Posted on: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Companies join gay pride events
By Lisa Leff
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — If it takes a queer eye to notice that the cast members of Bravo cable network's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" ride in Volkswagens during New York's gay pride parade, that's just what the car maker intends.
John M. Harris • Associated Press Despite boycott threats from anti-gay groups and a perceived gay marriage backlash from the American public, corporate sponsorship of gay pride festivities held around the country in June remains strong this year, according to event organizers and advertising agencies that specialize in reaching gay and lesbian consumers.
From Anheuser-Busch to Bank of America and Avis Rent-a-Car to Aetna Insurance, mainstream businesses that might have once thought twice about flying their logos alongside the rainbow flag are actively courting a market they consider beneficial, if not essential, to their bottom lines.
"This is a very good, loyal customer base," said Benet Wilson, a spokeswoman for Delta Airlines, which is sponsoring gay pride festivals in New York, Boston, Cincinnati, San Francisco and its Atlanta headquarters. "It's a great demographic, and we think it's foolish not to cater to that."
Delta, Wells Fargo, Anheuser-Busch, Absolut Vodka, Ford Motor Co., Washington Mutual Bank, PepsiCo Inc. and the Showtime and Bravo cable networks show up in multiple cities during pride season.
Besides contributing cash or products, some corporations get involved by setting up booths where they hand out brochures and prizes or hire rovers to distribute samples along parade routes.
Other companies limit their support to local events, responding to requests from gay and lesbian employees. Minneapolis-based Best Buy, for example, is a sponsor of Twin Cities Pride, while Coca-Cola has participated in pride events in Atlanta, where it's based.
Gay and Lesbian Pride Month marks the June 27, 1969, anniversary of a raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich village. The event became known as the Stonewall Riots after the bar's patrons resisted police.
Although most companies that participate in pride events are reluctant to discuss it, they have to evaluate the risks as well as the rewards of so visibly entering the lesbian and gay market. That was a lesson Ford learned earlier this month when the American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., called for a Ford boycott because of the car maker's decision to donate to gay rights organizations for every Jaguar and Land Rover it sold.
The American Family Association suspended the Ford boycott until December after the group heard from some local Ford dealers. The association also has an active boycott against Kraft Foods because of the company's decision to sponsor the Gay Games being held in Chicago next year.
"It doesn't surprise us that more companies are doing this because we are becoming a more socially liberal country in many respects," said Tim Wildmon, the group's president. "Where 10 years or five years ago they would have seen something inherently wrong with putting their product at a gay pride event, today they are not even considering the moral question."
The purchasing power of the U.S. gay and lesbian population will hit an estimated $610 billion in 2005, according to a 2004 study by Witeck-Combs Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based marketing firm specializing in the gay marketplace.
Similarly, Wells Fargo hopes the crowds attending San Francisco's gay pride parade get a good look at its employees singing show tunes atop the stagecoach-themed float the bank entered in its hometown event tomorrow.
Jessie Gray, of Wells Fargo, checked the float that will represent the bank tomorrow in San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. Corporate participation in gay pride events has increased over the past five years.
