Leading with Love During Pride Month 2021

Pride has a different look this year, featuring less masks and more in-person celebrations. However, the meaning and purpose behind advocating for and celebrating the LGBTQ+ community is just as – if not more – important. At P&G, we strive to Lead with Love not only during Pride Month, but every month.

Whether we’re in a global pandemic or not, the LGBTQ+ community faces complex and significant obstacles every day. That’s why there is no better time to expand our efforts, find new ways to reach the LGBTQ+ community, and reaffirm our commitment to accurate and authentic visibility while helping those that need it most by building upon our past efforts.

As the LGBTQ+ continues to face loss of livelihoods, lack of access to critical life-affirming healthcare, increased domestic violence and social isolation due to the pandemic, leveraging our 2021 Lead with Love campaign is a natural fit. It reaffirms our promise to remain visible in our actions and stay anchored in our commitments to our communities and employees through our brands and with our business partners, so that we can continue to create a world where equality and inclusion are achievable for all.

At P&G, we believe in the power of our differences and the impact we can make when we come together, united by shared values and purpose. We know we can use our collective voices to shape a dialogue about what it means to be accurately represented, understood and normalized.

Learn more about our three key initiatives that aim to raise visibility and support of the LGBTQ+ community below.

Can’t Cancel Pride 2021
On June 4, P&G and iHeartRadio will host “Can’t Cancel Pride,” a virtual relief benefit for the LGBTQ+ community featuring performances and appearances from influential LGBTQ+ voices and allies in culture and entertainment.

The second annual event will once again demonstrate that nothing can cancel the heart of Pride and the spirit that the LGBTQ+ equality movement embodies while focusing on the issues that continue to impact the LGBTQ+ community in 2021, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

With Can’t Cancel Pride, P&G and iHeartRadio will partner with The Greater Cincinnati Foundation to administer financial support raised to LGBTQ+ organizations, including GLAAD, SAGE, The Trevor Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, CenterLink and OutRight Action International.

Can’t Cancel Pride is part of our ongoing commitment to Equality and Inclusion, as well as raising visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, and is among P&G’s efforts to deliver 2,021 Acts of Good in 2021.

The Visibility Project
We believe LGBTQ+ representation drives LGBTQ+ acceptance. That’s why last month we joined forces with GLAAD and launched The Visibility Project, a new campaign to drive and to sustain LGBTQ+ inclusion in ads and marketing and to leverage the power of these mediums to accelerate LGBTQ+ acceptance.

With The Visibility Project, P&G and GLAAD will bring together the world’s top brands and ad agencies in a coalition dedicated to growing LGBTQ+ inclusion in ads by creating and providing tools, techniques and resources for industry executives, thus harnessing the power of advertising to accelerate LGBTQ+ acceptance.

The Visibility Project will act as a roadmap for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in mainstream advertising, leveraging insights from GLAAD’s landmark 2021 “Accelerating LGBTQ Representation in Advertising” study, a survey of more than 200 advertising and marketing executives on challenges they face around LGBTQ inclusion.

The Association of National Advertisers’ Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) is also working with P&G and GLAAD to expand The Visibility Project and create LGBTQ resources for the greater ad industry. We’re also committing more than $1 million to the program to be provided over three years. Through research, resources and industry gatherings, The Visibility Project will drive community visibility and accelerate business opportunities.

The Visibility Project is our largest program to further P&G’s commitment to LGBTQ+ equality and visibility and to inspire the next generation of advertising’s LGBTQ+ leaders and corporate advocates. Learn more about The Visibility Project and how your company can enhance your advertising business while becoming a force for good for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Coded”
As the third key initiative of P&G’s quest to advocate for authentic and accurate visibility of the LGBTQ+ community, we worked with Imagine Entertainment on the documentary “Coded.” The film, which will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, tells the story of legendary illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, a gay man whose early-20th century advertisements for brands like Ivory soap and Gillette razors were rife with coded LGBTQ+ imagery. Leyendecker's work inspired others by quietly acknowledging a community that was forced to live in the closet.

Speaking to LGBTQ+ artists and advertising insiders of today, the documentary will explore Leyendecker’s legacy as a grandfather of modern advertising, connecting how today’s out and proud LGBTQ+ advertisements are built upon a foundation laid by Leyendecker.

By telling Leyendecker's personal story and looking through the lens of his work, we examine the momentum created towards the inclusive advertising of today and use this knowledge to serve as a platform for P&G’s leadership for P&G Brand building.

Throughout our journey, it has not been easy nor have we always gotten everything right. But the lessons we learned have progressed our journey and strengthened our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. Now more than ever, it is important for companies to create a culture where all people are welcome, and we hope that by sharing our journey, we can inspire others to engage in conversations and help build a more inclusive world for all.

P&G understands that Pride is more than a single event or moment. Pride embodies a movement that advances equality for the LGBTQ+ community and is a catalyst to fight bias, create dialogue and raise visibility for the community.

For years, P&G has committed to advancing equality for all people to shine a light on inequality, highlight bias and spark dialogue that leads to understanding and action. We’ve pioneered LGBTQ+ equality within our own company becoming one of the first Fortune 500 companies to include sexual orientation into its diversity statement in 1992. We’ve also partnered with other companies to advocate for equality and help drive systemic change over time.

The journey has not been easy. Nor have we always been right. The progress — initiated by a few brave employees often in the face of strong resistance — helped to change the workplace culture, community attitudes and strengthened our commitment to treat every employee equally. Through personal stories, conversation and one-to-one relationships, brave employees helped to expose bias, create human connection and change hearts and minds.

But we can and are doing more. P&G is taking a stand on LGBTQ+ inclusion because people who identify as LGBTQ+ often face inequality and exclusion including discrimination in jobs, housing, schools, communities and even in their own families.

As a leading advertiser, we are using our voice to drive acceptance, inclusion and love for humanity. We are committed to the accurate portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community in our advertising and promoting a deeper understanding of the impact of LGBTQ+ visibility on cultural attitudes and nurturance.

COVID-19 Can’t Cancel Pride

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the LGBTQ+ community is facing the loss of livelihoods, lack of access to critical life-affirming healthcare, increased domestic violence and social isolation as many of the organizations they count on for these services are on the brink of survival — setting the movement back decades.

P&G and our brands are stepping up to raise visibility and to bring others together to help raise $5 million for LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by COVID-19 with Can’t Cancel Pride in partnership with iHeart Radio. The event benefits established organizations with a record of positive impact and support of the LGBTQ+ community, including GLAAD, SAGE, The Trevor Project, the National Black Justice Coalition, CenterLink and OutRight Action International.

We are lifting up the stories of LGBTQ+ people through partnerships with GLAAD and the It Gets Better Project to shine a light on the intersectional diversity of the community and help all people see themselves reflected in the world.

We will continue to use our voice to create productive dialogue through discussions, including: Out Leadership’s Proudly Resilient Series throughout June, and TIME 100 Talks on Thursday, June 25 focusing on LGBTQ+ issues.

Throughout our journey, we continue to learn, explore and understand the uniqueness of all humanity. The lessons we learn will continue to help us on our journey to create a more equal world.

The Words Matter

Out of the Shadows

They Will See You