With the unveil­ing of her Van­i­ty Fair cov­er and new iden­ti­ty, Olympian and real­i­ty TV star Cait­lyn Jen­ner has, in a way, become the poster­child for the trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty.  And that’s in part because her tran­si­tion is arguably a water­shed moment in pop cul­ture broad­ly and for adver­tis­ing specif­i­cal­ly.

And with increased atten­tion on the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty as a whole as a result of the Supreme Court’s June 26 deci­sion on mar­riage equal­i­ty, depic­tions of trans­gen­der men and women are only expect­ed to increase in main­stream media. Not only does it pro­vide a more accu­rate por­tray­al of Amer­i­can con­sumers over­all, it also gives mar­keters an oppor­tu­ni­ty to tell more authen­tic and hon­est sto­ries.

In recent years, Amer­i­can con­sumers have cer­tain­ly seen more trans­gen­der indi­vid­u­als in main­stream media.

Advo­cate Chaz Bono, for exam­ple, appeared on ABC real­i­ty show Danc­ing with the Stars in 2011.

And then Netflix’s Orange is the New Black debuted in 2013, fea­tur­ing actress Lav­erne Cox, which was fol­lowed by Amazon’s Trans­par­ent in 2014, which is anoth­er series that includes trans­gen­der themes.

But it’s arguably Jen­ner and her upcom­ing E! series, I Am Cait, which is set to launch July 26, that real­ly mark a new chap­ter in both cul­ture and adver­tis­ing.

Accord­ing to 180LA Cre­ative Direc­tor Pierre Jan­neau, recent atten­tion to trans­gen­der issues means brands will sure­ly pick up on this top­ic and start show­ing more trans­gen­der con­sumers through “real, authen­tic, per­son­al human sto­ries.”

“Whether we relate to the sub­ject or not, these are unde­ni­ably great exam­ples of deter­mi­na­tion and self-accep­tance that we all can learn from,” Jan­neau says.

But, not sur­pris­ing­ly, like any change, it will undoubt­ed­ly take time.

“Now, for big­ger man­u­fac­tured broad­cast adver­tis­ing, brands will prob­a­bly be more cau­tious of show­ing trans­gen­der [con­sumers] as rep­re­sen­ta­tions of their audi­ence and soci­ety,” Jan­neau adds. “This will hap­pen at some point but it will sure­ly take more time.”

Accord­ing to Bob Witeck, pres­i­dent of PR and mar­ket­ing firm Witeck Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, the trans­gen­der pop­u­la­tion has always been a chal­lenge in main­stream media in part because there are so few exam­ples.

“The trans­gen­der [com­mu­ni­ty] has always been iden­ti­fied as a joke or a foil,” Witeck says. “In oth­er words, [gen­der is] con­fused or mistaken…there is a sense to deceive. It’s nev­er out of respect. It’s been more of a punch­line in years past.”

A Brief Timeline of Notable Campaigns

But that’s not to say some brands haven’t includ­ed trans­gen­der men and women in seri­ous and/or respect­ful adver­tis­ing cam­paigns.

Google+ Your Busi­ness, for exam­ple, post­ed a video about a trans­gen­der-friend­ly gym in Kansas City, Mis­souri on June 16, which has since gar­nered 1.3 mil­lion views.

High-end depart­ment store Barney’s fea­tured 17 trans­gen­der mod­els in its Spring 2014 cam­paign, Broth­ers, Sis­ters, Sons & Daugh­ters.

In Novem­ber 2014, beau­ty brand Red­ken announced trans­gen­der mod­el Lea T. was its newest “brand muse.”

And, in March 2015, John­son & Johnson’s Clean &  Clear brand post­ed a video fea­tur­ing YouTube star Jazz Jen­nings as part of its #SeeThe­Re­alMe cam­paign, which it says is “about girls hav­ing the courage to show who they real­ly are, and what makes them unique.”

Coin­ci­den­tal­ly, TLC’s I Am Jazz, which the net­work says is about “trans­gen­der teen Jazz Jen­nings and her amaz­ing sup­port­ive fam­i­ly” will debut July 15.

“I have a trans­gen­der son and it warms my heart to begin to see big brands embrace that this is part of our pop­u­lace and our cul­ture,” says Kirk Soud­er, CCO of cre­ative agency Enso. “For me, some of the excit­ing things I’m see­ing is it’s not just to say, ‘Here, I’m trans­gen­der. Here’s my sto­ry,’ but what I love see­ing, like the cam­paign from John­son & Johnson…is it’s using the trans­gen­der expe­ri­ence to be emblem­at­ic of some­thing we all do – which is to dare to live more authen­ti­cal­ly and hon­est­ly – as part of a larg­er cam­paign.”

And that, Soud­er says, was also reflect­ed in the Google+ video, which was very hon­est in its depic­tion of the trans­gen­der expe­ri­ence.

“Even the scene of him tak­ing his shirt off and show­ing [the results of] surgery was a real­ly pow­er­ful moment between my son and me,” Soud­er says. “He could see kind of what his future laid out to a degree in a nor­mal way. Here’s this very sim­i­lar per­son who has been through a sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence and the world’s look­ing at it and that’s okay.”

And he says Google’s open­ness with the sub­ject mat­ter will like­ly “[give] per­mis­sion to oth­er adver­tis­ers.”

But There’s Still a Long Way To Go…

At the same time, mar­ket­ing experts esti­mate the trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty is prob­a­bly about a decade behind where the gay and les­bian mar­ket stands today. In fact, David Pais­ley, senior research direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Mar­ket­ing, which pro­vides LGBT research, mar­ket­ing insights and strate­gies, says a big focus in com­ing years will sim­ply be ensur­ing the trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty has equal rights.

“I think the trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty and move­ment for full equal­i­ty is maybe a decade behind, but…transgender imagery and role mod­els are begin­ning to appear in ads even in cor­po­rate Amer­i­ca, but they tend to be more tar­get­ed toward the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty,” Pais­ley notes.

And Then Along Came Caitlyn

How­ev­er, Pais­ley calls Jenner’s tran­si­tion “a piv­otal moment.”

And that’s in part because Jen­ner is such a well-known fig­ure to so many con­sumers. In oth­er words, Baby Boomers know Jen­ner the Olympian and Mil­len­ni­als know Jen­ner from Keep­ing up with the Kar­dashi­ans.

“Cait­lyn Jen­ner was a known per­son to Baby Boomers even — to all the gen­er­a­tions – and it’s such a big sto­ry for so many peo­ple. It’s very pos­i­tive for the move­ment,” Pais­ley says. “It’s hard not to like Bruce Jen­ner. I think for a lot of Baby Boomers who grew up with Bruce Jen­ner, it’s a real­ly impor­tant moment.”

And, he notes, it will be inter­est­ing to see if Jen­ner gets cor­po­rate spon­sors her­self.

The Status Quo in the Meantime

For now, Witeck notes many brands includ­ing trans­gen­der spokes­peo­ple are in the fash­ion and beau­ty indus­tries and include “well-known indi­vid­u­als who are high profile…and indeed look as the gen­der they say they are. It’s the safe thing to do,” he says. “Over time, there will be a deep­er hon­esty about trans­gen­der peo­ple and it will be cut in all paths of life in reflect­ing who they are as indi­vid­u­als with­out the back­drop of fash­ion and mod­el­ing. But those are the low­est risk oppor­tu­ni­ties we face and they make sense…it’s a start.”

Soud­er agrees cast­ing will even­tu­al­ly become more diverse and, as a result, more accu­rate­ly reflec­tive of the U.S. pop­u­lace.

And, again, this is par­tial­ly due to demands from Mil­len­ni­al con­sumers.

“Brands hope to reach younger audi­ences and Mil­len­ni­als will look for fresh mes­sen­gers and images to do it,” Witeck says. “I’ve learned watch­ing all of these brands try to make them­selves more con­tem­po­rary – they’re try­ing to refresh their appeal, look and perceptions…and LGBT imagery and nar­ra­tives are one of the most test­ed and suc­cess­ful paths.”

And, Pais­ley notes, the bisex­u­al com­mu­ni­ty is anoth­er inter­est­ing angle that isn’t real­ly being dis­cussed.

“There’s a whole oth­er ele­ment of the com­mu­ni­ty that we haven’t seen a lot from a mar­ket­ing stand­point and that may change, espe­cial­ly with our young peo­ple under 25 that are much more like­ly to [iden­ti­fy] as bisex­u­al,” Pais­ley adds.