As pride month kicks off, companies are releasing rainbow-colored merchandise to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. But some corporations have faced backlash along the way.
After releasing a line of pride-themed clothing, Target (TGT) faced boycotts and threats from right-wing critics, some of whom confronted workers and tipped over display. In response, the company decided to remove the collection from stores.
And it’s not just Target – Bud Light also came under fire last month after a social media collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The company has seen its sales plummet in the wake of the controversial advertisement.
In the video above, the CEO of Grindr (GRND) discusses how companies can respond to backlash over pride-themed merchandise, as well as how they can be allies year-round, outside of pride month.
Full Video Transcript Below:
J.D. DURKIN: I'd love to get your perspective here first with a little bit of an eye towards the overall corporate America conversation, especially in the spirit of pride. We've seen backlash to some degree. If you look at companies like Target, The North Face (VFC), certainly Bud Light. As a corporate leader yourself, give me your take on this situation as we watch brands try to go to where consumers are, but also face a bit of criticism in the process.
GEORGE ARISON: Yeah, look, this country has made incredible progress in ensuring that people have an opportunity to live a fair and just life and are treated really well. Obviously, change is not always like straight through and there's going to be bumps in the road. And what's happened this year, what's happening around the country in a lot of places is really unfortunate and needs to be fought back with. And that's what our job is to do to make sure that people can lead the lives that they were born to lead. We work with a lot of brands and I think it's an opportunity for them to be supportive of the community. And we want them to do that. And so something that we certainly encourage to advertise with Grindr and, you know, have their voice heard. And one of the things I've been saying to people around what happened, say, with Anheuser-Busch is all the other brands claim to care about this as well. Right they're competitors. And the best thing would be if all the competitors stood up and said, we would do the same thing as well and actually did it, because then you cant boycott everybody. And so that's one thing that I think companies could do is when things like this happen, actually side with your competitors for a minute on behalf of actually what really matters.
J.D. DURKIN: Of course, we're here for the start of the first day of June, kick off here of Pride Month. Talk to me about what you think other companies and corporate America could do to make sure that they are allies in this conversation, not just for this month and not just as soon as we turn the calendar to July. They forget about it. But this is a priority all year.
GEORGE ARISON: Totally, one other thing. I talked to a CMO of a very large company who I know well, and she's been great advisor to me on stuff. And we were talking about like, how do we get more brands to advertise with Grindr? And she's like, well, one of the things you should do is don't sell anybody time in June. If they want one time in June, they have to buy time all year. So the same way that you can't buy time on ABC or CBS in November and December during Christmas time unless you advertise all year. That was kind of her thought to me and I'm like, yep, that makes 100% sense.
One of the things that I think we've shown the world by going public is that there's actually an opportunity to put really strong, successful executives into leadership positions who are members of the LGTBQ community, right now, we have a board that's 6 out of nine board members are gay. You know, we have I'm a gay man. I'm a CEO. Our Chief Product Officer is also gay. There's very strong leadership in the community as well. So one of the things that brands and companies can do is actually put more people who represent the community in leadership positions at the companies.
There's very few gay or LGBTQ board members at Fortune 500 companies. That's really sad. That's something that can be addressed and that's really helpful and much more helpful than some messaging in June, because that impacts how the company behaves all year. And if there are more people who represent the community on boards, then things like Anheuser-Busch might happen less because then everybody else will be thinking on how to respond in the right way.
