Stonewall Housing Campaign Raises Awareness of the LGBTQ+ Homelessness Crisis

Almost 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people experience homelessness in their lifetime. With 77% citing family rejection as the reason for their homelessness, when coming out or being outed. Mr. President’s campaign seeks to spread the message of this LGBTQ+ homelessness in order to raise much needed funds for Stonewall Housing to support those in need of advice, temporary accommodation and advocacy.

The campaign resulted from Mr. President winning the charity prize in Ocean Outdoor’s 2023 digital creative competition - with £100K of media spend across Ocean’s multiple environments and iconic digital formats in cities across the UK. It will run for a total of two weeks and it is the first campaign of the 2023 competition winners to go live. 

The campaign, which launches across the UK today utilising 'Ocean Labs Technology', leverages localised messaging to help the crisis feel “close to home”. The creative sees someone from the LGBTQ+ community standing behind the frosted glass of a front door. Then using Ocean Labs’ sound technology, we hear the shouting, abuse and family rejection that people from the community face, when coming out. We’re then left with the hard hitting message of ‘Kicked Out for Coming Out’, as onlookers are invited to donate to help Stonewall Housing end LGBTQ+ homelessness in the area.

In order to authentically portray the campaign, the Mr President team worked alongside representatives of the LGBTQ+ community for whom the campaign held particular significance: It was shot by Laura Pannack and the campaign talent was a real service user of Stonewall Housing - having actually faced family rejection when coming out. The audio was also created from a true story from a real service user.

Ocean’s Loop sites serve as the perfect placement for the creative on multiple accounts: There are placements in selected sites in London, Birmingham and Manchester - all communities that the charity serves. The 6-sheet sites resemble that of a door - helping deliver the visual concept. And finally, the Labs dynamic sound technology gave us the perfect opportunity to stop people in their tracks - knowing it’s instinctive for people to look around when they hear shouting.

Claire Linacre-Hilton, director of development, said, “Every person deserves a place to call home, free from discrimination and fear. Our new campaign, 'Kicked Out for Coming Out,' not only sheds light on the critical need for safe and affirming housing options but also underscores the profound impact of community support in transforming lives. By encouraging donations through this campaign, we can continue to provide essential services and advocate for people's housing rights.”

Laura Clark, associate creative director at Mr. President, said, “As a small charity, we really wanted to create something impactful for Stonewall Housing. The stats around LGBTQ+ homelessness are shocking, therefore we wanted to highlight this by giving people a window into what it’s like for LGBTQ+ people when coming out, creating the awareness the charity needs and deserves.”

Ocean UK marketing director Marie Le Hur said, “This intriguing, impactful idea is a clever use of our small format network, The Loop, and Ocean Labs' technology in some of our key city centre locations. Digital out of home is the perfect partner to raise awareness for a problem that needs solving and a charity people may not have heard of, making Stonewall Housing a worthy winner of Ocean's Digital Creative Competition.”