Embracing Diversity: Celebrating Pride

Jun 13, 24
News

13th June 2024

Pride and Shine

June marks Pride Month, a time when people come together and celebrate diversity as well as show support for the LGBTQ+ community. MII recognises and supports our members, colleagues, friends, family, and the wider community of Ireland for the celebration of Pride. This is a 24/7/365 commitment and not just for one month of the year. Our intention is to show our support and express our allyship.

Did you know that the Pride flag has changed and we now have the Progress Pride flag. If you would like to learn more about the Progress Pride flag, just click on this link.

We are proud to support the founding of ADvocates, the new group set up to represent members of the marketing and advertising community. Our CEO attended the first meeting of the group in October 2023 and engages regularly with ADvocates.

In March, ADvocates held a best practice marketing workshop in TU Dublin focused on how to avoid pink washing. Darius Pasalar, Droga5 outlined some best practice marketing tips to help brands activate responsibly. Check out Pride Vibes, the radio station partnership that is giving LGBTQ+ folks visibility this Pride month. A great example of getting it right!

We have also engaged with Outhouse during the past year. Outhouse is dedicated to supporting the people, spaces, and issues important to the LGBTQ+ communities. Outhouse LGBTQ+ Centre on 105 Capel Street offers a safe place for LGBTQ+ people to find connection, community support, culture & campaigns.

In Dublin, the 50th Anniversary Pride March and Parade will take place on June 29th and you can find all the details about the parade and the full line of festival activities here – https://dublinpride.ie/

More information

If you would like to find out more about the general supports available all year round, please click on this link – https://www.gov.ie/

This link provides you with details of the support available including LGBT Ireland and BeLonGTo. LGBT Ireland offers a comprehensive range of services which provide support and information on issues relating to sexuality and gender identity through a national helpline, online chat support and peer support groups. BeLonGTo is an LGBTQ+ youth organisation in Ireland which caters for young people aged between 14–23 years and provides advice and support to parents.

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Patrick Kennedy | Pinterest

Patrick is a marketing scientist with 15 years experience helping brands turn rigorous measurement into growth—across brand and performance, and from SMBs to Enterprise.

Today he leads Global Scaled Measurement at Pinterest, where his team develops measurement thought leadership, partners with product to validate new ad solutions, and builds the education and tooling that make effective decisions repeatable at scale.

Previously, at Meta he managed marketing science teams that supported more than 6,000 clients and agencies across EMEA, developing expertise in first- and third‑party experimentation and scalable learning programs. His experience also spans retail analytics at dunnhumby, integrating attitudinal and behavioral data from a 10,000‑shopper panel to drive actionable insights.

His career started out at Amárach Research, where he conducted quantitative and qualitative research in partnership with some of Ireland’s best known brands.

Orla Mitchell

Ex-CEO WaterWipes & National Marketing Champion 2026

Prior to her board career, Orla worked with WaterWipes between early 2020- end 2022. As CEO and board member she with her exec team implemented a 3-year strategy that more than doubled the business with the brand now a top global brand leader in all its key markets including the U.S. An Irish founder owned global success story the WaterWipes brand, as the world's purest baby wipe has disrupted the wipes category with exponential growth in multiple geographies globally.

Until May 2019 Orla was Global President of Gum & Mints at Mars Wrigley Confectionery, a subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated. She led the Business Strategy, Global Innovation pipeline, Strategic P&L, capital program and Brand strategy for a Portfolio of Globally famous gum and mints brands including Orbit Extra, 5, Doublemint and Juicy Fruit to name but a few. She was also a member of the Mars Wrigley Leadership Team and Strategy team (a sub-team of the Leadership team responsible for Global Segment strategy).

Prior to this role she held the position of Chief Marketing Officer for Wrigley preceding the integration of the Mars Confectionery businesses. Orla was with Mars for 18 years in several different roles, and her business and marketing expertise across multiple regions make her a highly experienced strategic and marketing resource. Before joining Wrigley, Orla served as the CMO for Mars Global Food, where she promoted marketing excellence across the company’s global good business and helped create a strategic growth agenda. Prior to that, she was the European Marketing Director for Mars Foods Europe, where she was responsible for marketing Mars’ sauce brands in Europe.

Orla began her time with Mars as the Marketing Director of Petcare for Mars Ireland and has moved up in the Marketing function since then. Orla has a passion for developing sustainable business legacy and growth strategies and has led several business turnarounds during her career to date. She is also very experienced in developing iconic and multi award winning communications campaigns.

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