Why pride is more than changing a logo.
When Pride Month came around this year, our first reaction was to change our logo like a lot of other companies do. Our designers were happy to do it but questioned the idea by asking if this was really the best we could do to support the LGBT+ community.
It’s a good point. Changing a company logo to include rainbow colours has become a marketing tactic, reminiscent of companies putting up Christmas decorations in December, and taking them down at the end of the festive season. Metaphorically, Pride Month is Christmas in June.
There may be good intentions, but if there are no actions to back it up, how much weight does it really carry? And this is where we were – flag-waving to indicate support but hadn’t really looked at how we were supporting through our actions.
It’s prompted internal discussion and introspection about what we can do and what we can change. We have a number of diversity advocates within our ranks, including Hakeem S. Allen, founder of The Anti-Racist Social Club, and they’re helping us work out what good allyship looks like, and what we can do as a company to put meaning behind the statements, for example, reviewing our hiring process, making sure our business is a safe space for LGBT+ people, or looking at the language we use.
Our aim is that when Pride month comes around next year we can change our logo with confidence knowing we’ve taken real, permanent steps to wave that flag with meaning.