LONDON – Boutique hotel brand Mr & Mrs Smith changed its name this past weekend to celebrate the Pride Festival in London.
While the well-known brand name features the traditional Mr & Mrs pairing, it demonstrated its support for the LGBT+ community by changing its name to Mr & Mr Smith, and Mrs & Mrs Smith, with branding on the website homepage being served up at random, switching between the two monikers.
Some brands showed their support by pinning rainbow colors onto their logos during the Pride festival, but Mr & Mrs Smith wanted to go a step further by changing its entire brand identity.
The logos were featured on the brand’s website, as well as their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest pages.
The idea for the temporary re-brand came from advertising agency Karmarama and data and social agency Ignition. In a further demonstration of support and to amplify the message, Outbrain and Adyoulike donated time and media inventory to activate the name change.
‘As a London-born brand we hope this small gesture goes some way to demonstrating our support for the LGBT+ community this weekend. Our aim is simply to inspire our customers to experience extraordinary places with the people they love,” said James Lohan, founder and executive chairman, Mr & Mrs Smith.
More than a million people gathered in London for the parade, many of them stayed in hotels over the weekend.
A new poll commissioned by Pride in London showed that 74 per cent of LGBT+ people felt the need to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity. Mr & Mrs Smith hopes the temporary name change will embody the spirit of inclusion the Pride festival celebrates.
The main parade took place on Saturday, made its way down Regent Street, through Piccadilly Circus, and finished with performances and speeches in Trafalgar Square, including a fly past by the Red Arrows and a show from the finalists of the Pride’s Got Talent competition.
