The archive · PR & Stunts · Marketing decision · 2021
Lyft turns licence plates into pronoun art so riders and drivers display who they are
Only 2% of Lyft riders and drivers had put pronouns in the app, so Lyft had LGBTQIA+ artists design plates for their own pronouns.
Lyft
What it had to solve
By 2021 gender pronouns had become recognised by more and more people, yet only 2% of Lyft's riders and drivers had added theirs in the app. Lyft wanted that field to matter — a way for people to express who they are, not a box nobody fills in.
How it works
In 2021, gender pronouns had become recognised by more and more people, yet only 2% of Lyft's riders and drivers had added pronouns in the app. The feature existed; almost nobody used it.
Lyft's answer treated identity like the thing it already used to identify rides: the licence plate. A group of LGBTQIA+ artists each designed a unique plate for their own pronouns, inspired by their own journeys with gender identity.
Just as a licence plate tells you which Lyft is yours, pronouns tell people who you are. Putting the plates in the real world made a neglected app field a visible symbol of self-expression; D&AD's awards archive records the work.
Why it lands
- The metaphor does the work: people already read licence plates as identifiers, so pronouns on a plate read as identity at a glance.
- Commissioning LGBTQIA+ artists made the campaign theirs, rather than a brand speaking on behalf of a community.
- Real-world plates answered the app's silence: a 2% adoption stat became something visible on the street.
- The work tied a product feature to dignity and self-expression, giving riders and drivers a reason beyond compliance to share pronouns.
What it did
The plate metaphor moved pronouns from an invisible profile field to a public symbol of self-expression, giving the 2% adoption stat a visible answer. The work is archived in D&AD's awards archive, where the mechanism — plates identify a ride, pronouns identify a person — is the documented idea.
What you can take
When a feature goes unused because it feels optional, find the everyday object that already does its job — the plate that identifies a ride — and let it carry the meaning in public.
Since then
Lyft launched Pronoun Plates around International Pronouns Day in October 2021, using the campaign to encourage riders and drivers to share pronouns on their Lyft profiles. The D&AD archive records no reach figures, so the case stands on the mechanism: a licence plate — the thing that tells you which Lyft is yours — became the canvas for telling people who you are.
Sources
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