Ford's Very Gay Raptor is relevant for Brand Experience and Activation because Ford - the largest truck brand on the planet - used its most iconic vehicle as a canvas to viscerally promote its philosophy about diversity and inclusion.

Ford created the Very Gay Raptors, to tackle the very real problem of toxic masculinity and homophobia that emanates from the tough truck category; a category that Ford, through its market leadership, essentially built.

These vehicles exist to redefine the definition of tough, going to places where conversation needs to happen, and positive change needs to be provoked.

Ford has proudly built a strong culture of ‘tough’ in their category leading pick-up trucks.

But unfortunately, that ‘tough’ culture often gets confused with toxic masculinity, and we’re seeing discrimination and homophobia creeping into everyday pickup truck conversations.

It came to light when Ford launched its Ranger Raptor via film on YouTube – one of the commenters remarked that the colour of the car was ‘Very Gay’ and Ford should paint it in ‘BlackNGold’ instead. So Ford responded, by re-editing the online film, to give the Ranger Raptor a new digital paint job, and reposted it across Ford’s social channels.

The response was incredibly mixed, with many asking Ford to make the ‘Very Gay’ Raptor real, and others expressing disgust, and threatening to boycott the brand.

Ford felt that it couldn’t really call itself ‘tough’ if it didn’t stand up for what it believed in, even at the risk of alienating its own audience.

So the real-life 'Very Gay' Raptor, the uncompromisingly inclusive pick up truck, debuted at Cologne Pride, making headlines around the world.

As a major protagonist in automotive culture, Ford recognised that this can come with an undercurrent of homophobia. A long-term champion of LGBTQI+ inclusion, Ford embraced the challenge to drive industry change through a clear message to car lovers, everywhere: Ford is redefining tough in order to drive out discrimination.

Working closely with Ford’s Pride ERG, the tonality was intentional: Proud, not aggressive. Playful but purposeful. Reactive but not retaliatory. This was about allyship, not opportunism.

Ford tackled the pick up truck category’s homophobia problem exactly where the problem existed – in conversations with its fans on social media.

When it came to the ‘IRL Very Gay Raptor’ Ford let it speak for itself. Revealed at Cologne’s Christopher Street Day Parade, proudly driven by members of Ford’s Pride ERG, the event-day buzz was the perfect platform to take our message far and wide.

The campaign was executed as follows:

1. JUNE 2021: Original clapback social post ‘Very gay is a compliment, right?’ (Pan-European distribution via Ford’s Twitter and IG, no paid support)

2. JULY 2021: IRL Very Gay Raptor at Christopher Street Day parade, Cologne & supporting press release – distributed to German consumer, auto and LGBTQI+ media and international newswires

3. JULY 2021: LinkedIn post from Head of FordPro Europe

4. JULY / ongoing… Very Gay Raptor employee tour of Ford plants in Germany & UK and appearance at relevant automotive and LGBTQ+ events subsequently

5. AUGUST 2021: Follow up social post ‘You asked us to make it real, so we did’ (pan-European distribution via Ford’s twitter and IG, no paid support)

The plan was carefully crafted in conjunction with the UK and German chairpersons of Ford Pride – Ford’s LGBTQI+ resource group, in order to ensure the right tonality.

• 140+ media articles, with a reach of over 22 million (Prime-Cision)

• 146m+ impressions and 38k total post interactions on Facebook

• Over 5.9m+ impressions, 118k engagements on IG

• 32m+ impressions, 4.5k+ tweets/re-tweets and 4k+ users directly engaging via twitter

• On the Ford of Europe channels, we recorded more than 4m organic impressions and 307k+ total engagements on the recent VGR post. These results are significantly higher than Ford’s usual organic performance across Twitter and Instagram.

• A Brandwatch sentiment analysis found, that although there was some negativity on the post (8%), 91% were neutral-positive

• Popular TikTok influencer Josh Helfgott (4.5M followers) posted a positive video of the #VeryGayRaptor, viewed 5.5 million times, 1.3M likes and 12.3k comments

The Very Gay Raptor has kickstarted Ford's leadership of a cross industry anti-discrimination programme called 'Driving Pride' to help transform the category.

Ford's brand purpose is, 'To help build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.' They believe in the power of creating a world with fewer obstacles and limits.

Yet, the undercurrent of homophobia in the celebrated tough muscle truck culture - a culture that Ford played a significant role in building - is doing the exact opposite to the LGBTQI+ community.

It was this belief that underpinned Ford's decision to not only call out homophobia within its own audience, but to augment Ford's position with a real-life brand activation, even, and especially, in the face of commercial risk.