Unique Pride Campaign: For Them's Message Sets Them Apart

When actor, entrepreneur and venture partner, Kylo Freeman, founded For Them, their mission was simply to solve a common and life-saving challenge for the Trans community, of which they are a member. “This company was born out of a frustration of mine of just not having the products and services that I needed as a transgender responsive person,” Freeman tells Adweek about the company they founded, which makes chest compression garments known as binders, and assorted wellness products to serve the unique needs of the community, who often resort to painful and dangerous methods to physically present their chosen identities without surgery. Now, Freeman is expanding that mission to include advocating for LGBTQ+ rights as a whole; using For Them’s most recent “Drag Is Divine” campaign to inspire allies to join the fight against anti-drag legislation, which has currently passed in 13 states. Funds raised through the sales and events attached to the campaign will directly fund Drag Story Hour and the ACLU Drag Defense. Freeman stars in the campaign alongside a drag queen as a modern-day “Adam and Eve,” featuring taglines such as “So hot they started a culture war for us,” and “Drag is divine: It needs no intervention.” The billboards and subway ads are currently running in New York, Los Angeles and London—all of which are considered “ally cities” that embrace and celebrate LGBTQ+ culture and host annual Pride celebrations, which Freeman tells Adweek was intentional. “These are three pretty privileged cities that have lots of allies in [them], that I think skew on the side of, I hope, being a little bit more liberal and understanding of the community and being empathetic towards who we are and probably have queer friends and queer family members [that] can rally together.” They explained that the campaign’s goal is to raise capital to expand their reach and resources into cities where queer, trans, and nonbinary members are under attack and currently lack much-needed support. “We don’t want to be the people that go to the states where queer people are really, really struggling and asking them for things. I think they have been asked enough,” said Freeman. The brand traditionally uses grassroots marketing and tapping directly into the community for feedback on existing products and suggestions for new SKUs and has only done smaller campaigns centered around the product. But Freeman and Em Chadwick, the brand’s coo, explained to Adweek that while the two-year-old brand has been very careful with how they allot their budget—choosing mostly to focus on product and tech innovations—the current climate made the timing right to invest in sending a message to the LGBTQ+ community, its allies and detractors on a larger scale. “There hasn’t been massive budgets behind these super-intricate campaigns before because it hasn’t felt like a great use of capital,” says Chadwick. “But at this point, it felt like it was a moment in time, and we couldn’t not [do our part].”She continued, “We see our role as a queer older sibling incarnate, and the idea is that we can use our collective voice and our collective stance—and redistribute this capital to make a mouthy response.” The ties that bind While large corporations have made Pride a line item (of which many have swiftly abandoned in recent weeks), in the case of smaller companies like For Them, the history, values and sentiment around the monthlong celebration are indelibly connected to their year-round success and sustainability. At a recent launch event for LGBTQ+ VC, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the LGBTQ+ venture capital community, co-founders Tiana Tukes and Jackson Block mentioned to the crowd of founders, investors, and supporters how important having thriving businesses and building wealth within the LGBTQ+ community was to secure more political sway to combat legislative attacks and overall validation and protection for its members. That said, the very existence of the nonprofit—who hosted their inaugural LGBTQ+ VC Summit last week—was necessitated by a dearth of support and capital for businesses founded by members of the community such as Freeman. As a trans founder, Freeman shared with Adweek that despite having a background in business and being active in the VC space, their journey to finding investors for the brand was initially a difficult one, explaining that meetings were often hindered by the added burden of proof that was educating potential investors on “queerness” in general, before addressing the product and the challenge it provides solutions for. Chadwick added that an additional hurdle was getting them to recognize that the market being served was not niche. For Them eventually found support through the incubator, Prehype, and has since received additional backing, which enabled them to develop and launch the binder that is now beloved by the community and received coverage from mainstream fashion publications such as InStyle and The Zoe Report. But both Freeman and Chadwick are heartened by the expansion of the VC space with companies such as the LGBTQ+ VC, Backstage Capital and others looking to fund LGBTQ+ and ally-owned businesses—which currently receive less than 1% of all VC funding, according to PitchBook. LGBTQ+ Professionals Are Rewriting the Coming Out Narrative It is that ongoing theme of support and fellowship that has powered the brand’s growth, the “Drag Is Divine” campaign and The Playground, the brand’s monthly, subscription-based, membership platform, which allows its community to access benefits including product discounts, pre-sale access, a gender tracking app which uses biometric data to check in on the health and wellness of transitioning members, and an active virtual community that provides the brand with feedback and recommendations for new products. Most importantly, Freeman says The Playground provides necessary connection for members of the LGBTQ+ community who live in areas where they are unable to access real-life spaces and services for support, adding that “authentic wellbeing was at the core of what we’re trying to do as a whole business.” “The [name] Playground felt fitting. I felt we needed queer joy moments. It’s a place to play. You can play in a place that you feel held and safe. And to get the things that you need and want. Because [there are] real needs here that just [are not] being served.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

While Most Brands’ Pride Campaigns Are Making a Statement, For Them’s Is Sending a Message

Founder Kylo Freeman is building a community centered on wellness and galvanizing ally support for the LGBTQ+ community beyond Pride month

Leslie Blount

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Leslie Blount