CALLEN-LORDE, METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, NYC LGBT HISTORIC SITES PRO | IN TRANSIT | 2024
The Voice You'd Been Hearing All Along Was Transgender / Callen-Lorde, MTA "IN TRANSIT"
The voice of the NYC subway announcements turned out to belong to a transgender woman. Millions of riders had heard that voice every day — they simply re-recorded it in her current voice.
The problem
Even in New York, a city known for being progressive, transgender people aren't free from discrimination and anxiety. The subway is considered one of the places where that anxiety is felt most. Bernie Wagenblast, who had long provided the subway announcements, came out as transgender during Pride month and was covered by local media.
The insight
Research shows that people who personally know someone transgender are more likely to be accepting. And New Yorkers had already been hearing Bernie's voice for years without knowing it — she was already part of their daily life. So instead of introducing someone new, they could simply present that familiar voice as her true self. Turning a story about someone distant into a story about something heard every single day was the sharp move here.
The idea
Timed to Transgender Day of Visibility, they replaced the NYC subway announcements with Bernie's new voice for one week, adding a personal line calling for respect toward transgender people. Alongside this, they created a fictional subway map tracing locations connected to transgender history, with outdoor ads and digital signage at Christopher Street station, a place meaningful to the community. They also produced a six-episode podcast hosted by Bernie herself, discussing gender and health.
What happened
The new recordings actually played in stations across multiple subway lines. At Cannes Lions 2024, the campaign won Gold in both the PR and Outdoor categories, reaching millions of subway riders. Bernie's story was covered by many outlets, including the New York Times.
Afterthought
No new studio, no new talent — just re-recording a voice that was already there, in the voice of the real person, and that alone made this such a powerful piece of work. It made me think that ads can be more powerful when they help you notice the meaning of something already there, rather than adding something new. A voice you've heard every day suddenly becomes, from one day on, that person's true voice. That alone feels like it could shift the air of a whole city.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
