Channel 4 is marking the 50th anniversary of the Pride movement by celebrating over 80 Pride celebrations around the nation, which are happening alongside the major city events. The concept has come from 4creative, the Channel’s award-winning creative agency.

Proud All Over is challenging the idea that people have to travel to big cities in order to celebrate Pride, and will instead shine a light on allyship in smaller regional communities.

At the heart of the campaign is a TV trail airing tomorrow Saturday 25 June and starring comedian Tom Allen, who encourages everyone to celebrate Pride nationwide. Directed by Robert Strange (blinkink) and showing animator and 3D wizard Alfie Dwyer’s surreal take on rural Britain, the Proud All Over film is a psychedelic ‘trip’ around the country and ends with Tom on the summit of a glorious Scottish mountain.

Meanwhile 4creative have also created bespoke copy-led ad campaigns celebrating more than 40 regional Prides the length and breadth of the country, from Exmouth to Shetland and from Folkestone to Llandovery.

Tailor-made straplines such as ‘Queer as Folkestone’, ‘Llanelli – May Cause Excitement in Your Wetlands’ and Shetland – ‘Everyone Remembers Their First Time’ (as it is their first ever Pride) will run across roadside posters, urban flyposter sites, major railway hubs and ad vans in more remote rural locations.

In addition Channel 4 has made social assets for over 80 Prides, which will appear on Channel 4’s Instagram accounts @channel4 and @thepinkpalace. For areas where there is no local Pride, people can still get involved using a specially designed Snapchat lens, which will reflect their location and can be augmented onto local buildings - really spreading Pride nationwide. The campaigns will go live prior to each Pride event taking place (full list of Prides supported below).

The Proud All Over campaign will run on Channel 4 and All 4, culminating in a big weekend of star studded LGBTQ+ themed programmes from Thursday 30 June to Monday 4 July. These include some of Channel 4’s biggest shows as well as new LGBTQ+ programming. There will be Pride specials of Gogglebox, First Dates and Steph’s Packed Lunch, documentaries including Freedom: 50 Years of Pride and a profile doc Trans Superstar April Ashley. The weekend will culminate with Joe Lycett’s Big Pride Party live from Birmingham on Sunday 3 July with special guest appearances from Steps, Self Esteem, Rosie Jones, Olly Alexander and Tia Kofi and Tayce.

Channel 4 are also working in partnership with the Gay Times in producing a Proud All Over Road Trip, which will see a team of young LGBTQ+ content creators, photographers, writers and illustrators visiting smaller regional pride events and documenting unique and unheard stories and experiences.

Zaid Al-Qassab, Chief Marketing Officer said Proud All Over continues the broadcaster’s role as a champion and ally of the LGBTQ+ community in the UK. “Channel 4 has always supported the LGBTQ+ community, and we wanted to continue that tradition in this historic year for Pride. Proud All Over is our Altogether Different way of celebrating the smaller, less heralded Pride events around the UK which are in many ways even more important in breaking down barriers than those in the big cities. We can’t wait to see communities everywhere joining in.”

Lynsey Atkin, Executive Creative Director of 4creative added: “Pride is such an amazing celebration that no one should feel left out of, so it felt right to quite literally – and liberally – spread the love. We have gotten a ton of joy from discovering all the smaller prides out there, and setting ourselves the brief of over 40 place-based-Pride-puns proved as entertaining as we’d feared. It’s an honour to be a part of Pride’s 50th year and we hope this campaign really does make everyone feel Proud All Over.”

Tag Warner, CEO of Gay Times said “Pride is a moment for reflection, activism and celebration – not just in big cities but all across the UK. Our campaign with Channel 4 highlights the necessary focus on Prides across Britain in supporting LGBTQ+ people and causes. So often these people and stories are overlooked but we hear from our audience, time and time again, that the impact of LGTBQ+ inclusiveness at home is most impactful. Speaking from my own experience, growing up far from big cities, I can’t begin to imagine how proud I would have felt to attend a pride event in my hometown, which thankfully now exists.”

Robert Strange blinkink Director said: “It was an honour to work on Proud All Over with Channel 4! I'm from a tiny town in New Zealand so the idea of exploring Pride on the "road less paraded" really resonated with me. I wanted to reflect that complex, strange and kind of wonderful feeling of not quite fitting the mould but still being celebrated in a small community.

“Our larger than life performers (comedian Tom Allen, drag queen Kyran Thrax, and actor Amba Gayfer) take us on a celebratory and silly journey through a fantasy 3D depiction of rural UK; their bold performances bouncing beautifully off the world created in collaboration with multimedia artist Alfie Dwyer. It was so much fun developing this project from the initial script through to finding the perfect costumes; the live shoot was incredible- a transcendental experience.”

Head of Corporate Partnerships at Pink News and LGBTQIA Consultant Polly Shute is an ex board member for London Pride and has advised Channel 4 on the campaign, from its creation through to its roll out. She said: “I was delighted to be asked to advise on Channel 4's Pride campaign for 2022. With many rural prides struggling to survive post Covid, the focus on smaller community events is so needed. In its 50th year, Pride still matters, and as a platform is so important, especially in locations outside big cities. “

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