Most companies say they’re not fazed by Bud Light’s misfortune. In a survey of 200 corporate marketing execs by Gravity Research, 78% reported making no changes to their Pride Month marketing plans after 2023’s backlash. Eighteen percent said the “threat of conservative consumer backlash” prompted them to change course. Nine percent reported the same regarding progressive consumers.
Still, expert observers like Bennett, who’s been watching the LGBTQ marketing scene since the 1990s, see companies
pulling back and
proceeding with caution.
“Whether you want to call it the Bud Light or the Target effect,” Bennett said, referencing the
2023 backlash over Target’s trans-inclusive Pride merchandise. “Something has happened.”
Which is not to say corporate America is abandoning LGBTQ consumers. Sure, brands may value diversity and want to be inclusive. But marketing to the LGBTQ community is also about
making money.
“It’s a market that’s a
trillion-dollar consumer base,” said Joanna Schwartz, a professor of marketing at Georgia College & State University who specializes in LGBTQ marketing.
That consumer base is growing as
more young Americans identify as LGBTQ. Schwartz said that’s part of why we’ve seen a solid decade of loud corporate support during Pride Month.
“
Putting a rainbow on something or
donating some money to an LGBT-focused charity has been a way for companies to get an easy win,” Schwartz said.
That is, until transphobia became
commonplace in right-wing politics. This Pride Month, Schwartz said, brands are looking to court LGBTQ-consumers and their allies without drawing homophobic and especially transphobic ire that could hurt their bottom lines.
“It is a fine line to walk,” Schwartz said. “You can create that impact around your brand without doing anything that others might perceive as risque or daring.”
Schwartz said not all companies are retreating. For example, Apple is holding steady with a
trans-inclusive campaign. But after last year’s backlash, many companies appear to be avoiding trigger points for right-wing outrage.
After suffering a
sales hit tied to its 2023 campaign, Target won’t sell Pride apparel for kids in 2024 and will stock only some of its stores with Pride displays and merchandise.
The North Face
defended its 2022 and 2023 Pride partnerships with drag queen Pattie Gonia, but hasn’t resumed it. The outdoor brand’s 2024 Pride
social media post offers nondescript support.
Skittles has retreated from 2023’s inclusive candy
package designs that featured messages like “Black Trans Lives Matter” in favor of a
standard, six-color rainbow promotion.
And for the first time since 2020,
Calvin Klein’s Pride campaign won’t be headlined by any out trans or nonbinary models. Actors Jeremy Pope and Cara Delevingne front the collection.
None of the companies above responded to interview requests from Marketplace.
Pope and Delevingne “are both queer if you happen to know that,” said TJ Billard, who studies media and transgender politics at Northwestern University. But to the casual viewer, Billard said, the ad might not even come across as supporting Pride.
After a few years of companies hoping to stand out with progressive campaigns, Billard said mass Pride marketing has become quieter, more generic and less political. Meanwhile, algorithms and influencer promotions enable brands to save the edgier stuff for a more targeted audience.
“Whether that’s TikTok or Instagram or whatever, queer people are going to see queer-supportive messages from these companies. It’s everyone else who’s not going to,” Billard said.
They said it’s “concerning” to see companies backing away in the face of anti-LGBTQ sentiment while a
wave of conservative legislation seeks to block transgender Americans from accessing health care, public accommodations and legal recognition.
“It’s upsetting to an additional degree because it makes what was already a financial transaction-centered relationship [between corporations and] the queer community into something even more extractive,” Billard said.
Are brands alienating LGBTQ consumers? “Probably,” they said. But many seem to have made a decision: In this political climate, pushing back against homophobia, and especially transphobia, comes at too high a cost.
