AIG is committed to creating a corporate culture that is welcoming and open to the LGBTQI+ community, while also offering insurance products and services to meet their needs.

However, cultural norms in Japan still make it difficult to “come out” in the workplace, with only 4% of LGBTQI+ people being “out” at work. With diversity still a far cry away, the brief given to us from AIG was to help promote diversity & inclusion both within the AIG Japan office, but also within Japanese society as a whole. We partnered with the AIG sponsored ALL BLACKS to leverage their universal appeal and we developed a technically (and thematically) sophisticated jersey for them. 

We focused on the phenomena that when all the colors of the rainbow are mixed, it creates black. This is a deeply rich symbolism for how differing individualities can converge to create one strong whole. It is symbolic of the ALL BLACKS themselves, and how their diversity has continually kept them the strongest rugby team in the world. We developed a fabric that is black on the surface, but when stretched, reveals all the colors of the rainbow underneath. With this fabric, we created a brand new ALL BLACKS jersey. This jersey embodies both the ALL BLACKS visual identity and a message of diversity. With this jersey as a potent symbol, we campaigned in Japan to build a team of “diversity supporters” from celebrities/notable persons/the public.

The LGBTQI+ community is generally tightly knit and information-savvy. Data also indicated that members of the LGBTQI+ community are well represented and influential in the social media sphere. We began by collaborating with LGBTQI+ related events and LGBTQI+ influencers in Tokyo, to raise interest in our project.

We also involved celebrities and influencers of all sexual identities to help deliver and amplify our message to the wider public.

We held a launch event in Tokyo on April 2018.

The event was joined by ALL BLACKS legend Richie McCaw and Japanese LGBTQI+ influencers.

These guests wore the Pride Jersey and spoke out about diversity and inclusion. ?The launch was followed by Japan’s biggest pride parade, the TOKYO RAINBOW PRIDE, where hundreds of people marched wearing the PRIDE JERSEY.

Our social media activity made it easy for users to join in and voice their support for the cause.

We also joined the Osaka and Fukuoka pride parades (October and November, respectively) taking our “street and social media” action paradigm nationwide.

53,764 members of the LGBTQI+ community voiced their support in the first seven days following launch.

Following on from Tokyo, we took our action to Yokohama, Osaka and Fukuoka where a total of 1,500 people marched through the streets wearing the Pride Jersey.

This movement wasn’t limited to Japan however. We received vocal support from the UK, South Africa, Ireland and the home of the ALL BLACKS, New Zealand.

In total, we were covered by 272 media outlets in 19 countries, and we were inundated with queries about Pride Jersey.

As of spring 2019, the movement continues to grow and garner support, with the PRIDE JERSEY being work at corporate awareness raising events. ?We will also be marching once more at the TOKYO RAINBOW PRIDE 2019, with our heads held high in support and camaraderie.