June is Pride Month! It’s a time of celebration, recognition, and learning. With Pride Month gaining increased visibility over the decades, any company would be remiss to miss out on the opportunity to get involved.
Sure, at the end of the day, companies are for profit, and selling their goods or services is the bottom line.
But how they go about acknowledging and taking action for Pride – in a way that’s inclusive and positive – is something that companies are thinking long and hard about.
Thankfully, brands are catching on to what is not just “expected” of them when it comes to social activism, but what’s responsible.
It’s more than just switching out a rainbow logo for the month.
It’s about telling stories that align with who they are as a brand, as well as helping to amplify voices, recognize intersectionality, and share authentic messages that advocate for inclusivity.
In this article, we’ll give you tips on how to run a meaningful Pride marketing campaign, and a few of our favourite examples.
How to Run an Effective Pride Marketing Campaign
1. Make It Story-Centered
Is there a narrative behind your campaign? Or is it just a symbol in place for the month of June? Or, worse yet, are you trying to sell something, even if it is just your brand, by using Pride messaging?
Focus your ad campaign around a story that is meaningful, individual, and most importantly, one that is told by LGBTQ2S+ folks. If your messaging is on point, emotion-driven and effective, people will remember your brand anyways.
The priority here is to use the power of your platform for the month of June to help the LGBTQ2S+ folks tell their stories.
2. Align Your Campaign with Who You Are as a Brand
We know the last thing you want to do is come off as inauthentic. If you’re trying to wedge your brand into messaging that really doesn’t align, your ad campaign will suffer.
Look at Gillette’s “First Shave” campaign (which we talk about below). This is a message that is story-centered and aligned with who Gillette is as a brand. They aren’t trying to encroach on a wheelhouse where they’re not experts, but rather, the focus is on the stories that have been told about moments in growth and transition that are usually not inclusive of trans folks.
This is a campaign that also sends a loud message, “Everyone should feel comfortable using our products.” It’s allyship.
3. Focus on Sustainable Support (Avoid Rainbow-Washing)
It’s easy to slap a rainbow on a logo and call it a (Pride) day. But that actually may be doing more harm than good.
Primarily, using Pride and its symbolism as a way to push your brand can take away from the meaning of Pride, its history, and how important it is to a large population of people – many of whom are actually your target audience.
So, in that vein, making sure that your campaign is geared towards Pride messaging is your top priority.
There are a few key points to keep in mind when running a Pride marketing campaign.
Rainbow-washing is when corporations make gestures towards inclusivity and support of the LGBTQ2S+ folks, but fail to either back those gestures up with financial support or fully stop support after Pride month is over.
This signals to audiences (and, more importantly, LGBTQ2S+ folks) that these brands are willing to promote a rainbow, but only as a token gesture and not much else.
This is where sustainable support is important in every digital marketing campaign that is inclusivity-focused. Ad campaigns that extend beyond Pride month and/or include financial backing (such as fundraisers or donations) avoids rainbow-washing and shows sustainable corporate responsibility.
Sustainable support can also include partnering with LGBTQ2S+-owned entrepreneurs and businesses, therefore helping to support the Pride community.
4. Look to Your Own People
This may seem like a no-brainer, but look to your people first.
What stories are embedded in your corporate culture? How diverse is your company? This is integral to all your digital marketing campaigns because it can help flesh out your messaging and how your company can sustainably support all demographics.
In a nutshell, focus on:
- A campaign that represents the breadth of the community, which cuts across gender and race.
- Pride, not your brand, and the messaging behind that.
- Demonstrating understanding.
- Working towards inclusivity in a way that speaks to your audience.
- Providing a platform for folks with lived experience to tell their story.
- Backing up your campaign with sustainable support.
5 Best Pride-Inspired Marketing Campaigns
We can’t leave without mentioning our favourite Pride campaigns from over the past few years. These campaigns embody what it means to inculcate allyship in digital marketing, and we absolutely love them.
1. Skittles All-Gray Pride Packs
When we think of Skittles, we think of the rainbow. It’s embedded right into their product. But the marketing team at Skittles acknowledged the space that Pride symbolism occupies, and decided it was time to step aside one month of the year in honour of that.
The result? The all-gray Pride Packs.
Why it Works
While this campaign is now a few years old, the meaning behind it still holds true.
Despite being siphoned of all colour, the message is in the subtext. It says that the rainbow rightfully belongs to Pride.
The history of Pride is deeply interconnected with silencing and erasure. And while holding back on the food colouring from their signature candy may not impact their bottom line so much, it’s the message behind it: recognition and solidarity.
This is also an effective campaign because Skittles backed it up in partnership with GLAAD by supporting LGBTQ2S+ artists in the “splash of color” design.
2. Gillette “First Shave” Campaign
The Gillette “First Shave” Campaign will always remain one of our favourites.
Gillette is no stranger to ad campaigns that ignite conversation. Remember their 2019 ad that called out the elephant in the room by taking their slogan, “the best a man can get” and saying “we believe men can do better”? (It even has its own Wikipedia page.)
In the past, Gillette catered mostly to cis-male audiences using hyper-masculine messaging. In these masculine-centered narratives, the “first shave” is like a right of passage. It’s one of those moments that mark boys symbolically transitioning to men.
This time around, Gillette asks, why can’t any transition to manhood be just as remarkable? This is the story that Gillette tells with their “First Shave” campaign, which is about a young trans man and his first shaving moment with his father.
We’ll give you a second to watch…
Why it Works
Okay, deep breath. That was moving, right? But why does it work so well?
This campaign works on a number of levels. It uses Gillette’s massive platform to tell a real and intimate story of a young man who, with the support of his father, reaches the proud shaving milestone.
But that it’s a story about a young trans man is what gives it power. It’s in his voice telling his own story about his first shave. It’s not the brand’s story but rather, it’s Gillette using their platform to showcase the beautiful stories of trans folks.
This aligns not just with Gillette as a brand, but represents how other brands can help normalize these experiences and therefore, support trans folks – trans kids, particularly.
At the end of the ad, Gillette reminds us of their ages-old slogan: “The best a man can get.” Only now, those words have so much more power than they did before. It’s the best that every man can get, trans included.
3. Lego Builds Pride
While not technically an ad campaign, since the launch of their Everyone Is Awesome Pride build set, (created by Lego’s Vice President of Design, Matthew Ashton, who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ2S+ community), Lego has leg the charge in holding space for, and lending their platform to, folks in the LGBTQ2S+ community.
And in 2024, they expanded that even further.
Welcome to Lego’s Build With Pride.
Why it Works
This campaign works because Lego is giving over their massive platform and showcasing the creative talent of LGBTQ2S+ Lego fans.
In this campaign, Lego fans are asked to make a build that they feel reflects Pride. And the entries did not disappoint.
This campaign emphasizes the fact that Pride is different for everyone, while also giving space for LGBTQ2S+ folks to envision what Pride could be. It’s a message of hope.
4. NYX Cosmetics Proud Allies for All Campaign
NYX Cosmetics has been an ally of LGBTQ2S+ for quite some time now, having a diverse range of models – trans, queer, fluid, and Black folks – for their products. And this is all year round, not just Pride month.
This year, they’ve launched an initiative called Proud Allies For All, which focuses on reaching allies of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
Why it Works
Historically, makeup brands have focused solely on white-skinned cis-women. That’s simply not who NYX presents themselves to be.
This campaign works because it not only prioritizes education and support, but it aligns perfectly with who NYX is as a brand. NYX has inculcated a sense of community and inclusivity in their products, showcasing a wide range of shades available, and emphasizing how their products can be used – from drag queens to gender fluid to Black folks.
But this campaign goes beyond inclusivity. NYX acknowledges the mental and emotional labour a lot of LGBTQ2S+ folks face when trying to educate others. It’s taxing and exhausting. So, NYX is trying to shoulder some of that burden themselves, by offering education and representation of what it means to be an ally of the LGBTQ2S+ community.
5. Fossil Pride Collection
While it dates back several years now, the Fossil Pride Collection campaign still remains one of our favourites for one simple reason: funding.
Like a lot of brands, Fossil has a dedicated collection that celebrates Pride and LGBTQ2S+ folks. Their ad campaign around this collection and Pride Month focuses on supporting LGBTQ2S+ youth in crisis.
Why it Works
Fossil’s Pride campaign works for a very simple reason: funding.
While the ad campaign isn’t really much to write home about, it’s the corporate responsibility messaging that is key here.
For the entire month of June, 100% of the proceeds earned through Fossil’s Pride Collection went to The Trevor Project, “the world’s largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for LGBTQ youth.”
Meaning in Every Message
No matter the campaign you’re running – whether it’s Pride or another important event – giving your campaigns meaning is far more important than simply demonstrating products and services.
Afterall, everyone is integral to a wide variety of communities, and it’s those people who are paying attention to the messages companies put out there.
So, let’s make them count. Happy Pride!
(Originally published on June 15, 2022. Update on June 1, 2024.)
