Marketers Are Caught Between Rainbow-Hushing and LGBTQ+ Controversies

After backlash led Target and Anheuser-Busch to pull back on some of their Pride-related marketing and merchandise earlier this year, a chilling mood settled over the LGBTQ+ community’s annual celebrations.

At the same time, threats of violence from anti-LGBTQ+ groups, in addition to a longstanding skepticism from the queer community regarding the authenticity of corporate Pride initiatives, have prompted brand leaders to put some rainbow-colored marketing initiatives on ice.

As marketers look back on Pride 2023 and ahead to next year, it’s clear that the perceived benefits of rainbow-washing have eroded. In their stead is a new trend for brands unwilling to back up their Pride initiatives with real solidarity: rainbow-hushing.

“They’re either scared of backlash from a more vocal minority, or it could be that they don’t feel that they are doing enough,” Tamara Littleton, founder of social media agency The Social Element and crisis management consultancy Polpeo, told Adweek.

Given the tumultuous and divisive cultural moment, it’s understandable that some marketers have hit the brakes, she noted. “This year has been a bit of a scary year, but we’re really trying to help brands stick up for themselves with our support.”

The rise of rainbow-hushing

While rainbow-hushing describes brands’ retreat from visible support of the LGBTQ+ community, it has two sides.

On the one hand, the queer community has expressed increasing frustration over surface-level support from brands during Pride, often described as rainbow-washing. Pride participation or LGBTQ-targeted campaigns that aren’t backed up by a robust understanding of and support for the community fall flat—and the lack of that level of engagement is unlikely to be missed by those it’s targeting, experts told Adweek.

On the other hand, the political atmosphere has shifted in the last couple of years. As more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is passed across the U.S. and anti-trans rhetoric continues to be published on (ad-funded) platforms, the legal and reputational risks become more complex.

[Regulation] is very much motivated by a very specific form of radical hatred of trans people.

TJ Billard, assistant professor, Northwestern University

“From a legal perspective, there has been a significant influx of bills being put forward in many states across the country with regard to trans issues, [and] broadly under the umbrella of anti-LGBTQ+ rights,” Jeffrey Boles, associate professor and chair of legal studies at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, told Adweek. These laws “touch on different matters … but they all are essentially pushing back on the recent gains for the LGBTQ+ community.”

The same anti-trans sentiment held by the politicians authoring those bills is also at work in the realm of public opinion, making the decision to run Pride campaigns more of a measured consideration for brands. And not every brand is willing, or financially able, to go toe-to-toe with politicians, as Disney did against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

“Corporations are concerned about drawing the regulatory attention of a state that is acting at the behest of this very loud, very reactionary political minority,” TJ Billard, assistant professor at Northwestern University and founding executive director of the Center for Applied Transgender Studies in Chicago, told Adweek.

That political minority is seeking to reverse the gains that the broader LGBTQ+ community has achieved in recent years, explained Billard, who uses they/them pronouns.

“It is very much motivated by a very specific form of radical hatred of trans people,” they said. “That is leaching into the broader community’s place in society because the community has—very thankfully—for the most part, stuck loudly by their trans siblings.”

Money (still) talks

While fewer instances of rainbow-washing are welcomed by many observers, fewer Pride-related creative projects have a monetary impact on the folks who make that work.

“A lot of people that depend on Pride money are not being asked to do anything,” observed Michael Houston, director of studio and integrated production for Arnold Worldwide and Havas Studios Boston.

In that way, the chilling effect around corporate Pride is directly impacting queer creators, something Houston said they’ve noticed within their own professional circles.

But money hasn’t stopped flowing in other directions. Notably, corporate political donations flow to the lawmakers behind a historic rise in anti-trans legislation—often by the same brands posting rainbow flags to social media during Pride month.

An investigation by Popular Information this year found that 25 brands including AT&T, Comcast, Home Depot and Deloitte have given a collective $13.5 million to anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers since 2022. So far in 2023, more than 80 anti-trans laws have passed in state legislatures across the U.S.

Brands have the ability to change hearts and minds and culture. That’s what we do.

Tamara Littleton, founder, The Social Element

Still, the focus of the public discourse around LGBTQ+ issues, and trans rights specifically, has largely moved beyond the lawmakers passing anti-trans legislation with the monetary support of brands. That’s happened as the rhetoric of those lawmakers has spread, Billard explained, and as members of the Republican party have closed ranks around it, which “has radically transformed the conversation around these policies.”

Real allyship means weathering the backlash

In the face of more vitriolic discourse around LGBTQ+ issues from a small but vocal minority (around 80% of Americans support policies protecting queer folks from discrimination), brands have a role to play, marketers told Adweek.

To start, though, “you have to earn your right to be in the conversation,” Littleton said. That means connecting with the LGBTQ+ community beyond Pride month and ensuring that you have resources in place within your organization to support your own queer employees before considering any external messaging targeting the community.

On the practical side, Littleton tells clients to be prepared for the backlash. “It’s about focusing on the key messaging, having teams in place to actually moderate and engage in the right tone of voice,” she said. “We’re doing a lot of helping brands be braver when they are facing a backlash because it’s a very human situation.”

Littleton, whose company Polpeo offers crisis simulations to help clients prepare for backlash and practice responding, said there’s been an increase in demand for those services—specifically around storylines involving LGBTQ+ issues and trans influencers.

“This is the time for brands to actually push forward,” Littleton said. “Brands have the ability to change hearts and minds and culture. That’s what we do. We’re advertisers, we’re marketers, we’re comms people. It’s really important that people are standing by the [LGBTQ+] community.”