Pride in Latin America: How do local brands approach it?
Last update: 18 June 2022
Though in some LatAm countries, the question still is: are they approaching it?
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LGBTQ+ Pride is an international movement starting in the late 60s in the US; initially, it came out as a demonstration against social and state repression to the Queer community. Over the years, the protest began to involve other forms of expression such as waving today's iconic flag, voguing in the streets, festivals, and commemorations, turning a day into a whole month.
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By 2022 businesses in Europe and North America already have participation -sometimes debated- that is strong and even expected. And although this note does not yet have an exhaustive report of how marketing sees Pride in Latin America, it does want to start the local conversation.
Let's first check the editorial position about the Queer community: sexual orientation and gender identity do not deserve opinions, whatever they are. Not to be confused with silencing, where many local brands fall. And the problem with silence in local brands it's that it causes harm on a massive scale because countries in America are made chiefly of local businesses.
Interestingly, some countries have already started the Queer conversation. What is it about? The topics are diverse: some companies support the community, others are proud, others have a tone of protest in favor of civil rights, others touch on issues that challenge religious and conservative speeches. They all have one scenario in common: making the Queer community visible:
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Argentina
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Chile
Mexico
Dominican Republic
Colombia
What is the fear of addressing the issue of LGBTQ+ Pride in Latin America?
At the time of publishing this note, I did an exhaustive search for three weeks of brands through social networks and there is a very timid resonance in front of the community. Most of the brands that participated waited until the last weekend of June to make their empathy visible, change their profile picture or make a publication; a minority did it risky for the entire month of June.
The interesting thing is to look at the rest of the businesses that did not. What is the fear? In the United States, United Kingdom and Germany the most popular brands participated for a whole month, and to this day they continue to operate and compete in the market.
In this question, marketing must definitely enter into conversation with social responsibility, and opportunities are those that will abound not only for brands but also for the Queer community.
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Written by Harold Mosquera.
* Local: Not necessarily national in scope, sometimes regional in scope.
* This web article published by haroldmosquera.co.uk is editorial and did not receive any kind of endorsement from any organization or company.