The shade is real—Jack Mizrahi on when brands steal from ballroom

Ad Age is marking Pride Month 2024 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, for which we asked members of the LGBTQ+ creative community to write about pivotal projects or turning points in their careers. (Read the introduction and all the essays here.) Today, guest editor Rana Reeves turns the spotlight to Jack Mizrahi, an executive producer, writer and icon in the house ballroom community, who addresses brands that are interested in tapping into ballroom as an art form—with respect for the culture. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The house ballroom community is a vibrant creative home for predominantly Black and brown queer people—we are a chosen family for a broad cross-section of the LGBQTIA+ community. Mainstream culture tends to know us through the movement of Vogue, as popularized by Madonna, and the balls that are thrown across the U.S. and now the world. I began my journey in ballroom at the age of 19, and I am an icon on the scene and founder of the international House of Gorgeous Gucci as well as an executive producer and scriptwriter. Over the last few years, in parallel with Black straight culture, there has been an explosion of my world into the mainstream, from shows such as FX’s Emmy-winning “Pose” to HBO’s “Legendary” to campaigns for Equinox and Burger King to a wide use of our movements, language and styles on the biggest stages such as Beyoncé’s last album and tour, “Renaissance.” Our lexicon and style move from us to mainstream queer culture to mainstream culture, powered by social media and YouTube clips—terms such as “death drop,” “reading,” “shade,” “sla” are all taken from us. We can be found in nearly all queer creativity in some shape or form. Along with the recognition has also come appropriation, and as with many forms of culture, brands and ad agencies have often taken the benefit of our energy and vibe but excluded us. We even have a term for when music videos and brand works feature voguing that is not culturally accurate: “Noguing.” You can tell when a piece of work is creatively authentic and has been created with equity, not just by who is in the work and what they do but, importantly, who made the work and inputted into it. Real knows real. A recent example from my own reel of how to do it right is a campaign that was created for the CDC Foundation to get young LGBTQIA+ people to take the Mpox vaccine. The foundation came to me with a desire to use the power and excitement of Vogue to tell the story of the need for the vaccine. From end to end they allowed us to engage the community to generate the work—not just the star of the campaign but the director, the script, the styling, the choreo, the glam, the music, the production, all led by us. The campaign has been a big success because the CDCF allowed an equitable, culture-first approach. When working with queer creativity, especially ballroom, push yourselves and your agencies to understand the provenance of the culture and prove your values by not just featuring our culture but us, too, in all aspects of the creative process. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

The shade is real—Jack Mizrahi on when brands steal from ballroom

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