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How can brands avoid rainbow washing?

Are corporate Pride Month campaigns cashing in or making meaningful change?

Every year, the month of June now comes associated with the colours of the rainbow. It’s celebrated as Pride Month to commemorate the struggle for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community.

In recent years, companies big and small have used the occasion to release creative campaigns focused on LGBTQ+ people. While the recognition is a welcome step forward, many from the LGBTQ+ community wonder if there is any real acceptance.

So, do these companies simply cash in on moment marketing? Are they guilty of rainbow washing, or are they really making meaningful change? Should brands avoid the rainbow onslaught and come up with strategies throughout the year? And what about looking inwards to see if their policies are inclusive or discriminatory?

In this edition of WorklifeIndia, we discuss how brands can avoid rainbow washing.

Presenter: Devina Gupta
Contributors: Harish Iyer, equal rights activist; Sunny Sharma, beauty and makeup YouTuber, Mua Sunny; Neeraj Bassi, strategic advisor, Branding and Marketing

Available now

26 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Jun 2022 04:32GMT

Image credit

Two transgender women attend an inauguration ceremony of a free dance school for transgender people in Chennai on May 31, 2022 (Credit: Arun Sankar/AFP via Getty Images)

Broadcasts

  • Fri 24 Jun 2022 14:32GMT
  • Sun 26 Jun 2022 04:32GMT

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