How to change your company logo for Pride Month 2018
Congratulations business owners, VPs, and marketing teams — you and your business and/or corporation made it through the first week of Pride Month!
If you haven’t changed your profile picture on all your social media pages to a fun rainbow version of your logo yet…don’t.
Please. Just don’t.
Hear me out on this.
While you are more than welcome to join the virtual Pride parade of brands slapping more colorful versions of their logos all over the Internet, I encourage you to consider your place in that parade. Have you been to a real Pride parade in the past few years? Would most of your employees attend one in solidarity? Are you actively making contributions toward equality through your business, particularly for the gay and trans communities?
If these statements don’t ring particularly true to your brand, I’d encourage you to sit the rainbow branding exercise out.
“But I really love the gays, and want to show that our brand supports them too,” you say?
Well then! Now is the perfect time to show some real support.
The best thing any brand can do during Pride month is to put their money where their mouth is. As a hip, young, professional gay man that works in marketing, another basic rainbow logo is the last thing I want to see during June. Most of the LGBT+ community at large feels the same way. We want to see stories of empowerment. We want to see community involvement. We want to see you throwing your support behind local queer organizations. We want to see 1–5% of your proceeds or profits donated to LGBT+ youth projects.
“But why does it have to be about money, John? Why can’t I just show a little support?”
Well, because frankly, our people are dying in the streets. Or in their homes. Violence against the trans community is on the rise and people of color suffer the worst. And while 1 in 6 of all high school-aged students reports having considered suicide in the past year, queer youth are five times more likely to make an attempt than their straight peers, according to The Trevor Project.
Your brand has resources our community can benefit from.
If you expect the LGBT+ community to invest in your brand, you should invest in the LGBT+ community.
If your company is truly not in a place to a make a tax-deductible donation to a worthy cause, I would like to see more logo updates accompanied by stories about how the company celebrates Pride, or what Pride means to some of the queer staff in the organization. In 2017, before international Pride season even began, IBM rolled out a new rainbow flag logo accompanied by a press release and campaign about the importance of diversity and inclusion in their workplace and how it benefits their culture. IBM also received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Responsibility Index and was named the most gay-friendly employer in the world.
This year, subscription e-commerce darling MeUndies has rolled out one of my favorite Pride campaigns of the summer. The video below highlights Oscar Zaldaña, the designer behind a limited run of products that benefit the LGBT homelessness organization True Colors Fund, and how he relates to the brilliant rainbow-colored camouflage pattern he created for the goods.
MeUndies did not update their social logo for Pride. They did, however, dispatch an incredibly diverse (read: standout, sexy, and badass) influencer campaign featuring a variety of QPOC models sharing words of encouragement to their younger selves.
Based on engagement, their strategy of truly embracing Pride and what it stands for to the community it celebrates was a notable success.
If you’re looking for an LGBT+ cause to support in line with your exciting new Pride marketing campaign, please feel free to check out any of the below:
GLAD (GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders) // Trangender Law Center // Lambda Legal // Victory Fund
