Ad Age is marking Pride Month 2023 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package. (Read the introduction here.) This week, our guest editor is Jonathan Mildenhall, the co-founder and chair of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. Here, Mildenhall writes about launching “Is Mankind?” during his time at Airbnb.

As Pride Month kicked off, it was clear to me that while the celebrations were undeniable, they came with a degree of caution from some and defiance for others that I have not seen or felt in the last 20 years. The shift in spirit is a direct result of the loud and aggressive backlash that some brands have faced as they show their ongoing support for Pride and the LGBTQ+ community. While some brands such as Nike and Starbucks have been able to create products or campaigns around gay and transgender issues or Pride Month with relative ease, others including Target and Bud Light have faced significant backlash.

Target faced backlash for its Pride collection, which included clothes and books for children that drew outrage from some loud voices on the right. After facing criticism, Target chose to remove or relocate some Pride merchandise so it is less visible in stores. The debacle caused Target’s share price to drop by 20% in May alone, wiping $12 billion off the company’s market cap. Bud Light also finds itself in an ongoing firestorm following the social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s sweet endorsement campaign, which led to right-wing consumers boycotting the brand. Since the controversy began, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev lost a staggering $27 billion in market cap.

Emboldened by Target and AB InBev’s corporate responses to the Pride-related crises, conservatives are piling on. In some cases, they are unearthing marketing campaigns that are years old, intending to stop “rainbow capitalism.” 

I am deeply concerned that, going forward, brands will be much more hesitant to feature a broader representation of LGBTQ+ people in marketing and will think twice before greenlighting new high-profile Pride initiatives. This will create a chilling effect by pushing marketing-driven diversity and inclusion initiatives back a few decades.

Because of these challenges, marketers must remind themselves and their leadership teams why they should support the LGBTQ+ community in the first place. While each business should have its own business case for investing in the LGBTQ+ community, recent research shows that nearly half of adults around the globe support companies and brands that promote equality for LGBTQ+ people. Additionally, seven in 10 U.S. LGBTQ+ adults are likelier to patronize a business that outreaches and advertises to the LGTBQ+ community. And finally, brands that take a stand on social issues are also more likely to resonate with younger consumers, who are increasingly looking for brands that align with their values.

A few years ago, I was part of the team that ran Airbnb’s first campaign that supported the trans community. The ad ran in the 60-second spot right after Caitlyn Jenner received her Arthur Ashe Courage Award during the 2015 ESPYs on ESPN. Coca-Cola had just pulled out of the slot, and the media agency called me up to see if I thought it would make sense for Airbnb to take it.

I knew our data at Airbnb supported investment into the LGBTQ+ community. Due to higher levels of disposable income, LGBTQ+ travelers took more trips and spent more per trip on Airbnb. Also, due to more space-per-household member, LGBTQ+ hosts are over-indexed on the platform. This data, coupled with the company’s purpose of promising “a world where anyone could belong anywhere,” meant the business case for Airbnb to support this watershed moment was bulletproof.

So within six weeks, working with our agency partner Chiat LA, we shot one of the finest Airbnb campaigns in its history. The results were epic. Traffic to the site exploded. Bookings on the site exploded. We exceeded the quarter’s targets for new host listings on the site. We enjoyed brand legacy-building PR. The campaign set the benchmark of excellence for all Airbnb markets to get behind the LGBTQ+ community with creativity, authenticity and genuine inclusivity whenever culturally relevant.

Finally, as you watch “Is Mankind?,” notice how inclusive, optimistic and intimate it is. With the worldly voice of Angela Bassett juxtaposed with the innocent toddler looking out into the world for the first time, Airbnb encouraged all of us to be curious and accepting so that we can all benefit from the kindness of the “he’s” and “she’s” that make up mankind, womankind, transkind (I still can’t believe that Google tries to autocorrect that word), because, after all, we are all humankind. 

After this campaign’s success, I decided on my own pronouns. At the end of my email signature, it reads “Him. He. Human.” Even though I have taken heat for it, the one thing I know for sure in this fear-driven, hate-fueled world is that we all need more labels that unite us than the labels that divide us. So, if you use pronouns, whatever they might be, please consider joining me in adding “Human.” We are all nothing if we are not human.