Pride Month product launches - meaningful action or rainbow capitalism?

What is Pride Month?

Pride Month is observed every year in June and 2023 is the 51st anniversary. The aim is to shine a light on the LGBTQ+ community and its allies - to celebrate our identities and accomplishments and to highlight the continuing struggle for equality. This blog looks at the role big brands have to play in Pride Month, through product launches, platforming queer people and taking meaningful action.

Why June?

June is a significant month in LGBTQ+ history as it coincides with the police raid that prompted the Stonewall riots in New York City. The Stonewall Inn is a gay bar in Manhattan and this particular raid happened in the early hours of 28th June 1969.

Members of the local community rioted in response to yet another homophobic police raid and subsequently campaigned for the establishment of safe spaces for queer people to meet safely without fear of arrest or persecution. The Stonewall riots are now largely thought of as having been the birth of the modern gay rights movement. You can find out more here.

The importance of brands in supporting Pride Month

We all know that big brands have huge marketing budgets and massive platforms - when it’s done properly and in a meaningful way, brands can provide much needed support and visibility to the queer community and its allies.

Those of us who are members of this community need the support of big brands more than ever - but it has to be more than tokenism which people are no longer prepared to accept. The most recent example of this is Target - which has pulled some of its pride themed products from shelves following a backlash from some conservative shoppers. Target - we all see what you are doing and we aren’t having it!

We’ve summarised some of our favourite examples of when this goes well, here’s our top 3.

1 - Converse - Proud To Be

Again this year Converse has launched a collection of pride products - designed in conjunction with LGBTQ+ artists, activists, employees and their allies. So, not only is it platforming diverse creativity, but Converse has also donated more than $2.5 million over recent years to charities working hard to support queer people.

Nike (Converse’s owner) has also worked hard to support its people - scoring the maximum 100 points in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index in 2022.

2 - Craft Gin Club - Respect Gin

We don’t normally need an excuse to buy more gin but who could say no to a bottle of Wessex Gin’s limited edition ‘Respect Gin’ which is a London dry gin flavoured with citrus. Craft Gin Club has confirmed that £5 from the sale of every bottle will be donated to Across Rainbows and will go towards supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Cheers to that!

3 - Disney - Gay Days

Disney has long been a loud and proud advocate for the gay community and this has never been more important to to us than now. In fact, it is currently embroiled in a legal battle in Florida with the state’s right wing governor, Ron DeSantis. Every year during June, Disney holds a series of Gay Days - and this year it had this to say - “Right now is not the time to run. It’s not the time to go away. It’s time to show we are here, we are queer and we aren’t going anywhere.”

We couldn’t have put it better than that!

Disney is also a longtime supporter of its LGBTQ+ employees, scoring a perfect 100 in the Corporate Equality Index in 2022 and winning an accolade for the best places to work for LGBTQ equality.

When it goes wrong

It’s a sad truth that not all companies approach Pride Month in the same way, leaving themselves open to criticism that we think is usually warranted! Here are a few to have come under fire in recent years.

1 - Bud Light - Let's Grab Beers Tonight, Queens

This massive beer brand got Pride Month totally wrong in 2021 when it decided to reword the acronym LGBTQ to ‘Let’s Grab Beers Tonight, Queens’. Unsurprisingly this did NOT go down well. The brand has attracted negative headlines again more recently after failing to stand up for Dylan Mulvaney in the wake of a huge backlash to its marketing campaign which featured the trans model.

One thing that this brand does do is donate A LOT of money to LGBTQ+ causes - but this is a masterclass on why donating money on its own is simply not good enough and companies have to be looking after their teams and the other people they work with.

2 - Donald Trump - The Rainbow MAGA Cap

Back in 2019, the MAGA campaign launched a rainbow version of its infamous cap - whilst at the same time Trump was busy banning trans people from the military, nominating anti gay judges and pedalling a generally anti LGBTQ+ agenda. Not a penny of the proceeds went to helping related causes either. Not cool.

3 - M&S - The LGBT Sandwich

Back in 2019 M&S also had a pop at one of our acronyms when they launched the Lettuce, Guacamole, Bacon and Tomato sandwich - really?! We do give M&S some credit as they make significant donations to queer causes but just to be really clear - representation and visibility does not require a gay sandwich…

M&S does also go to some effort to support Pride events and has an LGBTQ+ network for its team - we really think they should just drop the sarnie! More on M&S supporting pride here.

What’s our take?

It’s simple really - we think there are some great examples of big brands using pride products to highlight the work and talents of queer people and using their platforms (and their money) to take meaningful action and help drive real change.

We also thing brands can (and do) easily get this wrong and when this happens they give the impression of tokenism and look like their only objective is to line their own pockets!

So - choose your pride products wisely and make sure you are contributing positively to the cause!

Get in touch with us here to let us know what you think or if you want to know more about making your business inclusive for your colleagues and customers.