When influencer and content creator Ella D Verma speaks, the industry needs to stop and listen to the raw, unvarnished reality behind the screen. Her recent commentary regarding her transition journey and the specific social pressures she faces—including her candid admission about personal clothing choices—highlights a major gap in how mainstream brands approach diversity. For those of us in the marketing world, the story of Ella D Verma is not just a personal anecdote; it is a masterclass in why performative inclusion is failing. Brands often chase the ‘trans-friendly’ label for a quick campaign boost, yet they rarely engage with the actual, lived truths of the people they claim to represent.
Marketing in India has traditionally relied on safe, sanitized versions of identity. We see a lot of rainbow-washed campaigns during Pride month, but the rest of the year, these voices are relegated to the shadows. Verma’s discourse on the physical and social realities of being a transgender woman in India—specifically her comments about the struggles with traditional clothing and the societal gaze—should be a wake-up call for brand managers. When a brand decides to partner with a creator, they are essentially endorsing their story. If that brand is only interested in the aesthetic of diversity without understanding the friction that these individuals face in their daily lives, the campaign ends up feeling hollow, transactional, and honestly, a bit offensive.
Let’s look at the numbers. The influencer economy is exploding, and brands are desperate to tap into niche audiences. However, this desperation often leads to poor vetting and lazy briefs. We see influencers being handed scripts that make them sound like corporate mouthpieces rather than authentic voices. When someone like Ella D Verma speaks about the ‘bitter truth’ of the hijra community or the nuances of her body, she is stripping away the artificial gloss that most agencies force upon creators. Marketing professionals need to realize that the audience today is smarter than that. They can spot an inauthentic collaboration from a mile away. If you are going to put an influencer at the heart of your brand strategy, you have to let them speak their own language.
The skepticism in the industry is justified. We have seen countless brands pivot to ‘woke’ advertising only to revert to conservative tropes the moment the ad spend runs dry. This hit-and-run approach to social issues does more harm than good. It turns individuals into props for a quarterly report. Instead of using creators to fulfill a diversity quota, companies should be looking at how they can provide long-term, structural support to the communities these creators represent. This means moving beyond a single video or a sponsored Instagram post. It means actual engagement, listening to the uncomfortable parts of the story, and being willing to weather the social media backlash that sometimes comes with supporting marginalized voices.
We need to stop treating gender identity as a marketing trend that can be measured in engagement rates and click-throughs. The reality of transitioning and the social hurdles that come with it are human experiences, not conversion metrics. When we reduce these stories to a ‘diverse’ tag in a media plan, we fail the very people we are trying to reach. The advertising world often fears the ‘controversial,’ yet controversy is frequently just another word for ‘truth’ that makes people uncomfortable. If your brand isn’t ready to handle the truth of the people you work with, don’t pretend to be an ally in the first place.
As we move into a new era of digital connection, the winners will be the brands that prioritize human dignity over brand safety. Authenticity is the only currency that matters in a cluttered market. If you are not willing to listen to the difficult, granular details of a creator’s life, you have no business capitalizing on their reach. Let the industry learn from the way people like Ella D Verma are pushing the boundaries; they are doing the hard work of being themselves, so the least we can do is stop trying to package their struggle into a consumable, brand-friendly format that ignores the facts.
