Generation Z Sees Right Through Rainbow Marketing
This Pride, bashing rainbow marketing has been a trend amongst the queer community, particularly by queer youth. In Mashable’s recent interview with Qwear, we spoke to them about problems with lazy rainbow marketing. “Since the first rainbow flags flew in the 70s, Pride celebrations — and the abundant rainbow iconography that accompany them — have come to be associated with commercialization, not liberation,” they wrote.
Target in particular was roasted by Tik Tok users and others for their particularly garish pride collection, which appears to have taken their team an hour to throw together.
@sfram1218 critiqued the collection on Tik Tok, noting that it “just looks bad” and “I don’t know a single lesbian who would wear this.”
@ChrisDStedman on Twitter called it “ugly and sin” and @robertgigs on Tik Tok joked that the collection is so bad it made him straight.
Activist Blair Imani explains rainbow marketing. “Not all marketing during Pride is rainbow washing. But it happens a lot,” concluding, “If you really want to support us, you can’t just do it in June, and you can’t just use the rainbow.”
Though Target was the main target of rainbow washing complaints (sorry, had to), they aren’t the only guilty ones.
I was taken back by Lego’s 2021 Pride collection, which seemed to be slapped together in the last minute and is rather ugly, in my opinion. Also, cute haircuts, but where are all the shaved sides? It doesn’t really look like it was designed by a queer person, because queer people are just far more creative than this:
Lego’s 2021 pride collection
Apple’s pride collection also achieved a high score on the ugliness scale. I mean, what is going on here?
Apple’s Pride watch, ew
H&M decided to counteract these complaints with their “Beyond the Rainbow” campaign featuring MJ Rodriguez and Chella Man. They actually don’t have a pride collection at all this year. Instead of using rainbows, their campaign are all black and white photos featuring real LGBTQIA+ activists. If they weren’t completely destroying the environment with wasteful fast fashion, I would actually be impressed.
Images from H&M’s Pride campaign
My conclusion is that it’s great for brands to celebrate pride, but they have to do it in conjunction with good business practices, giving back, and they have to hire actual queer designers to create clothes that actual queer people want to wear.
One thing I’ve always loved about Dr. Marten’s pride collection is that they are more subtle and feel like a natural progression from the queer shoe styles they already carry.
I also love some of Savage x Fenty’s pride collection. The clothes are actually cool and look like things I would wear. They put some thought into it rather than just making their logo rainbow and calling it a day.
I also really like Calvin Klein’s Pride collection. I would gladly wear these underwear in a new color every day of the week.
So brands, either grow some creativity or hire queer designers so we can make pride collections we’re actually proud of.
What are your favorite pride collections? Share them in the comments!
