Pride Without 'Pinkwashing': How Brands Can Get Involved

Starting out 46 years ago as a rally in support of the Stonewall riots, London Pride has grown in colour and voice to become as much a celebration diversity as it is a march for LGBTQ rights.

But for brands, events like Pride can be a minefield to navigate. When it comes to addressing and championing worthy causes, there’s a fine line to walk between generating meaningful visibility and cynical opportunism. Adland has rightly pushed inclusivity and diversity to the top of the agenda in recent years, but when it comes down to representing these issues, deciding on the best approach can feel like a gamble.

Navigating the sensitivities

Heightened sensitivity among those wary of advertisers ‘pinkwashing’ for their own gain, means marketing activities are not always welcomed - let alone well-received. Our own research has revealed that a large 42% of people feel events like Pride are ‘exploited’ by brands. 

Brand marketers are aware that poor judgement, however well intended, can backfire - leaving them exposed to brutal judgement in the court of social media. Likewise, Pride-month-only strategies can unhelpfully draw attention to a lack of ‘representation’ throughout the rest of the year. But even consistent and regular messaging can be considered opportunistic when there appears to be no meaningful action to back it up.

"One-off activities can actually do more harm than good."

So, how can brands approach inclusivity in ways that aren’t translated as opportunistic – or worse, exploitative?

To shed light on these issues, the7stars and Sign Salad partnered on a research project that used semiotic analysis to reveal the signals and messages being communicated by advertisers and media brands in relation to diversity - and how these can be received by consumers. The results revealed some practical insights into how advertisers can champion diversity in an authentic way.

Avoid tokenism

To begin with, brands need to avoid box-ticking exercises. These will readily be sniffed out by consumers for what they are: poorly-judged and half-hearted. One-off activities, or the occasional ‘nod’ towards minority communities can actually do more harm than good. These draw attention to the fact that these groups are often represented as an exception to the norm, coded as something outlying ‘regular’ activity.

In contrast, Nike is a great example of a brand that has consistently included and championed ambassadors from diverse groups within its work. In 2017, Nike portrayed Leiony Maldonaldo as a talented but complex and multi-faceted human being - deserving of equal rights and happiness. Crucially, she wasn’t used simply for her cultural status as a transgender icon, but rather to illustrate the layers that make her human and ‘the same’ as everyone else.

What about those with more subtle differences?

Diversity is a concept with plenty of nuances, and understanding this is crucial to effective representation. The scales are often tipped towards the most ‘visually obvious’ when it comes to minorities. Immediate visual signifiers can be seen as an easy option, so brands need to make more effort to creatively portray those whose differences might be more subtle.

McCain’s Here’s To Love is a great example of this in action. Driven by the insight ‘What IS Normal?’ the ad intersperses more overt minorities in with more traditionally represented demographics - ensuring that the message spoke to the bigger jigsaw puzzle of modern Britain whilst also avoiding an emphasis on their ‘difference’ within the picture.

Resolving vs reinforcing social division

Creating an ad designed to showcase the multitude of sexual ‘categories’ that make up British society might be well intended, but the question remains where this actually helps to bring people together, or whether it emphasises existing divides.

Rather than reinforcing crude categories, brands should communicate that ‘difference’ falls away in situations of unity. Smirnoff operate in a category where the main product is widely perceived to be social lubricant – facilitating friendships, relationships and evenings out. Therefore their We’re Open series have been not only culturally relevant but directly related to highlighting commonalities between its consumers, regardless of their ‘differences’.

At the end of the day, inclusivity and co-existence is the ultimate goal - diversity isn’t really about celebrating differences, it’s about encouraging equality. Advertising therefore needs to represent the new normal for UK life, and not make an exhibition of metaphorical ‘outer edges’.