Honouring pride month, brands bat for inclusivity

With the pride month going on several brands rolled out campaigns honouring pride. From changing their logos to rainbow hues, to making posts about celebrating pride on social media platforms, brands are doing their bit.

Lifestyle brands like Bath and Body Works launched their “love always wins” pride collection. Levi’s also jumped on the wagon with a wearable pride collection and updating their logo to pride suited colours. The levi’s denim jacket featured pronouns on the back, “All pronouns. All LOVE,” reads the social media post. Other brands like Adidas India, Converse, Fossil, Gap and many more also followed and participated in pride month. Back home, fashion house Anita Dongre was also spotted with a changed logo. In past, the fashion house has designed outfits for a gay wedding that went viral on Instagram.

Various airlines also honoured the month with pride campaigns.The likes of Air Asia India, Spice jet and Vistara followed with wishing a happy pride month. While IndiGo airlines posted a creative titled, “Tags are for Bags,” which further read, “We’re more than our labels, wherever on the rainbow we may be.”

Besides bringing business, pride campaigns create awareness on a larger scale. “When big brands run pride campaigns, a lot of people become aware of the LGBTQIA+ community and their needs. It creates a learning environment. Not only for selling products, but these campaigns bring inclusivity at work, as it should. The visuals communicate, ‘We see you and we are here for you’, and, translates into a welcoming approach for the brand,” says brand image consultant Zubin Samuel.

Even startups are ensuring inclusivity and celebrating pride month. “It’s just not about a brand. It’s really about honouring the people from the community, giving them a platform, and making them feel included,” says marketing lead for Urbanic, Rahul Dayma.

“By promoting inspiring stories, we are creating a celebratory and accepted space for all the gender identities. The point is to not sell to the community, but include the community. Creating campaigns with ‘out and proud’ members of the community, giving them a space to be visible and share their stories,”says Dayma.

There is a raging debate about brands not doing enough and just changing their logo to present a pseudo support. “Brands should learn about their employees first. Then, about the community; what it means to be an ally. Brands should analyse their policies and reflect on whether they are truly indiscriminate towards the community. If they aren’t, then how can they implement changes to facilitate the upliftment of the members of the community, says assistant vice president marketing for Hirect, Chirag Agrawal.

Hirect changed its logo to celebrate the Pride Month. “While policy implementation is a deeper aspect, subtle gestures like putting up a rainbow flag in the office space or personalised notes wishing members for Pride month can help create an accepting atmosphere. They should also remember that showing support is not limited to just one month. It should be an unquestionable atmosphere all year long,” adds Agrawal.