16 Jun 2025
Pride Month is here! Typically full of festivity and advocacy, June commemorates the Stonewall uprising. However, this year, instead of embracing the rainbow theme, we see uncertainty and cautious brands.
According to The Drum, this year has seen the sharpest decline in corporate support for Pride events in over a decade. In the current tense political climate, with US President Trump attacking DEI initiatives and the UK Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, many brands are afraid of igniting controversy.
In this year’s Pride Pulse Poll from Gravity Research, which surveyed communications and public affairs officers from over 200 major US corporations, nearly 40% of respondents reported that their companies are reducing engagement related to Pride, and none expect these levels to increase this year. The majority cited pressure from the Trump administration as the reason for this change, with 39% expressing concern about a potential conservative backlash.
However, abandoning Pride campaigns and values due to political pressure suggests to LGBTQ+ customers and allies that your previous campaigns were insincere and that your brand is less trustworthy.
Target is a prime example of this: despite previous commitments to promote diversity, the brand rolled back its DEI programmes, sparking a boycott that led to a nearly 3% sales drop in Q1. Although Target has released a Pride collection this year, the discrepancy between its values and actions has led to criticism and resulted in the brand being dropped as a sponsor of Pride events.
Tips for launching Pride campaigns
Ready to demonstrate your support? Here are some tips to help you create an effective and authentic campaign.
Support LGBTQ+ organisations
If you want to run a Pride campaign, it’s important to put your money where your mouth is. This could be in the form of a lump sum donation or a portion of your business’s proceeds. Donating to LGBTQ+ organisations shows that you truly care about supporting LGBTQ+ rights and are not ‘pinkwashing‘ your business.
Connect with the community
Remember Pride throughout the year
Celebrate Pride internally as well
Don’t be afraid to take a stand
Campaign highlights from 2025
Read on to discover campaigns that effectively demonstrate allyship and marketing creativity.
Converse
In the tenth year of its Proud To Be campaign, the shoe brand looked to the future, bringing back seven members of the LGBTQ+ community from previous Pride campaigns to write love letters to their future selves.
Converse does a great job of highlighting community members from diverse backgrounds, whether in terms of gender, sexuality, race or country of origin. By spotlighting community members’ own words, the campaign feels more authentic than if it relied fully on brand copy. The brand’s longstanding donations to local, national and international LGBTQ+ organisations reinforce this authenticity.
Aesop
The luxury cosmetics brand is bringing back its popular Aesop Queer Library, offering complimentary books by LGBTQ+ authors and allies in select stores. With launches in the UK, US, Canada, Germany and Australia between June and August, this year’s ‘In other words’ theme celebrates the “liberating possibilities of LGBTQIA+ self-expression.”
These events allow Aesop to engage with customers in a way that goes beyond traditional cosmetics marketing, building goodwill for the brand without overtly promoting their products. In London, Aesop purchases many of the books from Gay’s the Word, the UK’s oldest LGBTQ+ bookshop. This serves as a financial act of support for the community and a promotional offering to attract customers.
The London edition of the Aesop Queer Library will run from 3-6 July at Aesop Soho.
Levi’s
This year’s Pride collection goes beyond rainbow-printed T-shirts – although they have those, too – and takes inspiration from LGBTQ+ rodeo culture. The brand also pays homage to its San Francisco roots by collaborating with a local LGBTQ+ artist to design a limited-edition collection of patches.
Given their annual contribution to Outright International and decades of visible support for the LGBTQ+ community, the Levi’s campaign feels like more than just a cash grab.
In summary
Although many are wary of ‘rainbow capitalism’, celebrating Pride this year is about more than boosting sales. Being an ally means supporting the LGBTQ+ community when they are under attack, not just when they are popular. Taking a stand in difficult times demonstrates that your brand’s values and identity are not influenced by hostile external pressures. Beyond the rainbow products, celebrating Pride is about supporting love, equality and diversity.