Marketing your brand in pride month
Before moving to a B2B role, I never thought much into how brands “show support” during pride. Perhaps it’s because I never really looked at things with much scrutiny or maybe it was because the brands I’d worked with in the past never felt like a presence during pride month was needed. But this year I’ve been given the chance to dictate our pride presence and it’s got me reading into the topic more.
Whether you like marketing or not, you’ve definitely seen some fails pop up on Twitter. This year, for me it was Victoria Secret’s pride marketing this month, for a brand who refused to hire trans women for shows. There’s been several claims that after their problematic interview back in November (against the trans community) they suffered a huge financial loss and may be trying to win back the LGBTQ+A community.
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When did pride start?
Pride is the promotion of self-affirmation, dignity, equality and increased visibility of the LGBTQ+A community.
The 50’s and 60’s was an incredibly repressive time for LGBTQ+A people. Two organisations, Daughters of Bilitis and the Mattachine Society coordinated some of the earliest demonstrations of the modern movement for rights. They carried out pickets called “Annual reminders” to inform the world that LGBTQ+A people did not receive basic civil rights protections.
"Gay is Good"
The anti-LGBT discourse of these times equated both male and female homosexuality with mental illness. Inspired by Stokely Carmichael's "Black is Beautiful", gay civil rights pioneer and participant in the Annual Reminders Frank Kameny originated the slogan "Gay is Good" in 1968 to counter social stigma and personal feelings of guilt and shame.
1980s and 1990s
In the 1980s there was a major cultural shift in the Stonewall Riot commemorations. The previous loosely organized, grassroots marches and parades were taken over by more organized and less radical elements of the gay community. The marches began dropping "Liberation" and "Freedom" from their names under pressure from more conservative members of the community, replacing them with the philosophy of "Gay Pride" (in San Francisco, the name of the gay parade and celebration was not changed from Gay Freedom Day Parade to Gay Pride Day Parade until 1994). The Greek lambda symbol and the pink triangle, which had been revolutionary symbols of the Gay Liberation Movement, were tidied up and incorporated into the Gay Pride, or Pride, movement, providing some symbolic continuity with its more radical beginnings. The pink triangle was also the inspiration for the homomonument in Amsterdam, commemorating all gay men and lesbians who have been subjected to persecution because of their homosexuality.
LGBT Pride Month
LGBT Pride Month occurs in the United States to commemorate the Stonewall riots, which occurred at the end of June 1969. As a result, many pride events are held during this month to recognize the impact LGBT people have had in the world.
I call upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists. – Proclamation 8529 by U.S President Barack Obama, May 28, 2010
Three presidents of the United States have officially declared a pride month. First, President Bill Clintondeclared June "Gay & Lesbian Pride Month" in 1999 and 2000. Then from 2009 to 2016, each year he was in office, President Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month.Later, President Joe Biden declared June LGBTQ+ Pride Month in 2021.Donald Trump became the first Republican president to acknowledge LGBT Pride Month in 2019, but he did so through tweeting rather than an official proclamation.
Beginning in 2012, Google displayed some LGBT-related search results with different rainbow-colored patterns each year during June. In 2017, Google also included rainbow coloured streets on Google Maps to display Gay Pride marches occurring across the world.
At many colleges, which are not in session in June, LGBT pride is instead celebrated during April, which is dubbed "Gaypril".
Pride month is not recognized internationally as pride celebrations take place in many other places at different times, including in the months of February, August, and September.
So, how do you market your brand in pride month?
Each year we see more and more brands jumping on the rainbow bandwagon, they want to promote themselves as allies, with varied success. Thanks to social media, and the need to engage with communities, brand need to be more transparent with their customers, they risk losing out if they don’t come across as authentic, ethical, and socially conscious. If pride marketing is flawed, your customers will quickly notice your misguided opportunism. But that’s not to say brands shouldn’t be involved with pride, they should grab it by both hands (for a variety of reasons), but they should be careful how they approach it.
A good pride campaign is unique and offers genuine benefits for the LGBTQ+A community. Here are four tips to consider before starting your campaign strategy:
Walk the walk
If you decide to go ahead and add the progressive pride flag to your socials, it should accompany some sort of benefit for the community. Try add a charity link to your page to raise fund for the Trevor project, or any of the thousands of not-for profits out there.
Include the community who need a voice
As a cis-white woman, I can be an ally to the community but I can’t fight the fight the same was as the gay community should. It’s not my fight, just like it probably isn’t yours. Don’t dominate the conversation and overshadow the people who deserve a voice this month.
Go beyond the rainbow
Don’t slap a rainbow on your branding and call it a day. That’s so 2010. This year a variety of mainstream brands have took part in the “Beyond the rainbow” initiative, which donates funds to the UN Free and Equal Campaign, a global fight for equality led by United Nations Human Rights. Still, some LGBTQ+A leaders have accused brands of pushing “pink washed” products - essentially using Pride as marketing tool without giving anything back. This especially unsavoury after a year that hit the community hard, financially speaking. So if you’re looking to create something tangible for pride, reach out to a LGBTQ+A artist or designer, give the project some substance and meaning.