There are an estimated 40,000 drag performers in the UK. Whilst well loved and respected, they face a lot of challenges – including being overworked and underpaid, especially during Pride month.
We thought it was time to recognise and reward these hard-working and under- acknowledged heroes of the entertainment industry and LGBTQIA+ community.
Enter our Just Eat’s VIQs – Very Important Queens – initiative.
We enlisted RuPaul’s Drag Race star, Dr Cheddar Gorgeous, to reveal the challenges faced by drag performers in order to set the scene and provide context to our story.
Our story development was designed to show media a picture of just how hard drag performers werk during Pride. Working alongside Cheddar and a LGBTQ+ fitness expert, Matt Boyles, we calculated an estimated 350 shows and staging 14.4 million lip syncs, burning over 2,500 calories in one night – their entire daily allowance.
The solution? Free Just Eat to keep the nations drag queens and kings fuelled, fed and fabulous throughout the month of Pride. Whether they needed extra hairspray, bobby pins or to carb-load ahead of a long night of gigs – whatever it was, they received their voucher almost instantly to tuck into.
The results spoke for themselves. Across the coverage we had 100s of comments from the community thanking Just Eat for demonstrating true allyship during pride month, with multiple interactions from Drag Queen royalty, such as Myra Dubois, The Danny Beard and Just May.
Our campaign successfully conveyed Just Eat’s key messages of support and inclusivity to the LGBTQIA+ community, merging meaningful social engagement with heightened brand visibility.
Through the VIQs Club initiative, we not only championed drag performers but also reinforced Just Eat’s commitment to community and diversity.
