A hallmark of the 2010s was the increasing penetration of LGBT+ culture and issues into public awareness. With Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) legalizing same-sex marriage across the nation, an obvious difference between now and ten years ago is the increasing awareness of LGBT+ issues into today’s society. With this increasing awareness brought the introduction of “woke” marketing: corporate broadcasting primarily in solidarity with a mainstream issue. Despite many recent issues in the targets of woke marketing such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the Stay at Home message, perhaps the most ubiquitous and earliest examples of woke marketing is the Pride movement. The LGBT+ community, however, has many differing opinions and evaluations of these politically charged messaging campaigns.

Many LGBT+ activists believe that the corporate involvement in LGBT+ issues is exploiting the movement, citing the “rainbow-washing” of corporations only improves brand imaging while contributing little or nothing to the actual movement [Forbes]. For example, over forty-five thousand protestors under the Reclaim Pride Coalition marched last year in Manhattan specifically against “rainbow capitalism” and the “woke-washing” of the Pride movement by corporate virtue-signaling [AdAge].

However, many companies have contributed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to LGBT+ causes. Target, for example, donated one hundred thousand dollars to the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, while many other stores have created Pride products, proceeds going to charity [Stanford Daily].

Rainbow capitalism and woke marketing have been very controversial aspects of the Pride movement, starting with the first advertised gay couple in television history with IKEA’s 1994 ad featuring a couple shopping for a dinner table [Stanford Daily]. This type of advertising has become more and more common as the years went by, and even though this marketing strategy has been solidified in the corporate space, Americans need to have a conversation on whether these advertisements are solidarity or sell-outs.