Bud Light // Pride 2020 & Black Lives Matter (2020)
In Canada, Bud Light is proudly an inclusive beer brand due to is position as a sessionable lager designed for everyone’s palette. But, more than just reflecting diversity in advertising, we sought to create brand acts that spotlight issues and champion progress.
Bud Light Canada has an ongoing partnership with Rainbow Railroad, an organization that helps the LGBTQ+ community escape countries where they face persecution and violence.
However, when the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor (and too many others) sparked protests to fight the systemic racism and violence against the BIack community, strategy knew Pride 2020 had to acknowledge that Pride started as a revolutionary protest by the Black trans and queer community.
We partnered with Canadian Drag stars Brooke Lynn Hytes, Jada Hudson, and Devine Darlin to bring a message supporting how important it is to be able to reveal you true self, safely, by honoring BLM in June of 2020. In addition to donating to Rainbow Railroad, Bud Light also donated to the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce and the Black Legal Action Centre to support the Black community. You can read the coverage and quotes by me in Strategy Magazine. We also partnered with virtual queer party, Club Quarantine to raise money. Because a pandemic shouldn’t stop pride.
YouTube Pride // #ProudToBe (2017) & #ProudToCreate (2018)
For two consecutive years I led the strategy for YouTube’s annual pride message. In 2017 we made a seismic cultural shift by celebrating the entire LGBTQ+ community - including celebrating the importance of gender identity. This was a massive first for a mainstream brand to help drive understanding of the transgender and gender nonconforming community. In 2018, we pivoted to celebrate the influence, particularly creatively, of the queer community to inspire change for a more progressive tomorrow.