Transgender Day of Visibility is a day designed to celebrate trans people and raise awareness of the discrimination faced by the community worldwide. 

To mark the occasion, Grey London rebranded as ‘They’ in a nod to they/them pronouns adopted by many non-binary and gender non-conforming people not currently recognised by UK law. In 2021 the UK Government rejected a petition signed by more than 130,000 to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to include recognition of non-binary gender identity.

The move comes after the agency’s work with the GAY TIMES Amplifund, and the release of ‘Incomplete Without the T’; a short video removing the letter ‘T’ from a range of different texts and communications, showing that when you erase a letter from any word, in any language, you remove both comprehension and unity. A notion extended to the LGBTQ+ movement, to stop trans erasure and prove that the same is true when you remove the T from LGBTQ+.

Grey’s rebranding aimed to help push for greater visibility and representation of the trans community in advertising. The rebrand was in response to Government policy that continues to neglect and exclude trans people from public spaces and healthcare.

A new report from a review commissioned by NHS England into the state of trans healthcare in the UK found that the public health services available to trans youth are insufficient and unsustainable, with waiting lists of up to two years leaving trans youth at “considerable risk”.

In Grey London’s own offices in the new WPP Rose Court campus, agency leadership’s efforts to install gender-neutral bathroom facilities have been impeded by government building regulations that mandate single-sex bathrooms in public spaces and workplaces. 

“As an agency committed to the collision of difference, we are proud to champion diversity and strive to be an inclusive home for people of all gender identities. Trans rights are human rights, and we at They London are proud to support our trans siblings in their fight for representation and equality,” said Laura Jordan Bambach, President and Chief Creative Officer of They London

The agency is collaborating with Amplifund, GAY TIMES, established to support local queer media in countries where LGBTQ+ people face greater social and legal challenges and also with WPP Unite, WPP’s LGBTQ+ Community, in their mission to improve queer representation throughout WPP and the communications industry. 

Grey London has changed its name in support of other marginalised groups before. For its 100^th anniversary in 2017, the agency rebranded as Valenstein & Fatt to honour their Jewish founders Lawrence Valenstein and Arthur Fatt, who in 1917 named their New York agency after the colour of their wallpaper, rather than reveal their Jewish heritage amid the rife antisemitism of the day.

By making a visual stance, and changing the agency branding, the agency hoped to drive further awareness and create greater visibility to promote the rights of trans people.