Summers bring joy to faces as it will be more fun holidays, trips, ice-creams, and sunshine. For Marketers and the advertising world, their interest for summer slightly shifted towards bringing Rainbow to campaigns for pride month June. Brands try their best to show their Support towards LGBTQ+ communities. Across June, July, August Branding world is filled with Rainbow themes.
Now, turn down the table and try to see the ground reality. Is it really to do anything to support Communities or just become a medium to grab attention? LGBTQ+ comes forward after a never-ending battle that was not an easy path to walk on.
Looking towards its roots, On August 31, 1512, a group of young aristocrats living in Florence staged what many consider history’s first gay rights demonstration. In 1776, being gay in any of the puritan colonies was not allowed.
Progress visible from the 20th century, On June 28, 1969, which also happened to know as the patrons of Stonewall Inn decided enough is enough we were not going to take it anymore. A black Transgender Marsha P. Johnson started the modern Gay rights movement due to which T inserted in LGBTQ. From that year onwards every November is celebrated as Transgender Awareness Week.
The twist in the story came when in the early 20s world was hit by the AIDS pandemic, people start blaming Gay community calling it a gay disease. Till now they realized if they want to bring change people need to come forward and need to accept their reality.
In 1997, popular actress Ellen appeared on Time magazine’s front page with the title (Yep, I am gay) this turns a positive outlook towards the issue and many stars also after coming in pictures. In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize marriage equality. After 12 years, it was legal in all 50 states.
Coming back to 2021, Do Brands justifies these fighting spirits in their campaigns. Every advertisement keeps a story and true intention behind them otherwise it will be just brand promotion, Stories connect the audience. Rainbow is the fruit of their struggle, it’s not just cool stuff to paste on brands matching the vibes of the market.
Firstly, the main factor which creates a dilemma in mind is using this topic for brand product marketing, Does the product genuinely connect with the LGBTQ+ community in any way it just inserted intentionally to be in the race? Advertising should be Gender Neutral which is the right theme of the whole community. Brands should give employment to people of the communities and bring normalization.
Secondly, about the revenue generated from the campaign do they share it with LGBTQ+ communities in some ways as a part of the Campaign? Only advertising cannot strengthen these people they require a little more support.
Lastly, Does Brand include this progressive thought in their principles? Are they doing this just for a few months, and the rest of the year act as homophobic or Transphobic? The audience should get the fair message of supporting LGBTQ+.
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter
