Are Brands Good Allies? We Asked LGBTQ+ People to Find Out

Why are we doing this?

This year’s Pride season started with controversy and scandals. Bud Light collaborated with the transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney, backed off after criticism, released a patriotic ad as an “apology” — and ended up alienating both queer and conservative customers. Roughly at the same time, Target had to put merch stands at the back of the stores and remove certain items to protect their employees from threats and harassment. 

Although Target’s safety concerns are understandable, both brands still showed cowardice. Even worse, Bud Light’s “apology” was an attempt to win back their mostly conservative customer base. This implies that the company perceived Pride Month not as an opportunity to showcase brand values or, you know, actually contribute to the queer community — but only as a way to earn off a wider demographic.

But even PR scandals aside, Pride Month marketing is often out of touch with reality, cringeworthy, and inconsiderate. From rainbow mouthwash bottles to bullet casings and poorly designed shower curtains — who needs those? The situation is so bad that when we were looking for respondents, one person refused to participate because “all gay ads are awful”.

That’s why we think it’s important to let LGBTQ+ people voice out their opinions on how brands celebrate Pride Month. In this case, the queer community will get actually good brand tie-ins and campaigns that change their lives for the better. And, in the long run, brands will learn to listen to the needs of marginalized groups and be politically conscious during Pride Month instead of releasing rainbow everything. 

Meet our heroes

We talked to three open members of the LGBTQ+ community and asked them to give feedback on 9 both good and bad Pride Month campaigns. We don’t consider this project a study. But even the real opinions of three people can help you get insights on what to do and what to avoid in your Pride Month campaigns.

Now that we got the mandatory disclaimer out of our way, let’s get to know our participants:

What does Pride Month mean to you? Do you celebrate it?

Pride Month wasn’t always all joy and rainbows. Its history goes back to the Stonewall Riots, a series of queer community protests after a police raid — these events have become an important milestone for the gay liberation movement. 

Now, Pride Month still holds a political meaning. Not all queer people are safe, even in countries like the US equality is still a goalpost, and the anti-queer backlash to brand tie-ins is one of the reasons we need Pride Month in the first place.

Do Pride celebrations have any impact on public queer rights support? Consider this graph. According to GLAAD’s recent Accelerating Acceptance survey, the support for LGBTQ+ rights among non-queer Americans has reached its record high of 84%, and it’s been steadily growing for the last three years.

So, marketing aside, it’s safe to say that Pride Month is a great initiative that highlights the current issues of the community and increases the visibility of its members. It helps queer people feel seen and safe, and even inspires closeted folks to come out:

But what about corporate Pride and all things rainbow?

What do you think of Pride Month campaigns?

According to the 2022 survey published on Statista, more than half of LGBTQ+ Americans support Pride Month brand tie-ins. The opinion on different types of campaigns was different. The most supported type of Pride Month campaigns was showing queer people in ads. On the other hand, the least supported one was releasing Pride Merch. This is true both for straight and LGBTQ+ respondents.

According to the 2022 annual community survey by CMI, 71% of LGBTQ+ Americans are more likely to purchase something from a brand that outreaches to queer people. However, simply outreaching and advertising to a certain demographic is not enough. 

What do queer people consider good brand allyship? Affirmative action, according to the same survey:

Pride Month campaigns may indeed come off as publicity stunts. But is it all rainbow capitalism and no real allies? Let’s find out.

Staying Ally-ve: the brands that tried

For our little survey, we chose 9 Pride Month brand tie-ins — some of them caused a massive backlash, others didn’t so far. Let’s take a closer look at these campaigns and find out what our participants think of them.

NYX: Game Over Haters

This year, NYX launched a niche Pride Month campaign dedicated to queer gamers. It included a bold landing page with information about online harassment towards LGBTQ+ gamers and stories of queer beauty bloggers who like video games. The brand advocates for queer-friendly safe spaces in the gaming community and beyond. 

NYX also partnered with the Los Angeles LGBT center they’ve been contributing to since 2020 and made the Allyship training quiz. 

H&M: My Chosen Family

Last year, this popular fast fashion brand launched a campaign that relies on storytelling. The project is based on the concept of found family, which they explained in the blog article — what it is and how it’s intertwined with the queer experience. “My Chosen Family” included the stories of three queer families featured in the photoshoot and a bold video commercial on Youtube.

Absolut: Out & Open

This vodka brand has been an LGBTQ+ ally for years — their Out & Open initiative is dedicated to helping gay bars. In 2023, Absolut promoted its efforts with an immaculately designed web page where queer folks shared their stories and opinions about gay bars. Absolut also donates to NGLCC, which is an organization that helps businesses owned by LGBTQ+ people.

Tinder: Pride Stickers

Tinder has been a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to come out before telling their friends and families and search for potential partners for quite a while. And, since the app’s first release, there have been more options added for the queer community — for example, lesser-known identities like demisexual in the “Sexuality” profile field. This year, Tinder added Pride stickers that you can add to your profile if you’re a member of the queer community or an ally.

Levi’s: How Do You Show Up

This old apparel brand has been an ally since the 1940s and to this day, and it’s one of not so many brands that don’t forget about the political roots of Pride Month. 

In 2015, they released a collection to commemorate Stonewall Riots, and each Pride-related release is accompanied by donating to the organizations that fight for queer rights. In 2023, Levi’s launched a campaign that focuses on queer self-expression and features the stories of people with a wide range of identities.

Skittles’ Annual Pride campaign

Each year, during Pride Month, Skittles release limited packs of colorless candy — but their Pride marketing efforts go far beyond that. In 2023, the brand collaborated with 5 queer artists to design the packs and released a collection of queer stories on Audible. The brand is also currently preparing a mini-series of Pride-themed podcast episodes with Cameron Esposito.

Colon Broom: promoting eating disorders?

Now, let’s talk about the real bad guys! This brand of dietary supplements for gut health released a questionable ad on Instagram that caused a massive backlash on Twitter. Rainbow capitalism at its finest with the unnecessary use of the Pride flag and questionable incentives.

Postmates: Eat With Pride

Postmates is a food delivery service that was acquired by Uber in 2020. In 2022, they released a questionable Pride Month video ad on Instagram. In this ad, the brand promoted its “bottom-friendly” menu and explained which foods are good and bad if you want to have a *fun* night. The video received a lot of negative comments on Instagram, mainly for sexualization that many people found inappropriate for a food delivery app.

LEGO: Everyone Is Awesome

This June, LEGO released a special set called “Everyone Is Awesome”. It’s designed by Matthew Ashton, the Vice President of Design at the LEGO Group, who is queer himself. The set is aimed at showcasing diversity beyond the Pride flag — it includes the colors of the transgender flag and even a drag queen figurine. LEGO also published two stories: an article about the designer and a collaboration with Samira Wiley. 

How can brands improve Pride Month marketing?

There are many recommendations on how to do inclusive marketing right without exploiting or offending everyone. But even if you follow them letter by letter, your efforts will go to waste if you don’t listen to your actual target audience. That’s why, instead of trying to teach you how to do it right, we decided to shut up and give the floor to our wonderful participants.

The takeaway is, socially responsible marketing is more than virtue signaling, claiming that you’re an “ally”, and using Pride-related symbols. If your brand is or wants to become an ally, contribute to the community! Listen to real queer people, provide a space for representation and visibility, and run charity campaigns — with or without rainbow everything.