Pride Month: Rainbow Flags & Marketing
As we near the end of Pride Month, here’s our resident designer Mikey (He/They) with a bit of the Pride Flag’s history, some advice for brands and companies who use the flag in their marketing activities, and some pointers on how businesses can be allies during Pride Month and beyond!
The Pride Flag
Also known as the LGBT Pride Flag or the Rainbow Flag, what’s more commonly called just ‘The Pride Flag’ is one of the most instantly recognisable symbols out there. It has long been used as a way for individuals, establishments, and brands to display to others that they are openly LGBTQIA+, or that they support and are welcoming allies to the community.
The original rainbow flag was designed by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, who was urged by political trailblazer Harvey Milk (one of the first openly gay elected officials in the US) to create a symbol of Pride and visibility for the gay community in San Francisco.
“Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth, as I say, to get out of the lie. A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying - This is who I am!”
The colours of the Pride Flag and their original meanings.
The use of the flag quickly spread and it has been the most widely used symbol ever since, however in recent years this has started to change.
Last year saw some controversy in the UK with another rainbow flag appearing as children’s drawings in windows up and down the country. Started innocently by families, as a way to show solidarity with the NHS and key-workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was when the rainbow started to be repurposed by brands that this, understandably, started to make some in the LGBTQIA+ community uneasy.
Compounded by some brands cashing in and reselling Pride flags as ‘Thank You NHS’ flags, and badges that had been made for the NHS to show support for their LGBTQIA+ staff worn instead by the likes of Matt Hancock on national tv when talking about Clap for Carers, many LGBTQIA+ people felt like the symbol of their Pride was being appropriated, with some even considering the new use as a form of erasure.
Partially as a result another flag has increasingly begun to be used to help retain ownership of this symbol and evolve for new challenges facing the LGBTQIA+ community.
The Progress Flag
Designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018, the Progress Flag builds on the flag adopted by the city of Philadelphia in the previous year, when black and brown stripes were added to represent people of colour. Quasar has also said that these stripes can be interpreted as representing those who are living with AIDS and those who are sadly no longer living.
The addition of the transgender flag’s light blue, pink and white stripes creates a ‘forward movement’ arrow, denoting that “progress still needs to be made” especially in regards to marginalised people of colour, people living with HIV/AIDS and trans rights.
Many brands, organisations and individuals have since started to prefer this flag for its diversity and inclusivity, while appreciating that it also pays homage to Baker’s original flag.
Can I Use Pride Month as a Marketing Tool?
The appropriateness of building social media or marketing content around Pride Month really comes down to how you can answer some very simple questions:
Is Pride Month relevant to your brand or organisation?
Does your brand have a meaningful relationship with the LGBTQIA+ community?
Does your brand activity support any LGBTQIA+ charities, businesses, or individuals?
If you can’t answer any of these questions with confidence then Pride Month is probably not an advisable topic for you to get involved with.
It could quite easily be viewed as performative allyship (activism done to increase one’s own social capital, rather than because of your devotion to the cause), and simply shoehorning Pride Month into your brand (and logo) for the sake of being on-trend can lead to some potentially disastrous reputational consequences.
“it’s not enough for brands to go rainbow, they need to earn the right.”
If however, you do think your brand can authentically talk about Pride Month and add value, then here are a few things to consider to boost your credibility in doing so:
Employ LGBTQIA+ people (graphic designers/copywriters/social media creators etc…) for your campaigns. Not only will this mean you are employing knowledgable people with lived experience, but you are actively supporting LGBTQIA+ businesses and individuals as a result. And most importantly - pay them. Asking LGBTQIA+ people to get involved in projects that pay in brand awareness through promoting them to your audience, or otherwise asking them to work for free for your benefit isn’t acceptable.
Uplift LGBTQIA+ voices. Share content from other brands / organisations and charities who are doing good work on community causes. Promoting them to your audience can raise valuable awareness of their campaigns, and in turn, show your active support for their activities.
Raise money or donate proceeds to LGBTQIA+ charities. Stonewall, Black Pride, Gendered Intelligence, and the Terrence Higgins Trust are but a few among a massive list of organisations that could use your support.
Hold your event at an LGBTQIA+ owned space. For example, Penguin books have held Penguin Pride events at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London to celebrate queer writing. Supporting a venue means that it will continue to be there for the underrepresented community it serves.
Lastly, why wait for Pride Month? If you really want your brand to speak authentically to LGBTQIA+ audiences then supporting them all year round is better than one month of the year. Start thinking about ways in which you can make your business more inclusive and welcoming, make sure where you advertise doesn’t contradict with supporting LGBTQIA+ causes, and most importantly think about the difference you can make and how you will go about making it a reality.
