Smirnoff has launched a year-long partnership with Lad Bible Group that aims to promote empathy towards minority communities, through a focus on the world of nightlife.
The programme, "Free to be", kicks off with a five-minute documentary, Night Shift, created by Lad Bible’s content agency Joyride.
It profiles three people who in different ways confound expectations of gender: female bouncer Michelle, trans male bartender Eli, and Precious, a nightclub toilet attendant who runs a gender-neutral bathroom.
The deal will continue with editorial features, news-style social video, and a My Life in 60 Seconds social video series that will profile people from minority communities in nightlife.
The is also a live experience in development that the partners said would "delight, surprise and challenge a mass nightlife audience in the most positive way possible".
Lad Bible Group said this was the biggest social movement project it had launched to date in collaboration with a brand partner.
The Diageo vodka brand previously collaborated last year to create "Meet the village angels", a short documentary on the volunteers that patrol Manchester’s Gay Village to keep revellers safe.
Nicholas Cornbleet, senior brand manager at Smirnoff, said: "Inclusivity is central to Smirnoff as a brand and Free to Be offers an exciting opportunity to promote our belief that good times are better with an inclusive mindset to a broad UK audience.
"We have long demonstrated our commitment to the LGBT community over the years through our ongoing partnership with the LGBT Foundation, Smirnoff’s Equalising Music initiative, which aims to double the amount of women and non-binary headliners in music, as well as through our #ChooseLove campaign around Pride."
Through its ongoing campaign "We’re open", Smirnoff has also profiled people from under-represented groups such as deaf dancer Chris Fonseca (above), transgender musician Honey Dijon, and the Congolose-French DJ Jewell (below), who has albinism.
