Drew* is an art director at an advertising agency and said: “There is a lot of social pressure for brands to do something for every single awareness month - especially now in the culture that we live in,” adding that “if you don’t do it, it calls more attention to your brand than if you do do it.” This impulse to take a stand, even if you don’t stand for anything, speaks to a larger cultural misunderstanding of what accountability means. It was the muscle shirt that read “Ask me about my pronouns” that triggered the existential dread, Tom tweeted: “become a queer influencer, they said, it comes with the worst merch on earth.”īut, what kind of kink would move brands to submit themself to the humiliation and degradation of getting dragged on the internet by vicious queers? I asked an advertising industry pro, who specialises in logo design and branding, to find out exactly why a brand would go out of its way to present us so poorly. On Twitter, Jes Tom, a standup comic best-known for hosting Netflix’s Instagram show Dear Jes, received an unsolicited merch box that prompted them to re-examine their life as a queer influencer. For example, in a Tweet that would be viral in a just world, writer Emma Specter stated: “i can't finish unless a brand has JUST wished me happy pride.” And, a TikToker by the username of is seen walking up to the camera, rainbow-faced, and declares: “Courage… is being yourself… every day… and with your sexuality…” before burdening us with a soliloquy of buzzwords. These responses aren’t even aimed at any one brand, necessarily, but just speak to the general mess that is rainbow capitalism, in general. The reaction to the corporate world’s embarrassing efforts to bond with *the gays* almost justifies the “Homo Estás” of it all.
Elon Musk and his investors should prioritize content moderation to create spaces where truth is elevated over harmful and inaccurate opinions and where public figures are held accountable.Leave it to the LGBTQ community’s Very-Online Unit to turn these hopeless ads into comedy gold. The cost of hate speech further erodes basic safety and civility across society. LGBTQ people are at disproportionate risk for harassment online and violence in real life. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis continued this sentiment, saying that "Twitter should hold to its principles and the industry standard of prohibiting speech that endangers people, spreads misinformation, and incites harassment and abuse. Twitter has posted 'The Twitter Rules' to 'ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely' which includes rules against targeted abuse or harassment or incitement of such targeting, based on protected characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity," GLAAD wrote in an April statement." "Musk has a record of posting content targeting LGBTQ people and other marginalized people. Musk is considered to be an anti-LGBTQ figure by organizations such as the world's "largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization" GLAAD, who responded to news that Musk would buy Twitter by claiming that Musk is a homophobe. Companies often forego using rainbow imagery and logos on their Middle Eastern or African accounts. The trend has been used for years, and social media users have noticed over time that most companies that show support do so only in regions where gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are accepted in broader society. The caption on the meme simply reads "June is almost here."
On the tornado are several brands that partake in the rainbow capitalism practice of changing their logos, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Tumblr, Quora, and more. That video was created as a promotion for the 2014 film "Into the Storm." Musk's meme uses a template from a 2014 Australian viral video where a man looks into his camera as a dust tornado approaches him in the Australian outback.
CORPORATIONS GAY PRIDE MEME LICENSE
Twitter and Space X CEO Elon Musk posted a tweet on Tuesday that mocks large corporations for using rainbow capitalism during Pride Month, which is held in June.Įvery June in Western countries is now considered Pride month, to commemorate the Stonewall riots, an event where police raided a mafia-owned gay bar with no liquor license that regularly sold drugs, sparking massive protests.