Behind-the-scenes of Primark’s Found Family campaign with Marcelo Rodrigues, Pride 2023 Project Lead

As part of this year’s Found Family campaign, we caught up with Marcelo Rodrigues. Marcelo was the project lead for the Pride 2023 campaign at Primark and here he shares the journey of developing this year’s campaign and product range.

Marcelo tells us why it is so important to create a collection which celebrates the diversity of our customers and colleagues, by featuring an inclusive, gender-neutral clothing and accessories collection, designed to be worn all year round.

1. Tell us about this year’s Pride campaign and Found Family collection?

Pride is a very special project that is so much more than creating a great product range. Three years ago when I started to work on our Pride campaign, the first step for me was to look at the meaning of our Pride collection internally. It was important to make sure that everyone understood that Pride isn’t just an event, or a season. Pride is an opportunity to show the LGBTQI+ community that we see them, and we stand with them. When a brand decides to show up as an ally, there is a big responsibility to do the right thing, not just throughout Pride season, but all year round.

The LGBTQI+ community is made up people from many different backgrounds with different experiences and perspectives. We wanted to find a message that would resonate and represent the diversity of the community. Everyone’s experience of finding yourself and your found family is different, and we know that this also translates into how people in the community would interpret the campaign message.

Last year we spoke about celebrating identity and individuality through our ‘We Are Everyone’ campaign. This year we evolved our message to talk about the connections based on mutual love, support and understanding that many in the LGBTQI+ community find through their own found families.

2. What is the Found Family campaign?

Found family is a term that is used to describe a group of people who have chosen to embrace, support, respect, and love each other. We know that each found family has their own story – how they found each other, how they show up as a family, what love looks like to them. This year we are authentically telling these stories through four real found families and imagery and video content that they have captured themselves.

It was very important to us that our campaign included people from all walks of life. When we decided on the Found Family creative concept, we spent a lot of time brainstorming to develop each of the characters from the LGBTQI+ family on the product range. We wanted to make sure that people walking into our stores could see themselves represented on our products, and I absolutely love what we have created. As a customer you want to feel seen and that products have been created with you in mind. I really think that we have achieved this.

3. Tell us about the product collection?

This year’s product collection features an inclusive clothing range for all genders, including adults and kids, with slogan tees, sweatshirts and vests, as well as the latest Found Family accessories.

We are so proud that our 2023 Pride collection celebrates the diversity of our customers and our colleagues, through inclusive gender-neutral clothing and accessories.

New to the collection this year is a range of gender-neutral base wear. The base wear is designed to be accessible and affordable to as many people as possible and can be worn as underwear or outerwear. The products are priced at £4 each and are made from Lycra’s adaptive elastane, offering stretch and recovery properties that mean the base-wear fits different shapes and sizes. We worked really hard to make this range authentic and relevant to the community and worked to fit the products to all body shapes and sizes alongside experts from ILGA World, Primark Quality Assurance, our suppliers and fit models.

It is important for everyone to be able to access products that they need in their life at prices that are affordable. Typically, gender-neutral base-wear is more expensive to buy and harder to access, so bringing this range to Primark stores makes me incredibly proud. Through this product we are saying to the community: we see you, we hear you and we recognise what you need.

Another item in the range that I am very passionate about is our black ‘Proud’ slogan tee. This t-shirt is reflective of many people’s experience of wanting to feel hidden – a lot of people in the community will understand how this feels. To me, this tee is important because no matter where you are on your journey, you should be able to celebrate feeling proud. It reminds me that while we have made a lot of progress, there is a lot more to do.

4. Why do you think it is important that brands like Primark support Pride and work with members of the community?

At Primark we say we are for everyone. We are, and we know it is important that we show up as a brand that helps all of our customers feel seen and represented. A lot of people in the LGBTQI+ community spend their lifetime trying to be invisible. We wanted to shine a light on that and give a voice to the community. Through our campaign this year, we want found families everywhere to feel seen, heard and represented.

This year’s campaign is so real and genuine – it’s my proudest achievement since I started working for Primark 14 years ago.