Owned by Diageo, drinks brand Smirnoff continues its 'We're Open' campaign with new work to raise awareness of the trans and non-binary community.

As part of its ongoing drive for greater inclusivity, Smirnoff has launched a new campaign which aims to improve understanding of the non-binary community and raise awareness of the challenges that individuals who identify in this way encounter.

The “We’re Open” initiative, which incorporates a new TV advert and a host of new partnerships, looks to address the lack of understanding and awareness of the non-binary community and promote a more inclusive night time culture.

Providing positive role models

Smirnoff recently found that a lack of understanding exists within society concerning the non-binary community and there is a lack of positive role models in mainstream media. Equally worrying is the fact that some individuals that identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, can often be the victims of hate crime.

In addition to launching a new TV advert featuring LGBTQ+ role models and champions, Smirnoff has announced that it will be collaborating with a number of partners, including the LGBT Foundation and LADbible. The aim is that by working with these organisations, the combined approach will help to proactively bring about a positive change in night time culture and beyond.

Bringing gender equality to the forefront

Making the world a more inclusive place is central to the purpose of Smirnoff as a brand and this exciting new campaign further strives towards this ambition by giving a voice to the non-binary community and pushing the cultural conversation around gender equality and representation forward.

Speaking to Marketing Week about the campaign, Sam Salameh, Head of Smirnoff Europe, said:

“The next chapter moves the gender conversation on to the next level by giving what is quite a small minority community a voice and representing them in a strong way with positive role models.

“It’s very easy to tell a compelling story and provide lip service to extremely important matters. But if you don’t back that up with some significant action, it becomes a little meaningless.”

Inclusive and diverse culture at Diageo

Celebrating an inclusive and diverse culture is core to Diageo’s purpose of “celebrating life every day everywhere”. This purpose is, in itself, inclusive in nature, as it values everybody irrespective of background, religion, sexuality or ethnicity.

For twenty years now Smirnoff has promoted inclusivity. As part of this, it has demonstrated its commitment to the LGBTQ community over the years through its ongoing Equalising Music initiative, which aims to double the amount of women and non-binary headliners in music, and more recently through the #ChooseLove campaign around Pride.

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