When a marketing campaign centered on LGBTQ+ communities wins on the awards circuit, the fact of business rainbow-washing forces me to ponder: What was the motivation for coming into this work?
Look, for instance, to the Effie Awards. For these with an eye fixed on market affect, they set the bar excessive for whether or not meant methods turn out to be model realities. You’d think about this discussion board celebrating the confirmed achievement of shopper wants may embrace LGBTQ+ neighborhood illustration, as we’ve made loads of our wants recognized.
But their tendencies report reveals that “extra progress is required,” as solely 2% of entrants included LGBTQ+ group members. That is commensurate with the business, sadly: Lower than 2% of mainstream advertisements embrace queer individuals.
Solid apart the obtrusive disparity for a second, provided that LGBTQ+ persons are a self-reported 7.1% of the nation, and that 34% of shoppers say they’re extra doubtless to purchase from manufacturers supporting LGBTQ+ rights. Then take into account this quantity within the context of increasing advertising and marketing visibility: Sure, 2023 introduced notable missteps and marketer trepidation, however we’re seeing extra LGBTQ+ illustration than we did years in the past, and we’re being mentioned extra.
This begs the query: Are manufacturers creating LGBTQ+ campaigns merely to placate the neighborhood? When work is put ahead for recognition, we all know the objective for the model and company, however what’s the objective for the neighborhood? If we’re truly advancing LGBTQ+ inclusion, however nonetheless face this low quantity of entered queer circumstances, there are three eventualities to think about:
- Campaigns crafted for LGBTQ+ communities are usually not being designed with tangible, strategic objectives.
- Campaigns crafted for LGBTQ+ communities are usually not created in a method that delivers on these objectives.
- Each.
I’m going to guess it’s possibility 3, not out of cynicism however from a perspective that people aren’t at all times nice at stating targets. Folks speak extra about shopping for a home however much less about contacting a realtor, extra about having abs however much less about discovering a coach. We all know what we wish, however the steps to get there really feel daunting.
It’s simpler for the people who make model choices to say, “We wish to help and uplift the LGBTQ+ neighborhood,” than to state a primary step: “To do this, we’re able to create a marketing campaign that gives jobs to 25 underprivileged, younger queer individuals.” Each statements are optimistic, however the latter makes you accountable.
