What Is Rainbow Washing And How To Avoid It To Improve Your Pride Copy

In my Write Better Pride Copy Series, I went over some tips to improve your pride copy and make it the best that it can be. Now that we are past June 30, I’ll continue to offer tips for engaging with your ideal clients from your local queer community. 

The first up is Rainbow Washing. 

Imagine that you walk into a store. Let’s make it a clothing store. The moment you step in, the staff are there to greet you, help you find what you need, and tell you that you look fantastic in the things that you picked out to buy. It’s one of the best interactions you’ve had in a while at a retail location, and you walk out of the store feeling confident and cared for and happy to have spent your hard-earned money at some place that treats people well.

Later, you are in the food court of the mall, you walk near a table where some of the staff are having lunch. They are talking and laughing, and as you pass them, you realize that they are laughing at you. What you thought was an authentic interaction was just them getting you to buy something. Now you want to return every item you bought.

Rainbow Washing feels like this. In this blog, I’ll cover what it is, why it’s bad (and bad for business), and how you can avoid it. Then I’ll talk about how to effectively use Pride copy and strategy as part of your overall marketing strategy 

Hiring a Pride copywriter is a great way to avoid making this mistake. Click here to set up a 15 minute call with me. I’ll ask about your business and your goals, and we’ll discuss how I can help you authentically connect with your potential queer customers.

What is Rainbow Washing?

Rainbow washing is when companies show up during Pride Month with rainbows all over their websites, social media, and emails. But the moment that Pride Month is over, all those rainbows disappear and they don’t acknowledge that we exist until the next June.

In the worst cases, companies will do all of this rainbow marketing and promotion during Pride Month while simultaneously they are actively taking actions that harm the community itself, like contributing to political candidates that want to get rid of our hard-earned rights.

Your company, I’m sure, is not that bad, but maybe you have put up rainbows during Pride Month and not done anything more with the community otherwise. You maybe didn’t even know that was a problem. Don’t worry. We all do things that we didn’t know were an issue. Then we learn how to do better. So let’s learn!

Why is Rainbow Washing Bad? And Bad for Business

Look, we understand that you want us to buy your products or services. We get it. You are running a business. And businesses need customers who spend money. And we understand that as a community, we are a target audience for becoming your customers. Selling to us is not the problem.

The problem is that, when you rainbow wash, it’s a one-way street. Businesses want our money, but they don’t seem to want to acknowledge that we are their customers, except during Pride Month. After that, they put us in the closet until it's acceptable to acknowledge us again. They don’t cultivate these customer relationships; they merely check the box for “Pride Month”.

It feels cheap to say that you support us during Pride Month and then have nothing else to say for the rest of the year.

It’s a problem for us. And it can become a problem for your business, because many of us will choose to shop elsewhere once it’s clear a company rainbow washes. 

How Can You Avoid Rainbow Washing?

Responsible marketing and copywriting for the queer community doesn’t have to mean reworking your whole strategy or spending tons of time getting actively involved as an ally. (Though that kind of action is certainly welcome if it makes sense for you and your business!) There are simpler ways to maintain a genuine connection to the queer community outside of the Pride Month to help you avoid rainbow washing your business.

Celebrate our other days. We celebrate other things aside from Pride Month. For instance, this week is Non-Binary Awareness Week, which culminates in Non-Binary People’s Day. You could incorporate many of these days into your marketing and copywriting calendar to make sure that you acknowledge the community outside of Pride Month. I’ll be posting a blogpost next week with tips on these other kinds of celebrations that you could incorporate into your marketing strategy. 

Mention the queer community in other areas where it makes sense to do so. If you have done the research into your local queer community, you may have an idea of other areas where they are involved that aren’t necessarily queer-centered. We saw in San Antonio that they have a number of sports leagues. If you were to write copy, for example, that discusses sports, you could make sure to incorporate those leagues into the article. 

Sponsor non-Pride events for the queer community, if that is part of your marketing strategy. This strategy has the added benefit of connecting you to particular subsets of the queer community that may be more interested in what your business offers. 

And, of course, get involved as an ally. There is lots of space for people to be involved and if you spend time helping out queer organizations, then that connects you to the community and shows that you care more than just about our wallets.

All of these tips come down to thinking about what you’re already doing for your non-Pride marketing strategy and not leaving the queer community out of what you are doing. Just make sure to keep the Pride copy tips handy while you do it.  

And if you want to save yourself time and effort by hiring an expert Pride copywriter, book a 15 minute call with me. We will discuss your goals, your business, and how I can help keep you from accidentally rainbow washing your business.

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