Last month was a sea of rainbows. Everywhere you looked, companies had added the Pride flag to their logos, created merch, and published posts that reflected their commitment to diversity and inclusion. And in many ways that’s a great thing. It’s a sign of progress.
The Corporate Equality Index (CEI) published by the Human Rights Campaign, found more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies now have nondiscrimination policies on sexual orientation and gender identity. Moreover, two-thirds have transgender-inclusive benefits for employees.
But there are still opportunities to further improve workplaces for LGBTQ+ people. Employers can help accelerate the creation of more inclusive cultures through sustained actions. Collectively, we should be identifying new ways to help protect and celebrate gender and sexual orientation diversity all year round.
That’s something we strive to do at Lunio, both in our internal company policies and external branding. So in this post we wanted to share some thoughts from our team, some examples of highly impactful 2022 Pride campaigns, and some tips for creating a space where everyone feels safe enough to be their true selves at work.
And as our Marketing Coordinator Ellen Maulder pointed out, placing your focus on marketing and branding typically isn’t the best place to start:
“I think companies should look internally first during Pride month. What are your inclusion policies like? Do you have diverse hiring policies in place? What are your company values & culture? And how does that affect inclusivity & equality in your workplace?”
Making Inclusivity A Core Value, Not A Buzzword
In the not too distant past, only a handful of brands such as Absolut Vodka were openly supportive of Pride and LGBTQ+ rights. So it’s great to see the majority of companies now consider it a marketing calendar event they can’t afford to skip. But Rich Ferraro, Chief Communications Officer at GLAAD, said it’s important to go deeper:
“There’s power in brands participating in Pride Month, and it’s important for their employees and their consumers to see support for the LGBTQ+ community. But it can’t just be during Pride Month. If a brand doesn’t have a 365-day-a-year plan for LGBTQ+ inclusion, they really need to prioritize that over prioritizing a one-off Pride campaign.”
To explore the nuances of the point raised by Rich in more detail, we started a chat thread on LinkedIn. We wanted it to be an open conversation that reflected some of the ambiguity we felt as marketers, as members of the LGBTQ+ community, as allies, and ultimately, as individuals.
Although we all brought different perspectives and views to the table, some clear points of consensus emerged. Most importantly, the need to make inclusivity a core value of your business. Without that, any other campaign you engage in is unlikely to have any meaningful impact. Our Chief Marketing Officer, Pete Rawlinson, said:
“Embedding inclusivity into the core values of a business should help make it a natural part of the day to day running of a company and not a ‘special’ thing you do for a month every year. Businesses need to really think about what this means and not treat it as a chance to show how ‘cool’ they are by simply recognizing it. Recognition needs to be followed by continuous action….until ‘recognition’ isn’t actually needed any more!”
3 Examples Of Highly Impactful Pride Campaigns
There’s no denying that brands visibly demonstrating allyship has a powerful effect. For example, our Brand Manager Macauley Zarrentino commented on the noticeable shift he’s witnessed in his lifetime:
“There are so many brands nowadays that are embedding LGBTQ+ people into their campaigns, and to me, that’s what makes the difference. When I was younger, there’s no way you’d have seen a gay couple on an advert and now with the likes of Sky, Sainsbury’s and Three Mobile, it’s being displayed in mainstream media and this is what breaks the stigma. It creates a new, more inclusive ‘norm’.”
Greater representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media is welcome and needed. With some thought and creativity, brands can use their clout to throw a spotlight on where more help is needed, and where small actions can be taken that have a big impact. Here are some of the campaigns picked by our team as doing just that:
1. Tinder vs The FDA — In June, Tinder used the scale and reach of their platform to join the fight to end an outdated policy banning men who have sex with men from being eligible to donate blood. Their clever campaign highlighted the issue and put pressure on the FDA to join other countries in lifting this ban, imposed at a time when HIV/AIDS was not screened, prevented, or treated as effectively as it is now.
2. Absolut Vodka Support LGBTQ+ Bars — As mentioned previously Absolut Vodka have been supporting the LGBTQ+ community long before it was “cool” to do so. And this year, in an extension of their ongoing “Out and Open” campaign, they focused their efforts on highlighting the difficulties faced by LGBTQ+ bars and restaurants. Since the pandemic began, they’ve been closing down at an increasingly alarming rate.
To raise awareness, Absolut created a short series of short audio stories hosted by Saturday Night Live comedian Bowen Yang. For every listen, the brand is donating a dollar to the National LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, on top of their initial $175,000 contribution. Absolut have stated that over the past 40 years they’ve donated $40 million to causes that serve the LGBTQ+ community. A clear example of continuous action driven by a sustained commitment to inclusivity.
3. Oreo Supports PFLAG National — In one of the largest brand donations of 2022, Oreo contributed $500,000 to PFLAG National, which supports families, parents, and friends of LGBTQ+ community members. And to shine a light on PFLAG’s work around family acceptance, the brand teamed up with director Alice Wu to create a short film called ‘The Note’.
The touching film tells the story of a young Chinese American man and his difficult experience of coming out as gay to his family. In addition, Oreo also released a limited edition Pride Pack, where people could write words of affirmation on the packaging. Unfortunately, Oreo’s 2022 campaign generated some backlash from right-wing commentators, signalling that discrimination and non-acceptance still exists in certain sections of society today.
From External Campaigns to Internal Support — What Your Company Can Do
All employers have the power to help improve the wellbeing of their LGBTQ+ staff. Some of the suggestions below are subtle and relatively easy to implement, but their impact can’t be overstated. Small changes like these are deeply appreciated and send a clear signal that everyone has the right to feel safe and be their true selves at work.
1. Announce your pronouns — It’s become common courtesy to include your pronouns in any digital bio you may have. Our Social Media & Community Manager Riven Buckley said:
“I think it’s more important right now for cisgendered people to announce their pronouns in their digital comms, just to reduce the stigma a bit so it stands out less if someone is trans or non-ninary and announces their pronouns. It’s a small, but really valuable gesture, I think.”
2. Review your written content — Check for biased language around gender, relationship structures and sexuality, you’d be surprised where stereotyped language can sneak in!
3. Wherever possible, have unisex toilets — Not everyone falls into the binary of ‘male’ and ‘female’, and not everyone expresses their gender in the same way. Having unisex toilets, or offering a third, neutral space removes stigma and anxiety, and helps normalise thinking around gender being a spectrum.
4. Make space for privacy — Some people prefer to be private about themselves in a professional setting. Make space for people to comfortably opt out, as well as opt in.
5. Offer alt genders in drop down menus — If you’re requiring users to select their gender from a drop-down menu that has two options in it, you’re inevitably alienating some people. Commenting on this, Riven said:
“It takes literally seconds to add in extra options for people in dropdown menus, so if you’re still only asking if people are ‘male’ or ‘female’, just take a moment to add in other options like non-binary, genderfluid, etc. And please don’t just use ‘other’!”
Let The Progress Continue
As a culture, it’s incredible how far we’ve come thanks to the hard work of LGBTQ+ activists and allies, but there’s always more that can be achieved.
Pride month may be over, but the work is not.
