Dozens of big companies from Delta and Coca-Cola to Walmart are sponsoring LGBTQ+ Pride events and displaying racks of Pride-themed merchandise. But this year, the rainbow has lost some shine. Longtime Pride sponsors like Bud Light and Target have come under attack by conservatives for their LGBTQ-friendly marketing. Calls to boycott Kohl’s, Lego and Southwest Airlines for their LGBTQ-friendly marketing have also popped up in recent days. Nonetheless, many big companies are still backing Pride celebrations. Some say they want to support their LGBTQ+ employees. They also don't want to turn their back on a population with significant spending power.
This is sad, but it may reveal which company support pride for marketing purpose only.
Let’s be honest here: All of them. The ones who continue to support pride have simply calculated that it’s not a big enough risk to their profits to take the PR hit.
of course, i’d rather they feel a need to cater to queer people in literally any way then not (at least right now). it’s not a great time for them to be clamming up about how much they respect and love the diversity of the queer community, to put it mildly!
Even if it’s only for marketing, that’s a good sign, though. If we’re worth marketing to, that means they have calculated that supporting us brings in more than they stand to lose from it.