Hiki, #AutisticOutLoud

To combat negative stereotypes perpetuated by media, Hiki partnered with Getty Images to launch #AutisticOutLoud, a content initiative featuring autistic creators. This initiative seeks to dismantle biased imagery and promote authentic representation. By showcasing self-portraits of autistic creators, Hiki and Getty Images provide more accurate depictions of autism. The content is available for commercial use, and some are royalty-free on Unsplash, helping to reshape media portrayals and support autistic identity and equity.

Challenge

Hiki is the world’s largest friendship and dating app for the Autistic community. It’s unique from other dating apps because of its purpose: empower the Autistic community with connection. Autistic people are 4x more likely to be lonely. A key reason for the stigma around autism is the lasting impact of well-funded media and advertising that has depicted autism as a tragedy.

Insight

Hiki’s overarching goal is to unify and empower the autistic community. To accomplish this, we leveraged the power of media to tackle problematic stereotypes and stigma. For too long, assumptions and misinformation have led to biased imagery that mischaracterizes those across the autism spectrum. We aimed to reshape these restrictive perceptions and drive authentic representation by dismantling existing media prejudice.

Today, about 15-20% of the population worldwide is neurodivergent. Yet, ableism is normalized, and autistic people suffer as a consequence – 79% report feeling lonely, 80% are under or unemployed, and autistic people are 3x more likely to commit suicide.

This reinforces that autism is pathologized rather than recognizing autistic people as a valid identity group who needs support and equity. To create positive change, the current autistic representation in media needed to change.

Idea

In partnership with Getty Images, Hiki aimed to combat problematic stereotypes by creating #AutisticOutLoud, a custom content initiative featuring autistic creators to increase authentic representation. Getty Images was the ideal partner, building on their work representing the disability community.

Delivery

The content created lives on Getty Images’ platforms and is available for commercial use by media worldwide to drive awareness. By centering on Autistic expressions, we’re reshaping media to be more representative.

To overcome the lack of authentic autism representation, Hiki and Getty Images tasked ten autistic creators with creating self-portraits capturing their personal experiences. By having creators take self-portraits, they represent themselves most authentically, combating unfair media depictions speaking on behalf of the autistic community.

Not only can brands license this content, but a portion is accessible royalty-free through Unsplash for bloggers and small businesses.

Results

• Within 8 weeks of launching the #AutisticOutLoud campaign, the visuals were downloaded over 300,000 times, garnering 35M views.
• Within 6 months of the campaign, the Hiki app had increased subscribers by 50% – with 50,000 new users joining among the 150,000 adults on the platform.
• Top search keywords for on gettyimages.com and Unsplash included ‘Autism’, ‘ADHD’ and ‘neurodiversity’ showing more understanding of businesses wanting to represent the Autistic community.
• Forbes, Ad Age, and Yahoo Finance picked-up on our campaign.
• And the work is being championed by the Unstereotype Alliance – the United Nations’ platform for combatting stereotypes in media and advertising.