Carling features LGBT football team in new TV ad
Black Country Fusion FC players in the Carling #MadeLocal campaign
Carling has launched a new TV ad campaign featuring an LGBT-inclusive football team, Black Country Fusion FC.
The lager company’s new #MadeLocal TV ad puts the spotlight on the Wolverhampton-based team, which was the first LGBT-inclusive football club in the West Midlands when it was set up in 2016.
The team, which plays in the Wolverhampton Sunday Morning League, and welcomes LGBT+ people and allies, was set up by Skye Stewart in 2016.
Black Country Fusion FC players star in Carling TV ad
In the clip, Black Country Fusion players explain: “It’s all about being inclusive.
“We started out as nothing, and 12 months down the line we’re one of the most successful teams in the Sunday league.
“Anything’s possible if you put your mind to it.”
As part of the campaign, Carling also released a eight-minute documentary about the club.
Skye Stewart explained: “I’m very proud to be a woman running a men’s football team. It’s very rare that you’d see that.
“I’m not just a woman, I’m a transgender woman, so that makes me different.
“I like Fusion to be different, go out there, set the trends and push boundaries.”
LGBT+ football team gets funding from Carling
A player recalled: “When we first started, you could hear them in the next changing room, ‘Be careful with these guys, them gay boys,’ and we’d walk out, and they’d be like, ‘kin hell!”
The team receives funding from Carling’s Made Local Fund, which finances grassroots projects in local communities.
Carling brand director Miranda Osborne said: “At Carling, we’re proud of the fact that Britain’s #1 beer is brewed by local people in the town of Burton-on-Trent.
“Scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find countless stories like ours – those of passionate, dedicated people making things happen in their hometowns.
“Uncovering some of these inspired us to create the Made Local Fund, our commitment to supporting new ideas and activities that will benefit local communities and the people that underpin them.”
