How our creativity must move us beyond ‘Love is Love’

Marty Davies (they/them) is a UK-based creative strategy consultant, campaigner, writer and journalist. They are the joint CEO of Outvertising, the UK ad industry’s foremost LGBTQIA+ advocacy group. Davies is also the founder of Smarty Pants Consultancy, a flexible, strategy-first creative consultancy. In June 2023 they became Campaign Magazine’s first transgender columnist. Here, inspired by some 2023 D&AD award-winning work, they share their thoughts on how the creative industries can help shape a better society for all LGBTQIA+ people.

Explicit LGBTQIA+ representation, the kind exemplified by the ‘Love is Love’ tagline, is a powerful thing. But in a time where the community is under sustained attack, we need to leverage the power of creativity to do more than represent us – and to meet the moment.

While there have been positive steps, we’re currently seeing a frightening regression of attitudes and coordinated, well-funded attacks through political means on LGBTQIA+ communities around the world. This hostile climate takes its toll on the mental and physical health of real people, and at its worst leads to violent hate crime and suicide. This is starkly illustrated by the fact that, in the ten years since legislation to allow same-sex marriage was passed in England and Wales, the UK has slipped down ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map and Index – which ranks LGBT rights throughout Europe – for the third year running, to number 17. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been accused of openly mocking trans+ people.

It’s also important for me to acknowledge the limits of my own perspective. I’m London-based and British-born, with clients mainly operating in European markets. I’m a trans non-binary neurodiverse queer person. I’m allosexual – which means I experience sexual attraction. I’m endosex – which means I’m not Intersex. I’m white, and do not have a disability. And I’m a hopeful cynic.

A recent YouGov survey revealed that 75% of Britons think brands focusing activity on Pride month are doing so more because they 'are trying to maintain a positive public image for themselves.' There’s clearly a prevailing sentiment among consumers, in the UK at least, that greater efforts by businesses are needed to protect our community and progress equality for all. The surface-level efforts just aren't cutting it in an ever-intensifying environment of hostility. ‘Love is Love’ is no longer enough.

Superficial campaigns have rightly faced growing cynicism in today’s climate. This cynicism is often validated by the behaviour of these brands. Though we saw some some national team sponsors withdraw (Lucozade for the England national team and a supermarket brand for the German national team, for example), we didn’t see a single 2022 FIFA World Cup sponsor remove their sponsorship due to Qatar’s abuse of its LGBTQIA+ population. And while disappointing, it was expected. Many of these same brands who continued to be involved with the Wold Cup in Qatar had claimed to be allies during Pride a few months earlier – which subsequently felt like an extremely hollow and cynical cash grab.

It was left to initiatives like Corner Magazine’s Pride Nation and Pantone and SOS Homophobie’s Colors of Love to develop brave work that empowered fans to protest Qatar's abuses. But while this work certainly helped to highlight the injustices, both pieces used Gilbert Baker’s 1978 Rainbow Pride Flag – and therefore could have broadened representation further. The community’s flag has a rich history, which continues to evolve through increasing representation of marginalised groups, and is driving important conversations among and outside of our community. Using the traditional flag felt like a missed opportunity, and an unintentional erasure of more marginalised groups at a time when we should be showing solidarity.

Gilbert Baker, Daniel Quasar, Monica Helms, Amber Hikes, Morgan Carpenter and Valentino Vecchietti are all campaigners that have a place in the development of the Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag, which went viral on the internet when it was redesigned in 2021. This version of our Pride flag is a unifying symbol of our ongoing human rights struggle. Vecchietti’s flag is a SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics) flag, which recognises “natural diversity in sexual orientation, romantic orientation, and orientations that exist outside of those; as well as natural diversity in gender identity & expression, and natural diversity in sex characteristics.” This new evolution of the flag has quickly become an important symbol on the march toward true equality for all.

Consider the flag a cultural artifact that inspires passionate, well-meaning conversation among our own community – and which progresses our own inclusion efforts. The stages in the development of that symbol, from Baker to Vecchietti, are themselves a historical document of the convulsions that the community has undergone to get to where we are today. Attempts to use other versions of the flag, for aesthetic reasons only, completely miss the point of the newest iteration: it is the result of a historical process, and needs to be respected as such. For a creative – cishet or otherwise – to use an older iteration of the flag, because it fits an aesthetic brief, is to make a statement about who is and is not in the LGBTQIA+ community, and whose rights we are working to progress. In so doing, they appropriate the agency of the community to define its own borders; whether intentional or not.

Generally, I support anyone wanting to use the rainbow flag in a positive context. Usually, it comes from good intentions. But to use it authentically, it’s important that you engage with the political nature of the symbol you are using. I’d ask creatives using our flag in their work to engage with the evolving story of representation that it embodies, and use it proudly.

Concerning representation, I noted the absence of work directly relating to our intersex, non-binary and asexual communities, who need creativity to help shine a light on issues that affect them. For example, only a handful of countries legally recognise non-binary people in law; so-called ‘conversion therapy’ affects asexual people in a different way to gay people, and finally, intersex people are striving against the medically unnecessary surgical ‘corrections’ of infants that show natural diversity in their sex characteristics.

Familiar narratives emerged in the storytelling this year. Those that celebrate queer love, and those that explore queer trauma. The lesbian love affair depicted in Wieden+Kennedy New York’s Young Love for Google Pixel is an incredible example of the best kind of ‘Love is Love’ work. Equally, She for Diageo España by Agosto and El Ruso de Rocky, is an impressive example of the unexpected support shown by a family member toward someone with a queer/trans+ identity. The child’s grandfather makes an extraordinary effort to learn the art of makeup in order to be able to impart knowledge and show allyship. In Spain, where the advert ran, we saw the progression of trans+ rights in the months that followed, helping those aged 16+ to legally change their gender with less barriers.

Creatively powerful and unexpected storytelling struck me from two winners, both from Canada. Both focused on dismantling harmful attitudes. Casey House’s Others is a short horror film exploring the emotional impact of HIV+ stigma, and Worn Down By Words for The Micropedia uses art to convey the simple death by a thousand cuts of the harm of microaggressions, which worked to overcome the immediate defensive response.

I feel torn about the representation I’d like to see versus what’s needed. I want to see LGBTQIA+ discrimination ended and rights progressed. To get there, we need to tackle the moments of trauma in how our lives are disadvantaged by societal attitudes and systemic barriers, and tackle them head on. I also want to see joyful representation and everyday usualised portrayals of queer and trans+ people, like that in Google Pixel’s sapphic love story.

I’ve experienced exclusion from retailer changing rooms myself this year. I’ve also seen trans talent appear in that same brand’s advertising. This is a glaring and all too common example of brands not living up to their declared values. Inclusion should be baked throughout brand work to make sure creativity is a true and authentic expression of the brand. Otherwise, it rings hollow.

Including LGBTQIA+ people in your creative work has been proven to drive more attention. We drive attention because our existence isn’t usualised yet – we’re still largely unusual to society. But benefitting from this attention without follow-through is exploitative.

VMLY&R Commerce Mexico’s Shout for Movistar is important because Mexico has alarmingly high rates of fatal hate crime. Shining a spotlight on this is crucial – but they could go further. As a telecoms brand, they could financially support the reporting of hate crimes to add even more power to their campaign.

I Am What I Am for Virgin Atlantic, set to the gay anthem by Gloria Gaynor, is an empowering showcase of being your true self, backed up by a tangible airline policy change – a gender-neutral uniform and pronoun badges for cabin crew. Then they undercut their efforts just two months later when they temporarily suspended the policy for flights to the World Cup in Qatar. Once again, the action didn’t meet the moment.

As captivating and beautiful as the intense sapphic romance depicted in Young Love for Google Pixel is, it's important that we don't lose sight of the difficult and evolving problem of online harm, from misogyny and violent threats to disinformation and hate speech. And there's a huge opportunity to work with tech platforms to do this.

City Hall of Love by MullenLowe Singapore for Unilever hijacked conversation around the Metaverse and NFTs to highlight something of huge importance to queer people in Singapore: the right to marry. The Government of Singapore has clamped down even further since the work was produced, once again demonstrating how vital this work is against the backdrop of a disturbing rollback of rights around the world.

So, we have to do more and go further. The ‘Love is Love’ kind of work is beautiful and soul-stirring – but it just isn’t enough anymore. We need action.

I believe that our existence becoming usualised in society is a requirement for our liberation. The ubiquity, frequency and influence of design and advertising work is the reason why we play a large role in getting us there.

But as Shon Faye explored in her piece for the 2021 D&AD Annual: “A true commitment to diversity and inclusion for all marginalised people means you cannot give with one hand and take with another.” A hidden example of this is in the ad spend supporting our creative campaign work. Purposeful, creatively powerful and inclusive work is a wonderful thing, but when it inadvertently funds a media demonising our community with disinformation for clicks, it gives with one hand and takes away with the other. We should use our voices in the industry to encourage our clients and partner media agencies to advocate for lasting change and a rejection of hypocrisy. The status quo has to go.

In terms of representation, I’d like to see more work focusing on the people in our community often overlooked and underserved. Let’s look to bring asexual people and intersex people into creative campaigns. And let’s show more non-binary and bisexual representation. Let’s see all the shades of our community.

I hope for more joyful usualised portrayals too; emotionally enthralling work that doesn’t lean on unhelpful stereotypes, even if it’s only to subvert these stereotypes as part of the work. And when we’re creating work, I'd like to see our community brought into the conversation. We must work harder and embed systemic change to encourage a new generation of LGBTQIA+ talent to join the fight, and include those further marginalised by other parts of their intersectional identities.

Looking at the UK, the 2023 Advertising Association’s industry survey reveals that almost half of respondents (46%) are affected by stress or anxiety and 27% of LGB+ respondents intend to leave their company in the next 12 months. If we’re to develop excellent creative work that stirs and inspires true change in our world, we have to nurture our queer and trans+ creative talent better to keep their diverse perspectives in the work.

I’m hopeful that the power of creativity can genuinely transform the lives of LGBTQIA+ people around the world for the better. This should be the most important measure of the work. We’ve come a long way with creative representation of our community, but we now have to go further.