CMO Advisor & Marketing Consultant • AdAge Marketing Trailblazer • Creator Economy Expert • ex-American Eagle, BMW Group, Day One Agency • 🇰🇷🇺🇸🏳️🌈
I’ve been thinking a lot the past few days about #Pride, rainbow washing, inclusivity and purpose-driven marketing. This year, fewer brands are changing their logos to pride branded. Fewer brands are launching pride collections. Fewer brands are working with LGBTQIA+ creators. The only explanation I can come to is it being a result of “Demanding Perfection Over Progress.” It used to just be the conservative agenda to cancel pride. But now it’s the progressive agenda as well who are demanding for perfection on Pride activations. You can’t just work with queer influencers and creators for the first time… to be perfect you have to prove you have LGTBQIA+ employees running those programs. You can’t donate 100% of the profits from pride merch to LGBTQIA+ organizations… to be perfect you have to donate all year round. In a day and age where perfection is demanded in order for a brand to be deemed as supportive, what encouragement do brands even have to support Pride if both ends of the political spectrum are out to cancel them? I can’t speak for anyone other than myself but as a child who was made fun of and called a f**got in high school, the feeling of visibly seeing brands change their logos every June made me — and still makes me — feel seen and encouraged. As Lola Bakare so eloquently said, Pride is for the queer kid in Alabama who gets to see a rainbow colored collection in Target and feel safe, more secure or hopeful for a month… it’s for them. And while younger LGBTQIA+ professionals are on a mission to call out brands for not being perfect, Pride is being geo-centralized to only areas where Pride is overwhelmingly supported — even further dividing our country. We no longer have the restraint to say “we think you can do better. The default today is “cancel them.” For progress to happen we have to encourage progress. Not cancel it. You may think you are doing something positive for change by calling out brands for their lack of perfection… but if you are lucky enough to reside somewhere where you are freely able to live your life openly… a quick reminder that Pride is not for you. It’s for the kid in Alabama who is scared to be who they were born to be. 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️ *This was written from a deeply personal POV. Comments that are posted without respect for that or for me will be deleted.
To that I would ask you: “How would you feel if your friend only showed up for one month of the year, and/or threw you under the bus at the first sign of trouble?” I’m not about cancelling anyone. But this kind of behaviour just shows people that their lives and struggles are a fashion statement, to be discarded when no longer convenient. If we can convince these people to go beyond lip service and make a tangible difference, then surely this is better for everyone? One person being there when it matters trumps a full parade of fair weather friends carrying rainbow lunchboxes. Edit: Had a few more minutes to think on this. It’s not about filtering people out, but encouraging them. OK you have your lunchbox. Now can you make it available all year round please? Can you keep selling them even when people are filling them with tannerite and blowing them up on social media? Can you extend your efforts to include campaigns in more blatantly homophobic countries? Even if it is only subtly and within the laws of that country?
“Demanding perfection over progress” is certainly one possible factor, but I worry about all the myriad factors left on the table by your language of it being the “only” (surely there are plenty of fathomable factors you can think of beyond “the kids demand perfection?” This is a complex, nuanced issue impacting a significant diversity of people. One thing we elders should keep in mind, however, is that it is our job to support and promote the next generations, not to dictate how they advocate for themselves. This post does venture into “older gen speaking over current gen while prescribing older gen values and approaches without consideration for current perspectives.” We see this across intergenerational identity advocacy (you and I can likely draw from Asian generational divides to better appreciate our positioning relative to our immigrant elders)
I think about this a lot. Especially over criticism over brands changing their avatar for Pride. I have to ask sometimes “is it rainbow washing or the result of a hard fought battle of a social media manager trying to push for even the smallest bit of progressive change?” I know I’ve fought those battles before and I think they are worth fighting even if in only results in a simple social post
Posts like this only serve to widen the cultural divide. You shouldn't need and don't deserve a rainbow collection in Target any more than I deserve my own display in Target for things I care about.
First pride is exactly for that queer kid in Alabama to feel seen and not alone. And thank you for sharing your truth. Two I’m not sure to what extent this is progressives demanding perfection vs a right wing assault. Of course there will be purity test people on both sides. Bud Light looms large. Ron De Santis assualting Disney. Etc. Three there are so many things dividing the US right now. Again there is no such thing as cancel culture, there are different perspectives and different tactics to make those perspectives more or less prominent. The right wing ecosystem is more effective at harnessing rage and have less shame. The left wing ecosystem is simply not as partisanly developed. Four CEO’s are hedging their bets as to who comes to power so that the bottom line continues in the right direction. After all we rarely talk about the disconnect between the realpolitik of lobbying/CEO level vs the idealism/mirage marketing/CMO level is responsible for creating. This is much much deeper than marketing. We’re a soft power when it comes to this. Culture is downstream from power and power is hedging their bets on Pride based on a sustained right wing fabricated “culture wars”.
I've been trying to express this properly for a while. Now I don't have to. Thank you. This community is under attack Last year in the US over 500 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills were introduced into the legislative process (Source ACLU) That's up from 42 in 2018 Legislative attempts to take away rights that people have today are up 1100% in just 7 years Most of those bills were aimed at young people - at curriculum, at education, at the rights of young people to exist safely in schools It's an all out attack in many States - I don't think we have the luxury of vetting every ally, of refusing many friendships, of wondering whether this person / company will be there when the flags get taken down At this moment I want the government, the legislators and kids out there feeling attacked and alone to know that there are legions who care, that there are allies out there, that this community will not be quiet and complicit as they are attacked If you want to fly the flag, in the face of what can be some pretty hostile people - knowing that the hard right, the far right, the populists and the internet will be coming hard for you, then you've passed basic entry test as far as I'm concerned.
💜💙💚💛🧡❤️ So well said. Who the hell wants "perfect" anyway? That is the opposite of authenticity. PsLola Bakareakareakare need to team up and hold like Marketing Church 😉
CMO Advisor & Marketing Consultant • AdAge Marketing Trailblazer • Creator Economy Expert • ex-American Eagle, BMW Group, Day One Agency • 🇰🇷🇺🇸🏳️🌈
1mo📌 I would encourage everyone who feels passionate about the need to hold corporations accountable to read “The Queering of Corporate America” by Carlos Ball which goes into great detail on how corporations were actually the final catalysts to legalizing gay marriage; lobbying and threatening lawmakers to do so. Before you accuse corporations of capitalization of pride, know that it’s these same corporations that signed a demand to the supreme court to recognize a constitutional marriage equality act. Whether or not they did it for performative reasons or not… they still did it.