Photo: contributed
Dylan Horner, Toronto-based graphic designer
Toronto graphic designer Dylan Horner says many of the marketing campaigns he encounters during Pride Month make him cringe.
Throughout the month of June, Pride image brand ads appear on TVs, billboards, and especially on social media. Companies ranging from local businesses to multinational corporations are releasing new pride-themed products and adding rainbow decorations to their logos, all in the name of the LGBTQ alliance.
But if a company’s policies, products, and political activities during the other 11 months of the year are not aligned with its colorful advertising during Pride Month, they are increasingly likely to be call it “rainbow washing”: public displays in support of the LGBTQ community that are temporary and not supported by actions.
“When companies try to push their own agenda while including the community, these are the (campaigns) that drive me crazy,” says Horner, who is gay.
But his feelings about it are not in black and white. He believes that there is value in marketing and advertising campaigns during the month of Pride, especially if there are nuances, noting that visibility is especially useful for people who may live in rural areas, feel alone or not completely comfortable with who they are still.
Horner isn’t the only one to find the topic nuanced.
“I think mega-company sponsorships can often be beneficial for queer creators, and financial support in that regard can often push us to the next level,” says Kendall Gender. “However, I have (have) a problem when (sponsorships are) not authentic.”
Gender is working with Canadian cosmetics company Annabelle on a Pride collection and campaign this year. Annabelle says monetary donations will be made to Rainbow Railroad, an organization that helps LGBTQ people escape violence and persecution in their home countries.
Marketing industry observers agree that Pride Month campaigns can have a positive purpose, but there needs to be substance behind them.
Scott Knox is the founding president of PrideAM, an organization that works to ensure that LGBTQ people are more visible in marketing agencies and that portraits of the advertising community are not one-dimensional.
He finds that the advertising industry in Canada tends to do a better job compared to other markets in which he has worked when it comes to ensuring genuine LGBTQ representation and around the month of pride specifically.
“In Canada, we are part of the fabric of how brands speak (consumers) and sell products” year-round, he says.
At the same time, he says big companies need to think about whether they really value the LGBTQ community or are just trying to make a profit when Pride Month arrives, illustrating their point with the example of a hypothetical business that add rainbow to a branch of its branch. operations located in the gay town of Toronto during Pride Month, but not elsewhere or at any other time.
“Are they safe in the community space, but will they do something in another country, in another city, at a time of year other than Pride Month?” he says.
Craig Pike, owner of Craig’s Cookies, points to a level of shallowness and lack of understanding on the part of some of the larger organizations he has found. He says they have come to his small business, which is located in the gay town of Toronto, to get free cookies for his Pride campaigns instead of paying for them.
“Banks, hotels and other big food brands have approached us to ask us to donate cookies for their Pride events,” he says. “In my opinion, if you want to support small businesses queer during Pride, put your money where your mouth is.”
The cookie business makes its own efforts throughout the year by hiring various groups of employees who best represent the people it cooks for, making sure it’s always visibly queer, and learning how it can do better for marginalized people within the wider LGBTQ community.
For larger businesses, there are some easy actions that can be implemented at the policy and system level long before Pride Month that represent tangible support for the LGBTQ community, says Sarah Saska, co-founder and CEO of Femuity . Femminuity helps organizations improve their diversity and inclusion efforts.
Emphasizes the importance of setting up data collection tools for customers and employees that are not limited to gender and sexuality, so that there is a better understanding of who people are and what they need, and to help the company determine if your products are inclusive.
Another example is around the benefits, in particular, working with health care providers and benefits to expand insurance to cover gender-based health care for transgender and non-binary people. Making sure dress codes have no gender is another easy starting point, he adds.
This is just the beginning, of course. Saska says consulting with the LGBTQ community to see what other actions are beneficial and whether a company’s plans are really useful, necessary, or useful can be very helpful.
At the end of the day, Horner believes that being a progressive company goes beyond a checklist to satisfy during Pride Month.
“Being progressive is a way of being. If you really want to do something, you just do it,” he says.