How Brands that 'Played it Safe' During Pride 2024 Missed the Mark

Everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief: we survived ‘rainbow season’ (June) for brands.?

And as far as I heard, no brand got “cancelled” for supporting queer events and causes this year— no matter how much brands fretted that another “Bud Light incident” might happen.

(As “Bud Light Incident” appears to have fully entered the marketing lexicon of cautionary tales, along with “Tropicana Redesign,” “New Coke” and others).

This year, brands continued to helm pride events as presenting sponsors all around the country. No blowback emerged for any of them: Delta (Seattle), AEG (Los Angeles), Coors (Denver), and Mastercard (NYC), as all wrote huge checks for Prides without incident.

That's right-- despite their brand names and logos being everywhere, their reputations went unscathed. No boycotts, no social media backlash: nothing.

I was hoping this lack of fallout would release a deluge of ‘think pieces’ on LinkedIn, declaring that it was (once again) completely safe for brands to support LGBTQ+ causes and events in 2024. That brands could heartily return to putting their dollars into LGBTQ+ causes.

But… crickets.

It seems that brand leaders, marketers, and advertisers were far more interested in catastrophizing when ‘stuff hit the fan’ with Bud Light a year ago, then they were in commenting when brands’ 2024 Pride efforts went off literally without a hitch.

Right.?

Which brings us to the latest post in this ‘Marketing Paradox Monday’ series—?

Marketing Paradox #27: Wary companies give far too much credence to marketing ‘fails,’ and then ‘play it safe’ to their detriment?

There were some lessons to take from how brands tackled Pride 2024— but these had nothing to do with public backlash: instead, it had to do with the somewhat lackluster way these brands chose to show up.

If anyone went to a pride parade this year, you might have noticed there’s a point in the parade that I’m now calling the ‘Corporate Lull’ section of the event: this part of the parade typically involved national and local corporations unfurling a rainbow-colored logo banner, marching a handful to hundreds of their employees behind it.

One after another, employees of these firms dutifully strolled by, holding their logo signage— and while individual employees might have ‘brought the energy’ or pizzazz— this stretch of banner-employees-banner-employees-banner-employees could feel more like a funerary procession than a festive parade.?

Maybe this lack of enthusiasm for pride events on behalf of corporations was in-part due to the concerns about blowback, and a general tightening of company budgets? While that might account for the lack of investment, these types of setups didn’t exactly make a company’s presence feel like anything more than perfunctory.

And definitely didn’t engender goodwill: the bare minimum presence from companies could noticeably dampen the energy of the crowd. (And no, throwing branded swag into the crowd didn’t necessarily kick things up a notch). This all resulted in the vibe greeting corporate marchers being that of deflated balloon. My guess is, that wasn’t the intended feeling brands wanted to create.

So, in ‘playing it safe,’ some companies missed the mark by a pretty wide margin.?

On the other hand, brands that DID make an effort tended to be greeted with reciprocal enthusiasm— and lots of it. Without really breaking the bank, brands that made the simple step of decorating a float, hiring a DJ, hiring performers from the community, or simply playing hype music on extra-loud speakers— actually got rousing cheers.?

And ones that DIDN'T take this fun event seriously, and went full camp? Got extra applause.

My favorite example of a brand embracing the cheeky nature of Pride with its float at my local parade was actually… Starbucks (?!). They 1.) made a float that was legit cool, 2.) added a “you belong here” reminding potential employees that Starbucks was very LGBTQ+ friendly, and most importantly 3.) allowed their famous ‘mermaid’ logo to be depicted by a fabulous performer who manned the front of the float in a delightful mermaid costume, complete with a sparkly tail that he flaunted.

The crowd went wild, reacting with whoops and hollers that very much matched the spirit of Pride. And I’d imagine this elicited a lot more brand warmth than the drudgery of banners.

Look, I don’t want to discourage companies from participating in Pride— there absolutely IS a need for corporate sponsorship of pride events and parades— corporate sponsors help the event go forward each year, and it’s impossible to downplay how crucial these dollars are to the financial viability of prides everywhere.

But somebody had to point this out in 2024— when brands don’t make much effort, it’s obvioud to revelers watching that most companies have not put thought into their presence, and are simply taking up space in hopes of claiming a perceptual win.?

And when this happens and the energy dips, it can feel like companies are unintentionally putting their brand between the hyped-up crowds and the floats, non-profit organizations, and performers that parade-goers actually WANT to see.

Those brands that got the most goodwill from the crowd were those that embraced the fun, the silliness, and the celebratory nature that make Pride, well, prideful. And didn’t just mail it in with a procession.

As you make your communications plans for 2025, and Pride is on your list— think beyond the bare minimum, and invest in making an experience that will show your brand isn’t just tepid in its support for the community— but is as full-on and fun as the event itself.?

As Pride 2024 showed, there’s no reason to hesitate or hold back.