Pride Month is a time for celebration and acceptance. It’s also now become an annual tradition every June, to watch brands scramble to celebrate Pride Month but ending up doing a disaster job at it.
One such incident this year that’s hard to forget is Burger King Austria’s Pride Whopper campaign that failed its own target audience. To read more about how this was a classic case of rainbow washing and why the campaign went haywire tap here.
Coming back to the actual problem at hand, what most companies do is simply add a rainbow flag to their logos and sell Pride merchandise, regardless of their monetary support or actionable steps to actually contribute in helping the LGBTQ+ community.
Of course, that is not always the case, in fact, since 2018, 25 major corporations that sponsored Pride parades and rainbow-washed their logos also donated over $13.2m combined to anti-LGBTQ2+ politicians. It is just peculiar how brands pulling marketing stunts during Pride month become a trend which has become both popular and profitable at the same time.
Over the years, there have been multiple cases of brands celebrating Pride Month in the most disastrous ways possible. Here is a compilation of some of the incidents:
1) Kim Kardashian's tweet
2) Vaseline (different prices for same product)
3) Postmates (Bottom Friendly menu)
Here’s the lesson to take from it all: it’s important to also create marketing and advertising that’s inclusive of the community year-round, and go beyond just those efforts to take a stand on anti-LGBTQ legislation.
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