Klick is taking workplace inclusivity for LGBT employees sitting down as part of its #ASeatForAll campaign during Pride Month in Toronto.
The marketing and technology agency is running a virtual sit-in with the idea that work should be a comfortable place for LGBT employees.
It’s asking people to post their seated-selfies in office chairs on Twitter and Instagram in solidarity with LGBT employees who continue to hide who they are at work.
Klick is donating $1 to The 519 – Canada’s largest LGBTQ community centre – and its workplace inclusion programs for each of the first 5,000 people who tag their photo with #ASeatForAll through July 3, the end of Pride Month. The tagged photos will automatically be uploaded to ASeatForAll.com.
Klick creative director Brent Turnbull says the agency has marched in the Pride parade for several years and wanted to expand its efforts during this year’s first Pride Month.
The agency came across a study by The Human Rights Campaign Foundation that found in 2014, 53% of LGBT employees in Canada and the U.S. hide who they are in the workplace. The study also found 35% feel they have to lie about their personal lives to co-workers and 62% hear negative jokes about who they are at work.
“It really shocked us in this day and age. It was so high,” Turnbull says. The campaign sprang from those statistics and Klick put the campaign together in three to four weeks. “It’s been a bit of a wild ride.”
The campaign ties in with this year’s Pride Toronto theme You Can Sit With Us, which is a play on the Mean Girls line “you can’t sit with us,” says Sheryl Steinberg, vice-president, communications at Klick.
That led to the chair tie-in. “The chair was a really nice symbol for the workplace because everyone sits. It’s a good stand-in for people at work,” Turnbull says. “It really became a call for action for workplace inclusivity.”
Last week, street teams wearing branded “Sit with Klick” t-shirts and hats hit Toronto agency-land, covering streets like Bloor, King, and Queen as well as Liberty Village to encourage the public and people in the advertising and marketing communities to be seated.
Participants had their photos taken sitting on Aeron office chairs by Herman Miller, one of which was painted by Los Angeles-based filmmaker and street artist Mr. Brainwash.
As of June 15, more than 600 people have shown their support with photos of themselves in office chairs, including Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri, teen cancer researcher Jack Andraka and Ben Mulroney. Turnbull is confident the 5,000 photos goal will be reached.
The campaign, which started June 8 and also includes a YouTube video and posters, had received more than 1.5 million impressions as of June 14.
“The events in Orlando also put a really poignant point on this,” says Turnbull, referring to Sunday morning’s mass shooting at a gay nightclub. “You can’t just assume in this day and age that people are going to be accepted. You have to fight for it.”
