It was nearly impossible to log onto Twitter this June without seeing comedian Meg Stalter’s “hi gay!” video criticizing corporate Pride campaigns.

“Hi, Gay! Happy Proud month!” she says, imitating a businessperson reading a stilted script. “We are sashaying away with deals.” At the time of writing, the video has more than 1 million views, 50k likes, 12k retweets and has been transformed into countless memes.

Between similar criticisms of Pride marketing and the rise of parades and festivals that banish corporate involvement, the demand for authentic and community-centric Pride marketing has become paramount, and evident in the trends around the celebration we saw this month.

As Pride 2021 comes to a close, we look back at some of the best brand moves we observed. 

Goodbye, pandemic. Welcome back, nightlife

Reentering public spaces and retraining for IRL interaction is the theme of this summer, manifested in many Pride campaigns. Charitable donations have become a given when a brand participates in rainbow marketing, but as nightlife and small businesses re-emerge from a year of dark dance floors and quiet bars, many companies chose to seize the opportunity to give money straight to the queer community—after all, the modern Pride movement was born from an uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan.

PepsiCo’s sparkling water brand, Bubly, launched “Out at Night” in collaboration with Pride Media as a multi-faceted contribution to LGBTQ+ culture. The campaign featured an ad created by and starring queer, New York City nightlife icons, such as “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Aquaria. It also benefited historic NYC lesbian bar Henrietta Hudson and included a contest to win Pride experiences.

Bidet-maker Tushy also hosted a contest with a prize geared toward nightlife. The brand will crown America’s Most Bottom-Friendly Bar to promote a key Tushy bidet product benefit: it helps make gay sexual partners hygienic for one another. (As of this reporting, a bar has yet to be crowned.) Patrons who want their favorite nightlife spot furnished with Tushy bidets nominated bars by submitting videos on social media to hilarious result.

“I've been a small business owner my whole life,” Miki Agrawal, Tushy’s founder, told Ad Age. “And so I have such a raging passion for supporting small businesses and how it's literally the backbone of America. And to support LGBTQ businesses is even more important and empowering because it really does celebrate true equality.”

Some brands are looking to ensure that when nightlife returns full force, it will be a more inclusive and welcoming industry than before. Miller Lite teamed up with Equality Federation, a social justice group that supports state-based advocacy organizations across the nation, for "Miller Lite Open & Proud."

The campaign pledges to provide non-discrimination training to help more than 55,000 bars become safer for LGBTQ+ patrons. The team will host town halls across the country and develop training materials to distribute by the end of 2022. Miller Lite will also donate $250k to Equality Federation.

Read about other campaigns from The Art of Shaving, Jägermeister and Skyy Vodka benefiting queer nightlife.

Real people, real stories

Many companies chose to let their usual branding and language take the backseat this June, instead letting real LGBTQ+ people tell their real stories through their marketing. Some of our favorite campaigns this Pride centered queer voices to both inspire and enlighten.

In tune with the explosive popularity of shows such as FX’s “Pose” and HBO Max’s “Legendary,” Reebok teamed with iconic ballroom troupe the House of Ninja to not only give viewers a primer on the world of voguing, but also to highlight the queer legacy of the house, its founder Willi Ninja and its modern family of performers.

Rocking the unisex Reebok All Types of Love gear, the members of House of Ninja dance, strut and share why ballroom created a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community in the mini-documentary “Fierceness Isn’t Born. It’s Made,” created with Hype Empire. In addition to the film, Reebok donated $75k to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a practice dedicated to ensuring the safe and discrimination-free expression of gender identity.

Ikea Canada featured the queer community in a much more tangible way: it commissioned designers to create sofa covers inspired by the numerous LGBTQ+ flags to display in Canadian stores. “Love Seats,” created with Rethink, leads shoppers to a virtual hub that highlights stories from queer individuals that identify with each sofa’s flags.

Some campaigns featured profiles to highlight queer members of niche industries, such as Corteva Agriscience’s mini docu-series “The Heart of the Farm,” via Ogilvy. The first video in the set, “Growing with Pride,” features Leon Etchepare, a fourth-generation farmer, telling the story of coming out to his father, meeting his husband Andrew, starting a family and continuing the generational farming legacy.

The film is helmed by queer director Emily Clark, Ogilvy’s associate creative director, who captures the vast beauty of Etchepare’s farm. Aerial images of swaying wheat and sweeping shots of lush, green crops express the artistry of farming. “Let’s make farming more inclusive,” the video concludes.

“As marketers, we have tremendous power to affect whose stories are told,” said Clark in a statement. “As a queer director, this is a very meaningful project for me to bring people who haven’t had the opportunity to share their story to the forefront. Andrew and Leon represent an industry moving in the right direction—towards a more inclusive and supportive space.”

See more real stories from the LGBTQ+ community in campaigns from Unilever and Reddit.

Social media influencers as educators

Last summer, when movements such as Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police inspired protests around the globe in the wake of police brutality and racial injustice, many brands turned to influencers from the Black community. While Pride is a celebration, it also provides an opportunity to educate allies on the discrimination that LGBTQ+ people continue to experience, so brands once again relied on the voices of the community to enlighten consumers.  

Skittles, whose Pride efforts in recent years included a major change to its packaging, in 2021 commissioned murals from LGBTQ+ artists in major cities that featured “QueeR Codes,” or queer QR codes, that lead to a virtual hub, similar to Ikea’s, of stories from influencers like LGBTQ+ educator and historian Blair Imani.

Cellular provider Visible also harnessed the power of social media influencers to create a community-run campaign called “#ProudlyVisible.” The campaign, in partnership with Madwell and Anchor Media, recruited celebrities including Kim Petras and Christian Siriano to share stories of family—and call on their fans to do the same, bolstering community among followers.

“For Pride, as a continuation of our work, it was important to us to celebrate an aspect of LGBTQIA+ identity that would resonate across all members, rooted in community and civic action to reflect Visible and Anchor Media brand values,” Victoria Calvert, CEO and founder of Anchor Media, told Ad Age. “While 'Chosen Families' is a concept that is readily recognizable, each story and method of storytelling is different—and that’s what makes this campaign unique.”

Check out more influencer-centric campaigns from Sodastream and Jack Daniels.

Traditional campaigns aren’t dead

Although social media-heavy contests and campaigns with flashy hashtags and website components were certainly trendy this Pride, classic video ads can still make for inspiring and inclusive marketing as well. 

Mercado Libre, a Latin American e-commerce platform, pulled out all the stops in "New Iconic Kisses" from Gut Sao Paulo. The gorgeous film reimagines iconic kisses, like those from “Titanic” or a royal wedding, but this time between queer people. Strikingly shot by director Vellas, the film declares the importance of (and historically scarce) representation for LGBTQ+ intimacy in media. The campaign also featured stills available for download online, matched by a $1 donation to Casal, an LGBTQ+ non-profit, for every download.

The NFL took a far more minimalist approach in a new spot that debuted on the heels of Las Vegas Raiders player Carl Nassib coming out as gay, the first active NFL player to do so. “Football is gay” the ad proclaims in a bold text. Words like “queer,” “transgender,” “tough” and “American” follow it to express the league’s inclusivity. The ad, created with 72andSunny, continues the NFL's partnership with The Trevor Project, a non-profit dedicated to suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth.

Watch more powerful ads from Facebook and Indeed.

And there will always be merch

A vibrant and multi-colored Pride apparel or product line has become a staple for retailers. While some become the subject of internet malice (sorry to salt the wound, Target), party-throwers and parade-goers still clamor for rainbow merch each year.

Some of this year’s winners include the return of Ugg’s blindingly festive, fluffy slides benefiting GLAAD; Bombas’ flag-inspired line of socks, shirts and underwear (each purchase matched by a sock donation to BIPOC individuals in need); Converse’s line of vivid sneakers inspired by stories of “the duality of struggle and joy along the journey to self-love” that benefit Converse’s charitable partners, including the It Gets Better Project, Ali Forney Center, BAGLY and OUT MetroWest; and Lego’s inclusive rainbow set.

Matthew Ashton, Lego Design VP, felt Lego needed more representation as well when he created a set with 11 gender-neutral figures making up the colors of the Pride flag for his own desk. But the company transformed his personal project into a real product, which debuted this year under the name “Everyone is Awesome.”

On Lego’s site, Ashton shares his experience growing up LGBTQ+ and his hopes that this product can support community and inclusivity in Lego’s fanbase. "If I had been given this set by somebody after having come out, it would have been such a relief to have known that somebody had my back," he says.

Lego asked their community of adult fans to submit their own builds to show off what Pride means to them. A gallery of submissions is available on Lego’s “Everyone is Awesome” hub page.