repairing and shaping our world for the better. But a creative comms-led approach alone will not give us the right solutions. If making a pride-coloured logo was effective, why is it that homophobic and trans-hate continues to rise? It’s time we all started to think smarter.

We have a lot of power to make positive change. But to do that, we need to be brave enough to actually zag when everyone else zigs. I’m looking forward to working with my Co-Director Marty, the people of Outvertising, campaigning organisations, and as many allies as possible to advocate and plan for a more inclusive way forward. Are you in?
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— Ant Jackson

Introducing our new purpose

This Pride Month, we’re launching a new, more-focused purpose for Outvertising. To do this, we’ve teamed up with director Daisy Gaston to create a film celebrating adland’s queer community and challenging every brand and agency to join our fight for LGBTQ+ inclusion.

So why do we exist? We have a simple but ambitious goal to make UK advertising and marketing completely LGBTQ+ inclusive. From the work we produce to the experience of queer people in the workplace, we’re resolute in driving change that improves the lives of our community. As an industry dedicated to the art and science of communication we’re in a unique position to lead the charge.

This matters now more than ever. Recent progress is at stake and every day we are witnessing growing hostility in the UK media towards LGBTQ+ people — in particular our trans siblings. A 2021 report from Trans Actual found 93% of UK trans people believe that media transphobia had translated into real world discrimination when out in public and 81% reported it has impacted their experience with colleagues.*

Our new film features a joyous selection of the people that make up Outvertising – LGBTQ+ advertising professionals and allies from agencies, brands and consultancies actively working for better representation and truly inclusive workplaces. In the words of our Joint-CEO Lucy McKillop, “by purposefully putting people at the heart of our film, we’re taking a confident step forward. This is a representation of all that Outvertising is and does - huge props go to our volunteers for making such an authentic and joyful piece.”

The film also follows the release of the All in Plan’s new LGBTQ+ action** to welcome the use of pronouns in the workplace, with research showing LGBTQ+ employees are more than twice as likely to have a mental health condition (28% vs 12% industry average*** and experience higher levels of stress (45% of LGBTQ+ report higher stress levels vs 30% of heterosexuals).

Watch the film below, and please share far and wide.

* Trans Lives Survey 2021, Trans Actual

** All In Action Plan, June 2022

*** All In Action Plan, April 2022

Outvertising partners with the Advertising Association, IPA and ISBA to develop latest step in the All In Action Plan.

All In has announced the next three actions in the All In plan, covering Mental Health, LGBTQ+ inclusion and Physical Disability. This is latest step in UK advertising’s action plan from the Advertising Association, IPA and ISBA to build a workplace where everyone feels they belong.

We’re proud to say that we’ve worked with the AA to develop an LGBTQ+ action, shaped by data from the landmark All In Census, which saw 16,000 advertising professionals take part.

This action ask companies to improve the experience of our LGBTQ+ talent by welcoming the use of gender pronouns in their organisations. According to data from the All In Census, 45% of LGBTQ+ people reported stress/anxiety compared to 31% industry average. LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have been made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace (20% versus 13% of heterosexual people).

Mark Runacus MBE, Joint Chief Executive of Outvertising and Chair of the LGBTQ+ Working Group, said: “This is an opportunity for the UK creative industries to lead the way in belonging. By welcoming and encouraging the use of pronouns, employers can help LGBTQ+ employees bring their full authentic selves to the workplace and strongly signal the importance of inclusion for everyone. We believe that in doing this we’ll all be more creative, more innovative, and more productive.”

For more information visit the All In Hub and read more in our Employer Guidance resources.