Alfred Verhoeven (Marketing the Rainbow #4): What's so bad about a little pinkwashing?

A while ago, Erwin Fisser wrote his column here: "What's so bad about a little greenwashing?". That triggered me to write this column: "What's so bad about a little pinkwashing?".

I recently started writing columns for Marketing Report in the framework of my PhD research Marketing the Rainbow. It's about the way and reason why brands target LGBT consumers, or use rainbow themes in their marcom. That rainbow (6 colours) is a symbol for the LGBT community, where previously - especially in Europe - pink was the theme colour. Hence ‘pinkwashing’, although you also hear the term ‘rainbowwashing‘ every now and then.

Marketing opportunities

Because I've been publishing about this on various platforms for a few years now, the media know where to find me as soon as there's something to do with that rainbow. June was Pride Month, and there are more than a dozen Prides in the Netherlands (plus Pink Saturday), and then there are IDAHOBIT, Purple Friday and International Day of Transgender Visibility.

All these events offer ideal opportunities for anyone who wants to do Marketing the Rainbow, and that happens more and more often. I am therefore quite often approached by the talk shows and news media, mainly with the question what I think about Pinkwashing.

What is pinkwashing?

There are different definitions, but Wiki says it is: “The practice of a company to present itself as gay-friendly and progressive, to compensate for negative behavior”. However, opinions are divided on whether the ‘washing’ should have to do with a bad LGBT image or whether it applies more generally. I think we should not take it too broadly. Shell is allowed to do Marketing the Rainbow, although Groningen is subsiding undisturbed and the Niger Delta is unfortunately polluted. You can never have a clean slate in all areas before you are allowed to do something good.

NB: other moments when pinkwashing occurs are the use of the Pink Ribbon for breast cancer month, and the pink making of toys to indicate that they are for girls.

Pride is a celebration

Companies are flying the rainbow flag en masse to celebrate this. Not only the small "gay" shops in the Warmoesstraat or the 9 Street, but also larger companies are fully participating: from Shell to Vattenfall, and from Smullers to HEMA and GVB.

What do I think about this? I don't want to talk about the commercialization of Pride Amsterdam - otherwise that spectacle couldn't even be organized - but as far as I'm concerned: the more rainbows the better. I have defined the customer journey From Representation to Respect for my research. This includes 6 steps: Representation --> visibility --> normalization --> tolerance --> acceptance --> respect. So it starts with Representation and Visibility, and all those flags are working hard to achieve that.

But then a brand that suddenly dresses a bar of chocolate in a rainbow (like Tony’s Gay Bar – nice idea, but pinkwashing), or sticks six colours on a deodorant? Or even the original 8 on mouthwash: a bit too enthusiastic, but then also mention the pink that stands for “sexuality”.

I apply a few criteria:

Do they want to make money with it?
Is there (then) a good cause connected to it? (which also gives a kind of stamp of approval)
Are the intentions good or is it just window-dressing?
Do they only show their diversity around Pride or all year round?
Did they only start after 2015 (the year in which ‘gay marriage’ became legal in the US, and the rainbow floodgates opened)?

Depending on the answers to these questions (which you can actually already think of), I judge a brand on its LGBT friendliness. I give them a score of 1-10, although 3 was a negative outlier, most score 7-8, with a few 10s.

Hema scored a 9- (above the statement from 2016, memed by my husband and me), as did Shell , while Marriott even got a 10, and Uber still got a worldwide 9.I initially gave Booking a 3, but they upgraded it to 7 after a good conversation.

Conclusion

Opinions differ, both about pinkwashing and about Marketing the Rainbow. Just as there are many different types of people in the LGBT+ community, there are many types of opinions: from the Queers who are against any form of “Rainbow Capitalism”, via the moral crusaders who believe that a company may only present itself as gay-friendly if they have a clear conscience in all areas, to people who can appreciate that non-LGBT people (Allies) also dress up in rainbows. I belong to the latter group, that much is clear.

Finally, I thought it was a good idea to introduce a kind of stamp of approval, whereby we as a community give our approval – or not – for the (commercial) use of the 6-coloured rainbow by companies. The question is of course: who is going to do that? Because there is unfortunately no unity in that diversity.

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