Reebok

Reebok’s 2021 ad film All Types of Love ft. the Iconic House of Ninja features the ballroom culture that is historically associated with the queer community. Celebrating the legacy of vogue artiste Willi Ninja and his House of Ninja, the ad meaningfully connects the idea of defiance in this culture with the brand’s communication “Fierceness isn’t born, it’s made”. The brand’s tagline ‘I am what I am’ gets well reflected in this ad as it shows how The House of Ninja for over the years has been a space for feeling familial bonds, acceptance, free self-expression and a safe haven for members of the Pride community.

Getty Images

Taking its communication point as the representation of the LGBTQ+ community, Getty Images in its 2021 Pride ad advocates equal representation of this community in media. The video talks about the present scenario of underrepresentation of this community in various media platforms. Images are powerful tools for shaping perception and enhancing visibility. Visibility is a crucial factor that this community has been fighting for long in order to create acceptance in the minds of people. The ad voices the same concern through its platform and shows how as a stock image platform it is trying to bring about the positive change by being inclusive.

Oreo

Starting last year with its #proudparent campaign, the brand in its 2021 Pride month campaign ‘What I Wish I Said’ continues extending support to the LGBTQ+ community on the idea of ‘coming out’ or feeling free to express their choice. The brand asked people on social media to share positive things that they would say to a person who decides to open up to them. With a series of colourful and quirky posters created by queer artists, the campaign communicates that the first words one hears will always be remembered by them, so it is important to utter positive words to a person choosing to ‘come out’.

Bhima Jewellery

Starting last year with its #proudparent campaign, the brand in its 2021 Pride month campaign ‘What I Wish I Said’ continues extending support to the LGBTQ+ community on the idea of ‘coming out’ or feeling free to express their choice. The brand asked people on social media to share positive things that they would say to a person who decides to open up to them. With a series of colourful and quirky posters created by queer artists, the campaign communicates that the first words one hears will always be remembered by them, so it is important to utter positive words to a person choosing to ‘come out’.

Bhima Jewellery

The brand’s #PrideAllYear mother’s day 2021 ad campaign is a beautiful ad film called ‘Thanks Mom, and Mom’ featuring children of lesbian couples conveying a message of gratitude to their parents. In the set-up of an empty auditorium, these children plan a surprise by reading out letters that they penned for their parents. As they walk down memory lane in their gratitude note, the societal menaces that lesbian couples and their children have to face, the offending questions raised at them and their everyday struggle to live as a family in a heteronormative society, gets communicated. At the end, the children thank their parents for not giving up to live as a family despite the odds and feel proud to have two mothers instead of one, communicating the brand’s motto of supporting bold choices and its slogan of taking love to “another level”.

Pathkind Labs

Pathkind Labs’s 2021 Pride month campaign ‘Hum Farak Nahi Kartey’ communicates with a heartwarming ad film the brand’s promise of making no discrimination in providing their healthcare services as illness doesn’t discriminate. Even though society is slowly changing, the LGBTQ+ community’s first struggle still remains in being accepted by their families. The ad mirrors the reality in its communication showing a similar story of how a transgender child gets abandoned by the family due to societal stigmas and gets adopted by a group from the transgender community providing shelter and the care of a loving family.

MTV India

Most of us are familiar with the meme ‘This is (name). (Name) does this. Be/Don’t be like (name)’ on the Internet for years now. MTV India creatively uses this idea and the popular meme for its 2020 Pride campaign ‘Spread Love, Not Hate’ to talk about social media trolls that members of LGBTQ+ community are often subjected to. Their Cool Jo ad significantly brings up this important issue and communicates it meaningfully while keeping it fun, simple and interesting.

Starbucks

Its 2020 #WhatsYourName ad campaign with its ad film ‘Every Name Has a Story’ shows the inconvenience that many people of the LGBTQ+ community often have to face with their gendered names assigned at birth if they choose to identify differently later. The ad based on Starbucks’s culture of writing names on the cup of the person who places an order as a welcome gesture, tries to bring the unfortunate norm and struggle to the forefront. It shows how the cup name culture practised by the brand encourages people and gives them a chance to just be themselves with the name they choose that reflects their gender identity best.

OkCupid

The brand’s 2020 Pride month campaign #AllyofLove is reflective of our homebound situation and makes creative and interesting communication points on how the brand doesn’t discriminate on its online dating platform just like love doesn’t. Its ad film based on the popular game ‘Never have I ever’ re-imagined for playing in a digital space, incorporated people of various age groups and of diverse gender identity and sexual orientation to play the game sharing their experiences of love as an answer to the questions asked by turning on the video if they relate.

Pantene

Growing one’s hair usually has a gendered association in most places around the world. Pantene UK’s 2019 campaign #HairHasNoGender tries to break the notion of hair growth having gender associations and rather communicates it as a choice and tool of self-expression. The hair-care product company in collaboration with the Dresscode Project and created the ad film ‘The Power of Hair’ featuring LGBTQ+ activists from different walks of life speaking about how hair has played a major role in their transitional journeys and their experiences of being misgendered during salon services. Through this campaign, the brand highlights an important issue of the LGBTQ+ community relevant to the brand’s products and spreads a message to stop being judgemental of a person’s gender based on the hair length.