Lessons Taught and Learned Through the Art of Drag

“If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an amen?”

Amen, RuPaul!

The art of drag is a beautiful cornucopia of self-expression, identity, creativity, big wigs and even bigger attitudes. But its driving force is self-love and the challenging, vulnerable but always rewarding journey toward it. This underpins any other lessons we’ll learn from drag.

Let’s level set: What exactly is drag and what is a drag queen? As RuPaul’s MasterClass puts it, drag is a gender-bending art form in which a person dresses in clothing and makeup meant to exaggerate a specific gender identity, usually of the opposite sex.

Most traditionally, we see drag performers—men and women, cis- and transgender—create dynamic personas and unique visual identities for the purpose of entertainment, talent showcase and pure self-expression.

And while your local drag brunch is no doubt a representative fixture of drag culture, drag is far more than the hoot-hollering good time you pair with your mimosa. In fact, it’s much more than RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Drag has recorded history dating all the way back to Grecian and Shakespearean times, and more recently in the underground LGBTQ+ sanctuaries of New York City in the 1980s, popularly documented in the film Paris Is Burning. It’s a global community, and its role as a cultural catalyst and vehicle for self-love is extensive.

In addition to this rich history and growing media gravitas, drag presents an exciting lesson for marketers. It acts as a bold case study in marketing principles like brand identity and architecture. It also acts as a steward in evangelizing the effective use of queer talent in brand marketing and advertising and as a call to action to marketers to be visionary and authentic.

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Drag queens make brand identity their workhorse

The topic of identity within the LGBTQ+ community is expansive and powerful for brands no matter the letter or lens you examine it through, and drag queens are no exception. Reminder: Brand identity, put simply, takes disparate elements of your brand and unifies them into whole visual systems.

Drag queen Trixie Mattel is right on the money, or shall I say right on the crease cut, when it comes to brand identity. Take note: Trixie’s iconic disjointed lash and enchantingly exotic eye makeup has not only defined her aesthetic but has also driven her ability to launch everything from a makeup line to books and a new show on Discovery+. It never changes but always extends to new formats.

Trixie and other queens are great examples of using their unique visual cues, both garish and subtle, to create a consistent identity that transcends any given medium. As you create and iterate on your brand’s identity, make sure it’s not just creative and resonant but a channel-agnostic workhorse for your business.

Drag families showcase master brand architectures done right

While drag breeds individuality and renegade self-expression, it’s just as much about family. Not only do drag families serve as a backbone to the LGBTQ+ community, they represent powerful master brand architectures. The strength that these drag families, or “houses,” have in communicating values, delivering benefits (perceived and actual) and creating expectations by name alone is impressive and dynamic.

Queens of a house can be thought of as different-in-kind (highly unique), phased (carry distinct traits but execute uniquely) or a true master brand extension (further define the family’s most distinct traits). But no matter how a Davenport, O’Hara or Edwards shows up on stage, consumers have solace knowing the unique experience they want, they’re going to get. With this, they hit what us marketers would consider the jackpot.

Leveraging the likeness of drag queens

Drag queens are being leveraged as brand partners and integrated marketing campaign fixtures at a rate higher than ever. Just a few potent examples this year include Boy Smells’ Pride Radiance Collection and The North Face’s Summer of Pride event series. But let’s shift quickly into pragmatism and understand how you can leverage the likeness of drag queens with your brand, and if you should in the first place. Here are just two select takeaways.

First, like leveraging any community within the LGBTQ+ space, make sure you’re not “checking the box.” With drag queens specifically, their personal brands are some of the strongest around, so conceptualize your work with them as such. Drill down and align values, style and candor between the queen of choice and your brand.

Second, drag queens are subject to tiers of influence, much like other segments of marketable personalities, and you should consider both queens large and small. By properly doing the research and thoughtfully curating a partnership, you may find there to be smaller queens that nail the mark for your brand—RuPaul’s Drag Race does not own the bench of relevant queens to work with.

Furthermore, when considering these tiers, don’t forget to do a gut check. Where do you and your brand’s hearts lie in the effort? Are you seeking reach with a drag queen label, or are you raising up queer voices? Neither is more right, nor mutually exclusive, but be sure-footed.

Give yourself permission to be a visionary marketer—drag queens do

“I’m serving you Malibu Barbie, Alabama Shore edition. Ken’s wifebeater replaces a designer crop top, and she may not hit the beach but she hits the bar!” Expressions like these are common in the drag community and, despite being short and sweet, they act as a window into the unabashedly creative, sassy (and absurd) headspaces drag queens hone when building their brands.

As marketers, we’ve got to take this cue when developing our own ideas and strategies. Use non-traditional metaphors and be committed to them when developing your concept. Feel the fantasy and invite others into your senses when presenting to colleagues. And most importantly, give yourself permission to be visionary.

Perhaps you “crawl” into being more boldly visionary before you “walk” and “run,” but do yourself, your team, your brand and your community a favor and serve up your vision, hot and ready.

This article is part of a special Voice series, Proud Voices: How the LGBTQ+ Community Is Choosing Resilience, intended to educate marketers on what they can learn from the culture about authenticity and pride.

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