The move was welcomed by LGBT+ charity the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) for helping bring excluded people - such as the young homeless Britons it helps - into mainstream life. High-street store Marks and Spencer tweaked its popular BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich to create a special lettuce (L), guacamole (G), bacon (B) and tomato (T) sandwich for the month, the second year running it has marked Pride with a snack. Others said promotional cups would do nothing to address anti-LGBT+ discrimination.
The brewer, which also donated money to nine LGBT+ charities, attracted criticism online from people saying it should stay out of “politics”. To coincide with sponsoring Pride in London, Budweiser’s British arm released beer cups in the colors of nine different Pride flags, including asexual, intersex and non-binary. This apparent trend has not passed companies by.
consumers shown an advert featuring LGBT+ content felt more positive about the brand, while only a fifth felt more negative and 42% were neutral, according to a 2018 study by market research firm FocusVision.
More than three-quarters of LGBT+ Americans think “companies that support LGBTQ equality will get more of my business”, according to a 2018 survey by Community Marketing & Insights.Īlmost 30% of U.S. And everyone agrees there are plenty of ‘pink’ profits to be had. counterpart Human Rights Campaign want companies that slap the rainbow logo on their products to commit to greater LGBT+ rights in the workplace if they are to cash in on the perceived pot of gold.īoth release rankings of how firms measure up when it comes to support for gay, bi and trans staff and for LGBT+ causes. “So it’s important that organizations’ support goes deeper than visibility and shows a real commitment to the LGBT community.” POT OF GOLD? “Being an ally is first about showing up, and then being active,” said Jeff Ingold, head of media engagement at LGBT+ rights group Stonewall UK. While some activists welcome the rising corporate interest, others worry it is pink-washing - using gay-friendly means to a profitable end - and say the slick marketing is just that. Listerine mouthwash and Absolut vodka are on sale in rainbow bottles and Disney has created rainbow Mickey Mouse ears. Swedish furniture retailer IKEA released a rainbow version of its popular canvas carrier bag and Calvin Klein has 56-pound ($71) jock straps and boxers in five Pride-themed colors. LGBT Pride is celebrated in more than 60 countries every year, mostly in June, with companies creating a host of special products to mark events stretching from Iceland to Israel. “But I feel some of the corporate world has started to hijack… the Pride movement,” he said. “Because on the one hand it’s good, it gets the word out about Pride, about LGBT stuff. “I’m kind of torn about it,” said Oliver Rieche, a London-based lawyer who co-chairs Prism, the LGBT+ network of law firm Reed Smith. It is a far cry from 1970, year of the first Gay Pride march, when few companies wanted to associate with an offbeat New York event staged to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall riots by LGBT+ people facing police brutality.įifty years after Stonewall, and companies big and small want a bite of the LGBT+ market, with about 4.5% percent of Western consumers saying they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans, many of them young and with a ready disposable income. LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Marchers celebrating LGBT Pride can buy rainbow Mickey Mouse ears, wear festive jock straps and sluice with celebratory mouthwash as companies pile into the party with new products, raising fears they are exploiting sexual preference for profit.