Cross-industry collective, Allies Coming Out for Trans+, forms to encourage action to support the trans+ community and end dirty attention as hate crimes increase

Creative Equals, Outvertising, Smarty Pants, The Unmistakables and Utopia announce the launch of a new collective, Allies Coming Out for Trans+ (ACT+), which seeks to encourage support of the trans+ community amongst Marketing and Communications leaders. The collective will join forces to provide positivity as well as practical and tangible ways that leaders in the industry can come forward as allies in the election year. 

This comes at a time of a record breaking number of hate crimes against trans+ people in England and Wales according to the Home Office. A recent report recognised that “transgender issues have been heavily discussed by politicians, the media and on social media over the last year, which may have led to an increase in these offenses, or more awareness in the police in the identification and recording of these crimes.”.  This is an even more important task following Ofcom Chairman Michael Grade’s address to the industry that we must ‘get ahead of the harm’ and make ‘trust and safety a priority’, at the Lead Conference last month. 

Outvertising's Consumer Research report found that 60% LGBTQIA+ people in the UK are more likely to say that brands should express their views on political or social issues, and 64% say they are more likely to reject a brand if its views are not aligned with their own. 50% of non-LGBTQIA+ people say the same. More importantly, the majority of people say they are "not prejudiced" toward transgender people. And critically, marketers are aligned: three in four say the Bud Light fallout didn’t change their attitude towards purpose, according to the latest Contagious Radar report. 

Companies that have joined the collective include Bloom, Cannes Lions, Contagious, D&AD, Join Our Table, Pocc, Reckitt Benckiser, SheSays, Trans in the City, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, YouTube, WACL, WARC and WPP Unite. The executive briefing will gather agency and brand leaders including WPP and Google in an evening of discussion, including interrogating the media being funded to end ‘dirty attention’, specifically advocating for the divestment from disinformation and sensationalism, and increasing representation in the industry’s creative output. 

Outvertising Announces Thinkbox’s Chris Dunne As New Joint CEO

We’re happy to announce the appointment of Chris Dunne (he/him) as our new Joint CEO. Working alongside existing Joint CEO, Marty Davies (she/they), Chris will use his extensive network and industry experience to ensure that LGBTQIA+ inclusion remains a priority amongst brands and agencies, and evolve and expand Outvertising’s comprehensive training and development resources that support organisations to do this. 

Dunne takes over the role from outgoing Joint CEO, Lucy Mckillop, having spent the last 18 months as one of Outvertising’s Events Co-Directors where he led creation and curation of Outvertising’s internal and external events, including its flagship conference, Outvertising Live. In his new position, Dunne will work with Davies to continue Outvertising’s mission to influence organisations to better understand, protect and nurture LGBTQIA+ talent, and ensure there is greater, more authentic LGBTQIA+ representation across the industry’s creative output.  

Alongside Outvertising, Dunne is the Head of Marketing at Thinkbox, the marketing trade body for TV advertising in the UK, and has a career in the media and marketing industry that spans 20 years and several high profile marketing roles at media companies including Global, Guardian Media Group and DMG Media. 

As part of this new chapter of stewardship, Outvertising is also pleased to announce the appointment of new non-executive directors as part of its growth trajectory and expanding network of industry leaders at the helm. The new additions to the non-exec lineup will be responsible for providing governance as the organisation grows, and supporting Dunne and the entire executive board on its journey to increase the diversity, reach and influence of the organisation. 

The appointments include; Diana Tickell, Former NABS CEO; Jerry Daykin, VP Head of Media at Beam Suntory; Joanne Lucy, Group Managing Director at Major Players; Jose-Luiz Moura, former Salesforce UK and Ireland COO; Leng Montgomery, Senior Manager, Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Burberry; Matt Foster, Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Ogilvy UK; Russell Hunter, Head of Legal and Regulatory Compliance at ClearChannel International; and Scott Stockwell, Senior Brand Strategist at IBM.

Chris Dunne, Joint CEO, said of his appointment: “Outvertising is a profound force for good in the advertising industry. I’m so proud to be taking up this role to help build on the impressive momentum that has already been set by Marty and our remarkable leadership and volunteer team. I’m looking forward to working with all sides of our industry, to celebrate brilliant and effective LGBTQIA+ inclusive campaigns. And, at a time when the queer community is facing a rise in discrimination and hate crime, to inspire brands and agencies to produce more of this type of work more often.”

“Advertising is a powerful force for societal change, and the vast majority of the people who work in advertising are in my experience enlightened and progressive. Together we can help steer advertising in the best direction and maximise its power for good. I can’t wait to get started.”

Joint CEO Marty Davies commented on the appointments: “I’m excited to be welcoming Chris to the new role, and to work alongside the impressive lineup of new non-executives who are joining us to supercharge our mission. Outvertising’s reach and influence in UK adland continues to grow and so does the ambition of the whole volunteer team. But we still have much work to do to keep issues important to us high on the agenda in the boardroom - especially in an election year where trans+ people are being used as a distraction by politicians. Ad land must address a funding model which incentivises sensationalised and disinformative content about our community, and we must reestablish the commercial case for representation in creative work and protect the wellbeing of our queer talent. All this takes time, energy and skill to advocate for so I could not think of a more impressive team to make it happen.”

Our Statement: PinkNews Awards and Fossil Free Pride

The PinkNews Awards is a space where for many years LGBTQIA+ people have come together to celebrate our progress as a movement. 

Outvertising is proud to have been nominated this year, in part, for our successful campaigning during Pride Month urging brands to stand proudly behind their Pride campaigns during a year where they have been met with coordinated attacks. Even more so as our work is delivered by a group of volunteers who work with organisations large and small to achieve our mission to make the marketing and advertising industry completely LGBTQIA+ inclusive. We do this through supporting the queer community working in the sector, and by encouraging better, and more authentic representation of our community in the output of the industry.

Fossil Free Pride has a right to protest. As a wider movement that is born from protest we should respect that by listening to the argument they are making and the action they are seeking. Every industry and every business has a role to play in ensuring we invest in the tools, talent and thinking that pushes towards a sustainable future.

As an organisation, we encourage advertisers and agencies to act as “good corporate citizens” through inclusion, representation and policy. We hold ourselves accountable in the same way, and being aware of our impact on and contribution to the climate emergency makes up an important part of that. Of course, we encourage those we work with to do the same. For our own Outvertising events, we do not accept sponsorship from organisations that Fossil Free Pride have recommended avoiding. Specifically, those fossil fuel corporations listed in the Carbon Underground 200 and those that feature on the latest Banking on Climate Chaos report.

It should be noted that it has become harder to develop sponsorships for LGBTQIA+ events this year. We must acknowledge that there is a nervousness from organisations to align publicly with and advocate for our community due to the rise in anti-trans sentiment in particular. We’re currently experiencing this with our own event taking place next month.

As a volunteer organisation we have to stay laser focused on our mission and purpose. To this end, we cannot police everyone that our partners work with, or investigate the depth of the reasoning behind those partnerships. But we have spoken with both Fossil Free Pride and PinkNews prior to making this statement and have encouraged dialogue.

We hope that PinkNews will be listening to Fossil Free Pride’s message and work hard to do what is right and important. 

As ever, our mission stays the same: to make the UK marketing and advertising industry completely LGBTQIA+ inclusive. And we look forward to tonight’s event.