Investigating 'rainbow washing' in advertising during Pride

For context, at the time, ‘gay-vague’ was the standard practice to reach out to these communities and avoid such backlash. Advertisers would hide things in their ads, or they would suggest the people in the ad might be a part of the community - but they never confirmed it. Things like the subliminal messages placed within the license plates for this Subaru ad were the way to get to their audience. 

If you look closely, you can read the hidden messages. These particularly appealed to the lesbian contingent of the community and Subaru managed to build a stereotype which is still thought of today – ‘Lesbians own a Subaru’. Past this, Subaru sponsored Pride parades and even hired Martina Navratilova, a pro-tennis player and outed lesbian, to be a part of their campaign. Given advertisers had already found a successful way to reach these communities, and at a time when AIDS became the highest cause of death of all Americans aged 25 – 44, why would Ikea take such a risk and be so bold?  

Their aim for this piece of communication was to make it clear that Ikea welcomes everyone into their stores. Customers are customers. People are people. They took the risk to display their entire customer base, not just the ones that the public wanted to see, but everyone. By doing this they received praise from activists stating “it humanises us” which is exactly what the ad did. It made the LGBTQ+ community look like people, like they belong as much as their straight counterparts. Could this ad run today? Absolutely - but it might not have the same impact. Today we are more accepting in society and the simplistic ad could just be overlooked by the majority, but it would still be appreciated by the few. 

Lesbian Guacamole Bisexual Transgender 

By the mid-2010s, support for the LGBTQ+ community by corporations had risen massively. Now businesses are supporting charities, pride parades and releasing products covered in rainbows. Every year we see them change their logos to a rainbow and hear them vocalise their support. But if it is just in June, is it really support? Or is it just a PR stunt?

The donations were unclear, and the products were seen as a full exploitation of the LGBTQ+ community by slapping a rainbow onto the packaging for profit. On their website, M&S stated that they released it “in recognition of this year’s Pride”, portraying the idea that they created the sandwich to show support, but without actually supporting. Separately they said they were “also showing their support” regarding donations, meaning the sandwich was nothing more than a display. Because individual sales of the sandwich didn’t lead to donations it makes it look more like rainbow commercialism – exploiting the community without helping it. 

So why didn’t they make it obvious on the packaging that they were doing it for a reason besides their own profit? Especially after the year before when people had similar reactions. 

Egg-cellent Kisses

After the ad aired, Cadbury faced a lot of backlash. The ASA received 40 complaints and roughly 30,000 people signed a petition to get the ad taken down. The fact they were a real life same-sex couple raised concerns around their safety and their newfound fame. These concerns made the agency realise they had a duty of care to protect and train their talent for whatever the public response to the advertisement might be. 

Dispite this, Cadbury received a lot of support and recognition for the ad, including a nomination for the British LGBT Awards in 2021 and a change.org petition entitled ‘DO NOT CANCEL The Cadbury's Creme Egg Advert With Two Men Kissing - In Fact Amplify It!’, which gathered 49,367 signatures.