How Advertisers Are Targeting The Trans Community
It’s nice to be recognized as a demographic, but is this the kind of visibility we need?
With campaigns from major companies like Bud Light, Absolut vodka, Secret deodorant, Tinder, and more, it’s safe to say 2016 was the year of the transgender advertisement.
On the one hand, there is something really beautiful about this trend. Having trans people represented in a positive light can change people’s minds about us, especially (for better or worse) when that message is coming from a trusted brand name. In a political climate that will certainly become increasingly hostile for transgender people, having the support of companies with an expansive national reach could prove crucial.
But representation of trans people is so often misrepresentation, and visibility shades so quickly into hypervisibility. The increasing visibility and borderline acceptance of our community has been met with social and legislative backlash, most recently in the form of threats by the new administration to roll back the Obama administration’s LGBTQ protections and directives that simplified gender marker changes on passports and ensured trans students’ rights to use the correct bathroom safely.
