Fighting Hate with Love: Why Cossette Turned Anti-Trans Posters Into Inclusive Art Pieces
When a conversation starts with you having to justify your existence, you’re not going into it from a place of equality.
This sentiment is something that unfortunately, many people fail to grasp with regards to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. If the onus is on you to change a preconceived notion and explain why you have a right to live as yourself, you’re fighting an uphill battle from the start. So, it’s for this reason that when advocating for positive action, allyship and social change, the best approach is not to fight fire with fire, but rather, combat hate with love.
This was something that Cossette clearly understood when it launched its recent ‘#TheUpcycledMarch’ campaign. After all, any number of its members or its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee could have responded to Quebec’s recent swell of anti-trans protests with equal levels of vitriol, but ultimately, that wouldn’t have accomplished much. Instead, a beautiful, memorable form of action was required, which is exactly what the agency accomplished.
Specifically, the team secured anti-trans posters from a protest in 2023, before giving them to queer artists with the task of transforming them into responses to the original, transphobic messages. Moreover, each was then auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Aide aux Trans du Québec (ATQ) – a powerful way to not only support a good cause, but demonstrate that we as a community have the ability to push for better, even in the face of hatred.
To learn more about how this got started, and just what it meant to bring this to life, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with Cossette’s vice president and special advisor, diversity, trends, and culture, Chris Bergeron, for a chat.
LBB> From the top, tell us about the agency’s EDI committee. How long has it existed, what are its main goals, and how does it promote inclusion and diversity on a regular basis?
Chris> The conversation around EDI started in earnest sometime around 2016, when we began looking at how we could make some structural changes in how we treat our employees, notably by ensuring that our group insurance plans were more inclusive. At the same time, our clients were beginning to ask for better representation in our ads and campaigns.
We’ve had EDI committees and support groups since the pandemic when it became clear to us that more needed to be done, and that people who belonged to marginalised groups needed to have more of a voice internally as they faced additional challenges.
LBB> With that in mind, what inspired this campaign? Where did the idea come from, and why was now the right time for it?
Chris> Cossette has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. This means that we encourage our employees to be active members of society. Being entrepreneurial isn’t only a business mindset – it’s a quality that is also very important in community work. So, when Souléman Diallo and Fany Thourain, a pair of creatives from our Montreal office, came to us with the desire to do something against hate speech and anti-trans sentiment, we began working on a concept that could be symbolically impactful but could also have direct benefits for the trans community.
I had marched against a number of anti-trans protests and had witnessed some pretty harsh exchanges on the streets of Montreal. I could also introduce Souléman and Fany to trans activists in the community and open channels of communication between the community and agency. We wanted the idea to be simple and PR-worthy. And so we thought of recycling hateful banners and signs from an actual anti-trans protest to turn them into positive works of art and sell them at a gallery in order to profit trans care.
LBB> The fact that this is designed as a response to protests is powerful. How long was this project in the works for, and specifically, what made this approach the best way to send a message?
Chris> The signs we managed to ‘steal’ were from a 2023 protest. Fany and Souléman waited for the end of the protest to grab some leftover signs that the hateful protesters had left lying on the ground. They did this at their own personal risk, as they were actually chased by bystanders from anti-trans groups and had to hide in bushes in order not to be caught. We knew a new wave of protests were about to happen, so then we had to play a waiting game.
As it happens, the next anti-trans rights marches will happen at the end of September 2024. We wanted to get ahead of these despicable protests with something positive. So, the time between the end of Montreal’s Pride celebrations in August and this new wave of hate seemed like the perfect timing.
Obviously, we didn’t want to match hate with hate. That is not the queer way. The beauty of this very simple idea was to match hate with love – to take every hateful banner and sign as a brief to have artists reinterpret them, recycling the original pieces into their opposites.
LBB> Let’s talk about the artwork itself. You collaborated with 10 different Montreal-based artists to make the collection come to life! How did you find the right people for the job?
Chris> Many of them were illustrators that were known for being queer and allies. We wanted them to be independent artists who weren’t necessarily used to major media attention, and the visibility they could gain as artists from this project was seen as an added bonus. But ultimately, we found in people like Alice Demée, Charlie Bourdeau, Garçon Bonbon, Isadora Ayesha, Karma Petri, La Charbonne, Maïa Fadd, Oh Mon Doux, Studio Baby Cupid, and TEO – a community of positive-minded, optimistic people.
LBB> And what was the design process like? Did you just let each artist do their thing, or was there a degree of oversight? Tell us about how the final pieces came to life!
Chris> The brief was clear. Each piece of work had to be an obvious response to the original, transphobic message.
To be honest, the artists didn’t need much more direction than that. They all jumped into the project with so much energy and enthusiasm that we didn’t need to do much hand-holding. It’s so important in today’s difficult context to make sure that queer voices are unfiltered.
LBB> The accompanying video is poignant! What was filming like, and as a whole, how did this documentation of the process come together?
Chris> The video series we created with Septième, our production studio, had to tread the line between emotional charge and journalistic coverage of a serious news item. Hate affects everyone, but artists can find ways to express the effects of hate in poignant ways, which is why it was important for us to contrast the words of the artists with images of the harsh reality of these anti-trans marches. We also wanted to show the joy and resolve that can come from being a catalyst for change.
LBB> As part of this, you partnered with Galerie Hugues Charbonneau to showcase the art and host the event. How did this collaboration come to pass? And how did the showcase actually go?
Chris> Hugues Charbonneau is an important figure in our contemporary arts scene, so the fact that we hosted our auction event at his namesake gallery certainly gave credibility to the project. His team was so collaborative. I think he was actually surprised at how many people showed up. We sold out all the pieces of work in under two hours. A lot of people from the trans community showed up, and it was beautiful to see advertising people, artists and community organisers - people from crowds that don’t usually mix - get together and learn from each other.
LBB> Proceeds raised by this initiative went to supporting ATQ. Tell us about your relationship with this organisation. Why was it the right initiative to support, and will you be collaborating again in the future?
Chris> ATQ is a very important organisation in Quebec and French Canada. It’s been providing guidance and psychological support for over forty-five years. The very existence of such a historic organisation is proof that trans people have always been here and that we will always be here.
As for the second question, I’m sure we will be working with them in the future. Moreover, I think this concept is also something that could be rolled out across cities in North America, so we’re definitely open to chatting with other organisations across the continent, as long as they have strong connections to their local communities.
LBB> What challenges have you faced during this project? How did you overcome them?
Chris> The first thing that comes to mind is to salute the courage of the two creatives that went to an anti-trans march to secure the original signs. That took so much determination. I spoke to both of them after they had fled the protests, carrying the signs. They were shaken. They are not part of the trans community, so they got a real glimpse into the type of hate trans people face. As a VP, it may not have been the most responsible thing to push them to get in harm’s way, but as a trans woman, I was glad to finally find allies that could stand arm in arm with people like me in the fight for trans rights.
Beyond that, the challenges were the same as any pro bono at a large agency: finding the time and energy. But I have to say that Cossette was really helpful and gave us all the resources we needed to bring the project to fruition. At an age when corporations are stepping away from the good fight, it was very refreshing to see.
LBB> What lessons have you learned in the making of this campaign?
Chris> Working on this project was a nice reminder that you can do a lot with minimal means and budget. This was a small-scale labour of love and yet it got a nice amount of visibility in mainstream media, which is what we wanted. Local work and local outreach matters, as it’s at the local level that communities are built and that they must be defended. I hope this can inspire other agencies to work on a smaller scale and carry out projects that can help the individuals in their own communities.
LBB> What has the initial response been like? Have people reacted well to this campaign?
Chris> The response from the community was great! I was so happy to see local activists share and promote the work, and it gave us the opportunity to impact the news cycle in a positive way. That’s a nice change of pace for trans people these days.
LBB> Finally, how can more people join the movement to help create positive action and show their allyship?
Chris> Well, collaboration with grassroots organisations is key, especially in North America where anti-2SLGBTQIA+ sentiment is on the rise. As marketers, we have skills and resources that can really have an impact on public discourse, but we need to believe in that power and not hide behind our clients. We can be agents of change in our own right.
Perhaps, also, we should worry a little less about idea ownership and our awards ranking and actually look at the needs of our communities. Too much of our industry’s pro bono work is performative. We should be more collaborative. I would love it if other agencies elsewhere in the world stole this particular idea and upcycled other hateful marches across the world. That would be a lovely way to start a movement.
