I'm standing for re-election in Manchester Piccadilly and using cheeky slogans on Grindr to win votes

A cheeky councillor bidding to be re-elected in the Gay Village has launched an innovative campaign strategy — advertising on Grindr.

Grindr is a social media app for ‘gay, bi, trans, and queer people’, which is location-based — so nearby like-minded individuals can meet up. That means it is especially popular in Manchester’s Gay Village, one of the largest LGBT+ quarters in the world.

And now, one man standing in Thursday’s local elections has used the app to target voters with a series of cheeky slogans. Coun Jon-Connor Lyons, Labour, is advertising on the app with messages like ‘put him on top this election’, ‘it’ll be tight’, ‘no ghosting, just voting’, and ‘politics doesn’t have to be vanilla’.

Coun Lyons — an openly gay man who has used the platform himself — also believes the adverts are working, claiming five percent of ads are clicked-on, ‘far higher than our other social media campaigns’, he said.

“We use many different methods to get out our message to voters and residents in Piccadilly ward,” Coun Lyons, who is also Chair of Manchester’s planning committee, said. “This year, my campaign team and I thought we’d try something new such as Grindr ads to reach key voters in the area.”

He is standing in the Piccadilly ward, which covers the Gay Village, Northern Quarter, and NOMA areas of the city centre. Also standing in the ward are Allison Harrison for the Liberal Democrats, Scott Robinson for the Green Party, Sinead Rylance for Communist Future, and Praveen Tomar for the Conservatives.