From performative to powerful: why inclusive communication starts with action

This month, we’re spotlighting the work of Ettie Bailey-King, Brand By Me’s Inclusive Communications Lead

Award-winning communications educator Ettie Bailey-King is known for challenging the harmful norms baked into language, branding, and storytelling. Through her consultancy, she helps brands move beyond lip service into real, equity-driven action. In this conversation, she shares the lived experience that shaped her path, her take on what makes brands fail or flourish in their equity work, and why joy, compassion and community are at the heart of social justice.

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Brand By Me: Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to focus your work on challenging systemic inequities, particularly those affecting marginalised communities?

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Ettie Bailey-King: My interest in inclusive and accessible communication is deeply rooted in my personal experience. From a young age, I felt like I was always missing something when it came to language, it was like I didn’t understand the rules that others were playing by. Looking back, a lot of that was likely due to undiagnosed neurodivergence, possibly autism. But I learned to mask early on, to play by rules that didn’t make sense to me, and to hide my curiosity for fear of being “rude.”

That lived sense of exclusion made me really attuned to how language can harm and how we might use it differently. I’ve always been passionate about social justice. I never outgrew it, even when people told me I would. As I moved through work in activism, international development, and gender equality, I became increasingly frustrated with how much those systems reproduced the very injustices they claimed to fight.

By the time I went freelance in 2019, I knew exactly what I didn’t want to do. I wasn’t going to whitewash inequality, centre white saviours, or uphold colonial power dynamics. And from there, I started teaching inclusive language and accessibility, doing the opposite of all those things.

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Brand By Me: What first sparked your interest in helping brands confront and unpick harmful systems?

Ettie Bailey-King: Honestly, this was a mix of growing up in lad culture Britain and the radicalising force of problematic mainstream media. The 90s and 2000s were full of casual misogyny magazines that taught you to hate your body, adverts that objectified women without a second thought. That shaped how I saw myself, but it also showed me how storytelling could reinforce injustice.

The other huge turning point was when I saw what had happened in Ferguson, US, in 2014, after a young Black man, Mike Brown was killed by a white police officer. As a white woman, I hadn’t been thinking critically about race at all. But once I saw the reality of racism through that lens, I couldn’t unsee it. The media coverage and the community response, where many people took to the streets in Ferguson in protest, was a moment of reckoning for me.

Storytelling has always been how I make sense of the world. And the more I understood how deeply our stories were shaped by oppressive systems, the more I wanted to help brands that tell a lot of powerful stories stop doing harm.

Brand By Me: Why do you think so many brands still fall into the trap of performative action when it comes to social justice?

Ettie Bailey-King: Let’s be generous for a moment. I think a lot of brands genuinely want to take action, they just have no idea how. The level of understanding around equity, accessibility, and justice is still shockingly low in mainstream brand spaces. And when you don’t understand the problem, it’s hard to act meaningfully.

That said, good intentions aren’t enough. Many brands avoid real change because the status quo benefits them. They’re led by people often, white, often male who are comfortable. And comfort can be a barrier to empathy.

Another issue is fear. Brands are terrified of getting it wrong, of being called out, or of “looking racist” if they start an anti-racism initiative. That fear of imperfection stops them from even beginning. But as I always say: progression over perfection. You just have to start.

Brand By Me: In your view, what makes DISMANTLE different and why do we need work like this right now?

Ettie Bailey-King: What makes DISMANTLE different is the energy. It’s action-focused. It’s plain-speaking. Collette Philip, the founder of Brand By Me, knows how to break down complex concepts into something real and relatable. The platform is just not about abstract ideals; it’s about what you’re actually going to do to make changes.

And we desperately need that right now. Performative equity work is everywhere. But change doesn’t come from having the right values on your website. It comes from behaviour, from implementing new systems, and from consistent action.

Brand By Me: What are some of the most common challenges or blind spots you see when it comes to embedding equity into brand culture and comms?

Ettie Bailey-King: A big one is ticking off a single identity box and calling it “inclusion.” Brands will say, “We’re really good at LGBTQIA+ inclusion”, but when you ask for specifics, they usually mean they have some gay representation. That’s great, but what about trans people? Intersex people? Non-binary folks?

Another issue is perfectionism, this idea that equity work has to be flawless to be valid. But that’s not how change works. You get better day by day. Mistakes are inevitable. That’s true of everything else we do, from payroll to PowerPoints, but for some reason we hold social justice work to an impossible standard.

And finally, defensiveness. Some leaders still think that admitting the need for equity work is an admission of guilt. In reality, doing the work is the opposite of being racist, ableist, or unjust. It means you're taking responsibility.

Brand By Me: For brands that genuinely want to shift from words to action where should they begin? Are there any practical steps or mindset shifts you’d recommend?

Ettie Bailey-King: Start small. Focus on progression, not perfection. Understand that you will mess up and that’s okay. We all say the wrong thing sometimes, even those of us who teach inclusive language for a living!

You also need to get clear on whose feedback matters. You will get pushback. The real question is: pushback from whom? If someone who benefits from the current system doesn’t like what you’re doing, that might actually be a sign you're on the right track.

This work takes both rigour and self-compassion. Be bold enough to act, and kind enough to forgive yourself when you stumble.

Brand By Me: How can brands and organisations ensure their DEI work doesn’t just centre their own image, but actually uplifts the communities they claim to support?

Ettie Bailey-King: Check who’s talking and who’s being talked over. Don’t speak for people if they can speak for themselves (and almost everyone can). Your job as a brand is to hold the mic, not hog it.

Ask yourself: are we centring the people most affected? Are we creating space, sharing power, and stepping back when needed? If not, it’s probably time to rethink.

Brand By Me: What does ‘real and lasting change’ look like to you?

Ettie-Bailey King: There isn’t one fixed version of change. I’m reminded of how people that work in the futures space tend talk in plurals futures because there are many possibilities. Real change isn’t a single endpoint, but an ongoing process of building better systems. There are definitely multiple versions of real and lasting change. 

That said, some things are essential: action that matches the scale of the injustice. A willingness to keep going even when it’s hard, or when there’s backlash. And a mix of lightness and seriousness taking yourself seriously enough to act, but holding the work lightly enough to keep going.

Also, joy. Change work is full of joy! Anyone who tells you it’s just a struggle hasn’t tapped into the community and hope that come from fighting for justice together.

Brand By Me: For any brand leaders or comms professionals feeling overwhelmed what’s one thing you’d want brands and organisations to remember as they work toward equity and justice?

Overwhelm is not a failure. It’s a design feature of oppressive systems. Capitalism, white supremacy, ableism they all rely on us being too exhausted or panicked to act.

So ground yourself. Breathe. Notice what you feel in your body. Rest, then move. You’re allowed to take it one step at a time.

And above all, find the joy. This work is joyful, creative, radical, and human. The more we connect with that, the more effective we become.

Brand By Me: Anything else that you’d like to share?

Ettie Bailey-King: Let go of perfectionism, but never let go of purpose. The goal isn’t to look good, it's to do good. And we’re all capable of that, if we commit to learning, listening, and taking action over and over again.

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You can check out Ettie Bailey-King’s Substack, Fighting talk ,here.  

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Want to make your brand truly inclusive? Find out about our work with brands.