Monday, 8 July 2019

Profiting From Pride

It's hard to miss the colours of the rainbow flag during Pride month.Everything from High Street shops, supermarkets and banks are changing their logos, adding new window displays and selling special products. But is this "rainbow washing"? In other words - is it jumping on a bandwagon without making any meaningful change? Some LGBT campaigners are asking what brands actually do to support their community. Years and Years singer Olly Alexander calls this "rainbow capitalism" and says it feels "especially icky" this year. Pride in London receives around £650,000 from corporate partners, which works out at about two-thirds of its income.Tom Stevens says this means a million people can celebrate for free. There have been an increasing number of companies displaying their support of LGBT rights but are they supporting it for sales or actually doing something to support the community.