Boston Beer, Pfizer, Mondelēz among the brands showing support for LGBTQ+ community

Amid the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric hindering brands’ Pride Month marketing efforts and leading some to pull back out of fear of consumer backlash, more than 50 companies have signed a statement of support for the LGBTQ+ community developed by GLAAD. In signing and agreeing to GLAAD’s statement, these companies “reject the harassment and bullying of the LGBTQ communit[y]” and pledge to “join together to reaffirm [their] unwavering commitment to the LGBTQ community.” The signatories include pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Company and Pfizer; technology manufacturers HP, Intel Corporation and Logitech; as well as brands across consumer packaged goods, music and fashion, including Mondelēz International, Sony Music and Levi Strauss & Co. Two beer entities also signed the statement: the Boston Beer Company, the parent company of Sam Adams; and the Lagunitas Brewing Company, a subsidiary of Heineken. Their signatures come in the wake of Bud Light’s controversial mishandling of its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to a boycott of the brand among conservative consumers and then backlash from progressives who disagreed with the brand backing down from the promotion. GLAAD created this statement of support for the LGBTQ+ community in response to “an increase in threats of violence against several companies across the country that have participated in Pride over many years,” the organization said in a press release. Target, for example, said its employees were the subjects of threats by anti-LGBTQ+ activists over its Pride Month merchandise this year, despite the retailer having sold products tied to the annual celebration for the past decade with little incident. “For decades, hundreds of major brands have and continue to support the LGBTQ community,” said GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement. “The vast majority of Americans support LGBTQ equality and support brands that choose to include and engage with LGBTQ Americans and our allies.” The full list of companies that signed the statement are: Boston Beer Company, Cisco, Dow, Eli Lilly and Company, Enact Holdings, Inc., Eventbrite, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., Intel Corporation, JELD-WEN Holding, Inc., The Lagunitas Brewing Company, Levi Strauss & Co., Logitech, Match Group, McKesson Corporation, Mondelēz International, Inc., Omnicell, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Quantic Dream, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Sony Music, STARZ #TakeTheLead, Synchrony Financial, 6 Degrees Diversity Counsel Private Limited, Allegis Group, Inc., ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), Association of National Advertisers, Arbour Counseling Services, Be Kind to All, California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls (CCSWG), DMI Consulting, Edelman, Equinox Group, Equity At Work, EssenceMediacom, Exile Content Studios, FOLX Health, Greenhouse Software, Global Gateway Advisors, Hopelab, JAG Models, Lara Leadership Collective, Moody's Corporation, North Idaho Pride Alliance, OUT Agency, Santiago Solutions Group, Seaview, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, SoundCloud, Taimi, Teneo, The Krim Group, Themy, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here Alongside this statement, GLAAD released data from a new poll conducted with market research company Ipsos, which revealed U.S. consumers are nearly twice as likely to support a company that has faced backlash from anti-LGBTQ+ activists for supporting LGBTQ+ people. And, though some companies have shied away from Pride Month marketing and the traditional rainbow-emblazoned merchandise this year, 59% of the consumers surveyed said they believe a brand simply offering Pride Month merchandise demonstrates that brand’s “support and acceptance of the LGBTQ community.” GLAAD also recently teamed up with Kantar on a larger study assessing how LGBTQ+ people have been represented across the ad landscape. Based on a study of 400 different ads released in 2022, GLAAD and Kantar determined just 14 of those ads contained LGBTQ+ representation—and the quality of that representation was deemed “insufficient” in all of those ads. Cannes Lions coverage Follow our live blog here Sign up here for email updates See all of the Grand Prix winners here

Boston Beer, Pfizer, Mondelēz among the brands showing support for LGBTQ+ community

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