By: Natalia Garcia

Pride Month is celebrated worldwide as millions of people around the world gather for parades, parties, share stories and provoke reflections on diversity and prejudice. Organizations and brands are also showing an incredible amount of support with creative campaigns and activities, especially across Latin America.  Here’s what we consider some of the best of LATAM:

Feed Parade Campaign - Mercado Livre (Brazil)

In 2020, the Brazilian Pride Parade was canceled due to the pandemic. In response, E-commerce company Mercado Livre developed a campaign to recreate São Paulo's Pride Parade in a digital environment that united all the LGBTQ+ Brazilian influencers and community tagging them in pictures along the entire avenue where the parade usually takes place, compiled in an Instagram feed. The idea named Feed Parade united 60k persons on the digital version of Paulista Avenue, with the entire avenue filling up in 15 minutes. The campaign finished with a video clip by Mercado Livre and LGBTQ+ singer and artist Gloria Groove. Some 63M persons were impacted by the campaign which received Grand Prix at Entertainment for Music | Cannes Lions 2021. More information here.

De Causo em Causo - Shell (Brazil)

The oil and gas company Shell launched a campaign called De Causo em Causo (‘From Story to Story’), where it shared unusual and inspiring stories from truck drivers across the country. Among the stories, the one about the truck driver Afrodite, who is a transgender woman in a mostly male market, stood out. The campaign was not about Pride Month but had an enormous impact for the transgender community proving that trans people should be welcome and safe everywhere they choose to be. Watch Afrodite's story here. 

#PrideSkill - P&G (Brazil)

The Brazilian office of the multinational P&G with the support of the LGBTQIA+ Business and Rights Forum created a campaign to connect LGBTQ+ professionals with jobs in companies with relevant Diversity and Inclusion policies. The initiative also encouraged professionals to adopt "Pride" as a skill in their professional social media profiles to enable companies to find more diverse candidates. 

Paratodes - Twitch (Brazil) 

Twitch created Paratodes (means ‘for everyone’) with the campaign’s goal being to highlight creators and encourage discussion and inclusion. The first editions of the event on Twitch brought together dozens of streamers, artists and relevant content creators in the LGBTQ+ and the Black community in broadcasts about Lesbian visibility, Black consciousness and combating LGBTQ+ phobia. Among the participating creators were drag queen Rita Von Hunty, the collective Afrobapho and Batekoo, singers Mel and Bia Ferreira, creator Preta Araújo, and singers Rico Dalasam and Jaloo.

Respect wins - Adobe Stock (Mexico) 

This year, to position Adobe's efforts in promoting respect, inclusion, and a better representation of the LGBTQ+ community across companies in Latin America, Mexican artists Gess and Liz Kstro created artistic pieces that deliver a message of support and respect. These two artists created a pin and an illustration that celebrates PRIDE month that were put in a branded envelope and sent to a list of Mexican and Colombian influencers and journalists, highlighting the Adobe for All philosophy, an initiative that promotes programs on Inclusion and Diversity and Gender Equality, also providing annual reports. The pin had the legend "Respect wins'' (by Liz Kstro), and the illustration (by Gess) was accompanied by a postcard that included the main initiatives of Adobe Latin America to support the community. It specifically highlights the efforts and initiatives of Adobe Stock.

"All Humans" - Bavaria (Colombia)

As part of its commitment to diversity and inclusion, Colombian beer brand Bavaria launched this platform to train company teams and make content available to Colombians to strengthen equity criteria in the creative process and the representation of diversity in communication campaigns nationwide. "All Humans" was built with the National Association of Advertisers of Colombia (ANDA) and had the support of partners such as Meta, with whom it co-created methodologies to promote the transformation of its brands; the firm Kantar Insights Colombia, to measure the impact of the platform; and DraftLine, Bavaria's creative and data studio, which was responsible for the development of the brand, the concept and the implementation of "All Humans". More information here.

These are just some examples. 

It is important to reinforce that inclusion and diversity policies must be exercised daily, not only within an organization but in all environments in which we live. Basic rights, such as freedom of expression and security, must be extended to all citizens so that society is fairer and more equitable. Therefore, fighting for the rights of the LGBTQ+ population is a duty not only of people but also of institutions and government.

Our suggestion for the LGBTQ+ Pride Day/Month is that this date is only the reinforcement for a movement that must be constant in life in society and, consequently, in corporate life, which represents a significant part of each citizen's life and can promote great social changes for the entire community.  #PRIDE365