Continuing to celebrate PRIDE with Pride

Posted by Christian Bauman, Chief Creative Officer at Imre, a creative advertising agency based in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore 

There is a certain caution in the air these days. A chill. Folks tip-toeing around simple words and concepts that they had no problem broadcasting two years ago. Here’s the thing about chills: they become a self-actualizing system. The louder the silence, the harder it is to shatter that ice. So let’s not allow that silence to settle in, okay?

Check this out, I’m going to say some simple, sensible words: I work at an agency called Imre. We were founded 32 years ago by an amazing man named Dave Imre. Our core values as a company are Empathy, Optimism, and Kindness. We believe in workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We believe—strongly—in Authenticity: both bringing our authentic selves to the workplace, and embracing the authentic selves of our colleagues. All of this seems like such a simple thing to say. And yet it’s not, is it? It’s not. Which is why it is so important to say it. Here. Publicly. Because the more of us who say it, the faster we can break the chill and once again have these simple, sensible thoughts be easy things to say again.

Imre believed in all of that 32 years ago. And 20 years ago, and 2 years ago, and now as I write this. It is a huge part of why many of us choose to work here. I firmly believe it is also a part of why many of our clients choose to work with us.

One of our longest tenured employees is Ryan Mitchell, our director of communications. He puts it this way: “Twenty-one years ago I walked through the agency doors, and from day one I felt supported and seen. This is a place I could grow my career and, maybe more importantly, find my confidence and voice as a gay man.”

Marcus Conover, an Imre group account director based in LA, nails the symbiosis of personal and group success this dynamic brings to the workplace: “We are all real people with different backgrounds and cultural experiences—we learn from each other and better ourselves.”

It is a mystery to me why anyone would struggle with what is a key to success in business—just as much as it was the key to success I learned in the Army 30 years ago: we are stronger together. Celebrate each other, support each other. My colleague Rob Naddelman encourages us to cheer each other on. I believe in that, and I believe it is not something to be believed only in chosen moments. Being an ally only when convenient isn’t being an ally at all.

Our colleague and friend Kristen Collins, VP of project management at Imre, sums it up in her inimitable way, so we’ll give her the final word: “I won’t push your head under the water to get a better space on the raft. We can all fit.” Perfect and simple words that we at Imre have no problem saying out loud.