Citi came to our team at Publicis with an extraordinary offering — giving transgender and non-binary people the ability to have their chosen names reflected on their Citi credit cards without a legal name change. My creative partner Lea Platz and I were honored to work closely with our internal Publicis colleagues at Égaleté to help guide us every step of the way.
Working on this project brought to life many aspects that the transgender and non-binary community have been longing for in advertising — to be seen for who they are, showing up as themselves, not being othered or depicted in ways that cater to a cis audience. This film was directed by Cole Webley, shot by transgender cinematographer Bianca Cline, edited by Mikkel EG Nielsen and scored by Butter.
The campaign was also brought to life in a series by photographer Annie Tritt. We realized early on that in order to do this right, we needed to show this community authentically. We invited 10 trans and non-binary folk to be photographed as themselves, their true selves, in their own clothes, names and pronouns.
We topped this off with a great site designed by our team at Publicis and built by our partners at Razorfish. You can visit it at citi.com/updatemyname.
Doing this all during a pandemic had its challenges, for sure, but this has by far been one of the most eye opening, educational and meaningful projects I've ever worked on. I can honestly say our entire team feels the same way. A special shout out to Publicis team members Jenn Renoe, Deanna Solis, Chole Grindle, Joni Osuga, Michael Silber, Bang Hahn, Rachel Kalagher, Jeremy Filgate, Andrew Vollmer, Annie Fox, Aaron Yi and Tim LeGallo.
Financial Communications Society
Branding & Advertising | Integrated Marketing
Publicis x Citi
September .21
New York Festivals Awards
Financial Advertising: Use of Discipline/Medium, Film/TV
Publicis x Citi
July .21