244: Lessons Learned: Promoting Pride Events and Merchandise – Insights from Target, Bud Light, Adidas, and the L.A. Dodgers

Transcript

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You do not have to look far on social media to know that LGBTQ plus campaigns are now deeply, deeply political.

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They are a cultural hot potato.

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It seems that brands and companies don't want to touch it for fear of getting burned, while others can withstand the heat.

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And the FTC is investigating baby formula makers to see whether the manufacturers colluded on bids for state contracts.

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Abc News Business reporter Alexis Christophers has more on that and your other business headlines, alexis, what are you watching today?

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That baby formula story.

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That's what we're watching.

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The Federal Trade Commission investigating whether Abbott Labs, nestle and other baby formula makers colluded on bids for state contracts.

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The agency is looking at whether the companies work together to secure lucrative funding for state-run baby formula programs for low-income families.

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Baby formula will be stocked in that state stores and recommended by doctors and hospitals in the state.

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Abbott, which sells simulac formula.

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Welcome to the Indestructible PR podcast.

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We're using current events and tested media and PR strategies to help prevent or manage a crisis and build indestructible reputation.

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This month is Pride Month and it presents an opportunity for companies to express their support for the LGBTQ plus community through various promotional events and merchandise.

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While many brands have successfully embraced the idea of inclusive campaigns, some brands have fell short and some have definitely been burned.

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So in this episode, let's talk about some recent brands who have picked up the hot potato and had different results.

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So so much has changed in the advertising, promotional campaign around inclusive marketing and campaigns.

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Think back to 2020.

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Think back to where you were, what you were doing in your job, if you happen to work in any part of comms, ad, advertising, promotion, social media, digital media, marketing, leadership, any of it.

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We're now, you know, the beginning of June, so we are a week away, a week past now, three years after the death of George Floyd at the knee of a police officer in Minneapolis.

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Back then it was pretty, pretty cut and dry.

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You know what happened to George Floyd.

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It was just a matter of the culpability of the police And, even back then, knowing people, since it was my hometown I'm from St Paul.

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You know, knowing people who knew people involved like knowing people who knew police officers involved brought up some very interesting conversations, that's for sure.

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And you know, being from the Twin Cities, i was speaking to people on both sides of that fence, definitely.

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But if you think back then, if you worked in the communication or leadership, the question really came out of all of that is well, what are we going to do about this?

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Is this our time now to start being more values driven in our marketing efforts?

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You know reaching out, whether it's from an external point of view to their consumers, to their customers, members, whoever it is or internal, with staff.

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Do we want people to know our values?

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What are our values?

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Do we even have values right now?

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It also brought up the question of how much money do people donate to underrepresented groups.

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So, specifically then, it was a lot of.

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You know people of color.

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You know it was a lot of.

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You know black causes and black initiatives out there.

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Also under scrutiny, how many companies had open DEI efforts?

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Was there a diversity equity inclusion page on a website?

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Was the value statement?

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there Was someone employed in that position to actively recruit and seek minority candidates.

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I think what we found back then is a lot of companies out there were not doing a lot.

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So many, many, many made the commitment to change.

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But since then, what we're finding?

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a number of them are rolling back And just from an economy point of view, it's a difficult economy out there.

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We're coming from the pandemic too.

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People are starting, you know, companies are starting to cut off the more costly projects that are out there.

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But it does come with a cost, because if you don't have it and then something happens particularly if it's a race-related issue or PR crisis if you will people will take the time to check out.

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You know what type of initiatives you had and have you stood by, whatever your values are or whatever commitments you've made in terms of, you know, hiring.

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So let's look at three different brands right now and what they did for different brands.

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I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but we have, you know, bud Light.

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We're just starting with Bud Light.

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I've done a lot of content of that.

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I've done interviews on it.

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Bud Light is I've said this before, you know kind of set the watermark now for inclusive marketing and campaigns.

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I don't think it's an accurate one, but it definitely set a watermark.

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I think what it did is it turned this type of campaigning into more of a cultural decision as opposed to a human one, a human centric one.

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It's can we withstand the blowback?

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That was the takeaway.

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Do we want to be the next Bud Light?

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And I believe the spillover effect now is that many companies are saying it's not worth it.

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It is simply not worth it to do that.

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Bud Light decided to do a campaign, you know, with a number of influencers during March Madness.

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One of those influencers, dylan Mulvaney, a trans performer who's all over TikTok, you know, all over social media, incredibly popular, working with a lot of companies out there and a lot of brands.

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The blowback was swift When, out there, we saw, you know, kid Rock.

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You know shooting at the can.

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We saw some other people with their blowback.

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You've heard me talk about it before, i won't spend a lot of time on it.

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I contended at that time that they were doing it to make a splash.

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That's why the VP of marketing pretty much said that.

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And when you look at the algorithm and you look at how many people were talking about it and you look at the sentiments, i mean that's really what it comes down to, too, the sentiment which could have been neutral and, if not, positive at first.

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Also, the negativity just was overwhelmed.

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It got swallowed by negativity.

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Who felt the brunt of it?

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They felt it locally.

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They felt it at the local distributor level, the local C store level, anyone who had to sell, but like that's where they felt it.

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The stock prices didn't as much.

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So there was there was always this question of you know, how damaging was it?

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Now no one will be able to tell me that it was not successful in terms of earned media, definitely.

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I also, and did change my views a little on it as it changed.

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It's not that I flip flopped on my idea, but I was looking at things from a different way, because now marketing campaigns are so different.

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That's how we measure all of these Social media sentiment is such a large part of that.

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But also, who's in the funnel?

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the consumer wise.

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Now just an anecdote and I think I may have spoken about this on a previous podcast that I was doing an interview with NBC I don't remember which one probably was, i don't remember which.

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I think it was NBC News.

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Now They were doing another you know, bud Light story, And I quickly had to go on there and I had asked someone I just want your opinion on it someone who works in news, and I thought they were going to, you know, somewhat mirror, not directly mirror, but just give me a perspective.

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I needed a am I crazy moment, touch, touch person to do that And this person said back to me just little you know with my mind, and came back and said well, you know, i know, you think that you know, a lot of younger people are more tolerant of inclusive inclusivity or expect it more, but there are a lot of young conservative people too.

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I was not thinking that.

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Okay, so it was great advice.

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I probably shouldn't have called them be right before I was doing that interview, because it messed with my head And in my head my message.

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I'm like, Oh, what am I going to talk about now?

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But he was not wrong.

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He was not wrong.

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Yes, a lot of Bud Light.

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They lost a lot of conservative, traditional, that psychographic of, i would assume if I'm spitballing here 35 plus male conservative.

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They like country music, they like their Bud Light, they like America, military, you know, patriotism, rah, rah, america.

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That's the psychographic demographic of Bud Light, but also the fact that it's, it's also being filled by that as well And if you turn, turn them off, you know really may do some serious long term damage.

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So we don't know.

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So the mistake that Bud Light certainly made our key lesson from this.

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The takeaway is if you are going to do a campaign and you're doing it just to make noise, nowadays, that noise is likely going to swallow you.

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If you're not prepared for it, you'll be swallowed by it.

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Bud Light Anheuser-Busch.

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They were not prepared for it.

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Days for the Bud Light CEO to come out with a statement And that statement was pablam said nothing.

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They were trying to speak to their base while pandering to the more liberal I'm not going to call it woke to the more liberal race And it did not work And it went up to the Anheuser-Busch level.

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There's still some now discrepancies in opinion on was it?

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how damaging was it to the brand?

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So, yes, earned media off the charts.

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We do know that the stock prices actually went up, probably a lot because so many people were talking about it, but the sales definitely did drop off, particularly at a local level.

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Okay, now moving on to target.

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A lot of people had asked me on social media to talk about target.

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Now I didn't post anything on target yet.

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I still might do it, although I may not, because this is my target post right now.

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Well, one reason is it was more all day weekend and I have plans.

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I didn't want to be on TikTok more all day weekend, but also I kind of leveraged my time off by testing my algorithm to see what was I being served about target.

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I certainly knew about target, i heard about it, but I didn't know exactly what happened.

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I knew they pulled merchandise, but did they pull merchandise because they were backtracking on supporting LGBTQ causes or were they doing it purely for safety?

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I wasn't quite sure, because the Google algorithm was only showing me the dire.

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You know the headlines, the clickbait that said woke, woke, woke, woke, woke, woke, woke, target.

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But then when I started researching it and looking at it, i thought, oh, here we go.

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So here's a lesson now.

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Target is removing some of its gay pride merchandise off the shelves.

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The reason, they say, is because some of their employees were threatened.

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Earlier this month, the retail giant debuted merchandise tailored for transgender people, as well as children's clothing that celebrated pride That led some customers to boycott the company.

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Joining us now is NBC News reporter Gary Grumbach.

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Gary This includes target customers reportedly knocked down pride displays and posted threatening videos on social media all over a few items of clothing, putting a bullseye on the retailer's back.

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Honestly target what is going on.

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This is pretty disgusting.

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Target taking heat on social media and in its stores over some of its LGBTQ plus merchandise.

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This right here.

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These are baby clothes.

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Why are there pride baby onesies.

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Days before Pride Month begins, the retailer is taking down some of its pride merchandise after saying their employees are facing threats.

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In a statement a target spokesperson telling NBC News quote given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.

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Target didn't specify what clothing they're removing from their stores, but swim suits labeled tuck friendly have sparked anger from some on the right.

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Those are bathing suits that allow trans women who have not had gender affirming operations to conceal their private parts.

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But experts say the sale of these bathing suits is being taken out of context.

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They're painting these bathing suits as being targeted specifically to children, which kind of furthers this false narrative that trans people are preying on children in some way or, trying to quote unquote indoctrinate them.

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And target is not the first company to face retaliation.

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After embracing the transgender community, anheuser-busch is seeing a sixth great week of declining sales, according to Nielsen IQ data.

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After partnering with trans activists, i got some.

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Bud lights for us.

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So I think the question is really, you know, are these companies willing to, you know, cater to LGBTQ people or have LGBTQ specific marketing campaigns and kind of stick or ride out what the consequences of that could be because of this larger national conversation and the quote unquote culture war that we're seeing related to it?

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Some target shoppers befuddled by the backlash.

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It's 2023 and I feel like people should just learn how to accept how other people are It just?

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it astounds me that the world is made up of people who are so afraid Others understanding targets move to keep their employees safe.

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I think they should do what's best for the employees, since they're there and they're the ones actually getting harassed, and the LGBTQ community should be open to that and respect it.

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The aisles of your local department store.

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Now on the front lines of the fight over LGBT rights.

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Now Joe Yorkaba in the piece there called it a culture war.

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That's really what this is, because in clay I just looked through the target website None of the bathing suits that seem to offer that tuck friendly option are even available in children's sizes, isn't clay?

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Really important reporting.

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Gary Grumbach, thank you.

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But in southern markets they had pride merchandise that created a very volatile environment in some stores So they had to pull the merchandise for the protection of staff.

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Now I'm going to read a statement by the target CEO, brian Cronnell, and I'm going to read it in its entirety because I one.

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I think it's an excellent statement, or one it's just so well written.

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Whoever wrote this statement did an excellent job, but also it's a really good values-based statement for handling a crisis.

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So I will mention that they referred to briefly, which is their internal newsletter.

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Okay Team.

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I want to end the day where briefly started on a note of care.

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This has been a very hard day for target and it follows many difficult days of deliberation and decision making.

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To our team in stores thank you for steadfastly representing our values.

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No one is better at working through uncomfortable situations in service to an inclusive guest experience.

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What you've seen in recent days went well beyond discomfort and has been gut-wrenching to see what you've confronted in our aisles.

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To our team in the service centers, thank you for your patience and professionalism.

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Through the high volumes of angry, abusive and threatening calls, i recognize how difficult and even frightening those interactions can be, and thank you for the composure with which you fielded those comments To the teams who have been working so hard on our plans for Pride, and now you're showing incredible agility as we adjust, thank you.

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Your efforts will ensure we can still show up and celebrate Pride in meaningful ways To the LGBTQIA plus community.

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One of the hardest parts in all of this was trying to contemplate how the adjustments we're making to alleviate these threats to our teams physical and psychological safety would impact you and your well-being and psychological safety.

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We stand with you now and will continue to do so, not just during Pride Month, but each and every day.

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Those were the two guiding principles when it came time for us to act Do all we can to keep our team safe and do all we can to honor our commitment and connection to the LGBTQIA plus community.

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From a host of difficult alternatives, we have sincerely sought the best path forward, finding ways to recognize Pride Month while making adjustments to prioritize safety.

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As always, we're stronger together and I want you to know that I'm committing to doing all I can and all we can as a company to support a culture across the country of care, empathy, equity and simple civility, in hopes that we'll not have to face these kinds of agonizing decisions in the future.

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Thank you for the care you've shown each other, our frontline teams and the LGBTQIA plus community BC.

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Well, now that is a statement.

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That's an excellent statement.

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You need a playbook for how to write a statement, a values based statement.

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You got it.

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It is now the latest company to be facing intense backlash over its support for the LGBTQ community.

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Target has been celebrating Pride Month for years, but yesterday announced that it is making some last minute changes to its 2023 collection, namely, removing some merchandise from its shelves, citing an anti-LGBTQ campaign that is threatening their workers' safety.

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It's not clear exactly which products have been pulled, but there are some right-wing critics who are slamming Target for several items that they had, including a swimsuit that was described as tuck-friendly, meaning it's able to conceal mail genitalia Minutes.

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of information was spreading across social media that it was marketed to children, but it was not.

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We should be clear.

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Products that were made by a UK designer who often uses satanic symbols in his designs were also criticized, like this sweatshirt that read cure transphobia, not trans people.

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Let's bring in our senior business reporter, nathaniel Meyerson, who is here.

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Nathaniel, we've seen all the backlash that is happening here.

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Do we know exactly how?

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Okay, well, i guess this is how much Target is pulling.

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What's in these products that they're taking off the shelves?

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Right, caitlin.

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So every year Target celebrates Pride Month.

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It has usually a collection of t-shirts, mugs, hats, that sort of thing.

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This year there are about 2,350 products in the collection.

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But Target has been the subject of an anti-LGBT campaign, particularly on social media, driven by far-right activists, commentators and right-wing media, and it's created a hostile work environment for employees.

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There are videos on social media of people stomping some of the LGBT signs, pulling some of the merchandise, and so Target says that they're going to remove a few items because of out of fear of employee safety and their sense of well-being.

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That's a statement.

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So what they did there.

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So what are some of the key points and what they did?

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So Target showed authenticity.

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For one, The CEO, bc was showing here's our values and also guiding principles about Pride and supporting the community, but also the safety of their staff.

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It was very much an internal crisis as well, but an internal response.

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I get that response and I work for a company like that.

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I'm liking that leadership.

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Also, it appears from that language.

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The dialogue was open.

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They were listening.

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I like statements now and I'll talk about this too in one of the next brands we're talking about where they talk about listening to people, watching what's happening, the social listening what's out there, sitting down with the groups who were offended, sitting down with the groups who were psychologically harmed.

00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:25.068
You know, in this case it's that authenticity and open dialogue.

00:19:25.068 --> 00:19:35.912
So the lesson learned when you are faced with blowback and Target knew they would be faced with blowback what they did is they prioritized this authenticity and this engagement.

00:19:35.912 --> 00:19:45.720
They prioritize their commitment and values to LGBTQ plus and they prioritize the commitment to their team And not just the team, frontline team.

00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:50.844
You know, working in the stores it sounds like they're communicators, they're social media teams, though they didn't say that.

00:19:50.844 --> 00:19:54.505
That would have been nice to actually say those words, because, man, that's not an easy job.

00:19:54.505 --> 00:20:00.224
Okay, so, like, when you share your values and you communicate them in that way, that is a win.

00:20:00.224 --> 00:20:04.472
In my opinion, that is 100% a win.

00:20:05.034 --> 00:20:07.539
Now, another example is Adidas.

00:20:07.539 --> 00:20:10.326
I know Adidas, but I go by Adidas.

00:20:10.326 --> 00:20:16.000
We are a, you know, european soccer household, an FC soccer household.

00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:32.089
That's always on in my house on Saturday mornings, but soon in the fall, it won't be wow, but we go by Adidas, but that's the original pronunciation of it from the original founders, the German founders, but also Adidas.

00:20:32.089 --> 00:20:33.054
So what did Adidas do?

00:20:33.054 --> 00:20:36.228
Okay, in the weeks after Bud Light, they came out with a campaign.

00:20:36.228 --> 00:20:38.980
You know what appears to be a very well planned campaign.

00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:41.944
They collaborated with designers.

00:20:41.944 --> 00:20:56.815
They had a advertising campaign of a person who presented as male, also in the torso, wearing a swimsuit designed for people who identify as female.

00:20:56.815 --> 00:21:08.421
It was a very bold move and it was an image, photograph, response to Adidas feeling towards inclusivity.

00:21:09.242 --> 00:21:12.670
They weren't just going to say it, they were going to show it.

00:21:12.670 --> 00:21:14.693
And show it they did.

00:21:14.693 --> 00:21:18.615
They were willing to say we're going to withstand the blowback.

00:21:18.615 --> 00:21:19.299
And what do you know?

00:21:19.299 --> 00:21:20.665
there wasn't a lot of blowback.

00:21:20.665 --> 00:21:22.253
Yes, you can Google it.

00:21:22.253 --> 00:21:23.599
You can definitely see articles about it.

00:21:23.619 --> 00:21:26.444
I believe when this happened it was late week.

00:21:26.444 --> 00:21:28.288
Maybe it was a Friday.

00:21:28.288 --> 00:21:32.963
It was a Friday because that's when I always get press hits.

00:21:32.963 --> 00:21:42.048
So I had two calls to do an interview, one network and one cable to do about this topic same topic of this podcast right now.

00:21:42.048 --> 00:21:44.432
So it was definitely a Friday.

00:21:44.432 --> 00:21:45.823
Hey, news Dump Day.

00:21:45.823 --> 00:21:47.628
Why am I always called on News Dump Day?

00:21:47.628 --> 00:21:52.423
But that, you know, the topic of it is so that's when it was rolled out.

00:21:52.423 --> 00:21:54.087
So I think it was rolled out on a Friday.

00:21:54.087 --> 00:22:00.381
They wanted, you know, they just wanted to run over the weekend, so there wouldn't be a lot of news stories about that.

00:22:00.381 --> 00:22:01.266
So that's strategic.

00:22:01.266 --> 00:22:02.773
But they were ready for it.

00:22:02.773 --> 00:22:03.858
They were absolutely ready for it.

00:22:03.900 --> 00:22:09.172
Now, the big difference between a Bud Light and an Adidas you know we have different markets.

00:22:09.172 --> 00:22:11.503
You know the psychographics alone.

00:22:11.503 --> 00:22:15.532
You know one is really more identified as athletic brand.

00:22:15.532 --> 00:22:17.304
You're going to get younger people.

00:22:17.304 --> 00:22:20.070
You're going to get more inclusive groups.

00:22:20.070 --> 00:22:23.971
You know, using that brand, it's international, there's a lot more support there.

00:22:23.971 --> 00:22:32.923
It's a lot easier, it's safer, it's less risky for Adidas to make that bold decision as opposed to a Bud Light, okay, which clearly comes out.

00:22:32.923 --> 00:22:35.309
But where I'm going to give them props, you know.

00:22:35.309 --> 00:22:39.671
So what they were doing is they wanted to collaborate.

00:22:39.671 --> 00:22:49.359
I think that's a big part of it, yes, the authenticity, but the collaboration with the designer, the collaboration with LGBTQ plus marketing and with influencers.

00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:57.828
You know they were doing a very successful rollout because they wanted to accurately discuss experiences of LGBTQ plus community there.

00:22:57.828 --> 00:23:00.818
Now that rolls us into the next brand.

00:23:00.818 --> 00:23:03.048
I talked about it at previous podcasts, the LA Dodgers.

00:23:03.048 --> 00:23:06.925
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but let's just talk about the insights of it.

00:23:07.326 --> 00:23:22.269
First, when they polled for pride, a pride celebration, they were going to give an award to an LGBTQ plus community or group who the sisters of perpetual indulgence or somewhat, you know, a campy group.

00:23:22.269 --> 00:23:24.836
They, you know, dress in nuns habits.

00:23:24.836 --> 00:23:32.665
But a very theatrical version of it doesn't look like, you know, Sister Mary Francis coming out of a Catholic school in 1974, if you know what I mean.

00:23:32.665 --> 00:23:38.946
It's closer to Sister Act, where nuns on the run with, you know, the great costume design element with it.

00:23:38.946 --> 00:23:42.657
But they are a group dedicated to service.

00:23:42.657 --> 00:23:44.825
You know that's the ironic part of it.

00:23:44.825 --> 00:23:55.890
It mirrors what Catholic value system is right, like doing the right thing, charity, helping people, kindness but that's the piece that the conservative Catholics, you know, missed and all that.

00:23:55.890 --> 00:23:58.336
But the Dodgers were going to give them an award.

00:23:58.336 --> 00:24:00.766
They pulled the award and they pulled the group.

00:24:00.766 --> 00:24:05.685
They did not disinvite all the other groups for that pride event, but they just disinvited them.

00:24:05.987 --> 00:24:08.756
Well, the ruckus it called it caused.

00:24:08.756 --> 00:24:29.583
Now, based on research and also feedback that I received off of the two posts that I did, where the blowback came from, allegedly, senator Rubio Florida wrote a very stern letter to Rob Manfred from MLB, commissioner, stating that we, you cannot be honoring a group that is mocking the Catholic church.

00:24:29.583 --> 00:24:32.049
Also, you know from Bill Donahue.

00:24:32.049 --> 00:24:46.438
You know his organization, which was created to counter anti-Catholicism you know, decades ago, has now turned into a very splinter, very conservative group that has extremely conservative views of Catholicism.

00:24:46.438 --> 00:24:51.694
A letter was written from him as well, and so they capitulated, they gave in.

00:24:51.694 --> 00:25:03.980
But then now you start looking at social media sentiment, at blowback, probably having conversations, very hard conversations, with people there that said this is a mistake, and a mistake it definitely was.

00:25:03.980 --> 00:25:10.880
They backtrack on it in my previous podcast and then they supported the group, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:19.021
So they should be commended for making the right decision in the end, but not for pulling them, which was the worst decision.

00:25:20.458 --> 00:25:30.123
So what can we learn from this is that the insights to successful LGBTQ or Pride marketing and campaigns you've got to commit to them.

00:25:30.123 --> 00:25:35.300
You have to decide where you're going to line up and then you're going to stick to it wherever it is that you line.

00:25:35.300 --> 00:25:44.125
So it's also that sustained support, and the education that comes with it too, is so important when it comes to combating this backlash.

00:25:44.125 --> 00:25:48.241
You look at Adidas like what they did and why they didn't have the extreme backlash.

00:25:48.241 --> 00:25:54.660
Yes, in their market anyway, they're going to inherently have that support, but they were steadfast in it.

00:25:54.660 --> 00:25:57.284
They were never going to pull back from it at all.

00:25:57.284 --> 00:26:12.682
The only thing worse than doing something that is anti-Pride, anti-inclusion, where you are showing prejudice, is flip-flopping on it The same you are and then you pull back.

00:26:12.682 --> 00:26:13.900
You never want to do that.

00:26:13.900 --> 00:26:15.599
You absolutely never want to do that.

00:26:16.075 --> 00:26:21.743
Now, in every episode of this podcast, i leave you with one Indestructible PR tip.

00:26:21.743 --> 00:26:33.729
This is an easy to remember takeaway to help you build an Indestructible reputation When it comes to Pride Month, l-g-b-t-q-i-a plus campaigns.

00:26:33.729 --> 00:26:41.119
It's understandable that in this market, depending on where you are listening to this, where you're going to stand.

00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:58.403
Yes, it's one thing to talk about big brands, but people listening to this podcast you're not running Apple or Amazon or the Dodgers, or if you could be, if anyone wants to send baseball tickets, i'd always be open to that, but most of you listening right now you work for small to medium-sized companies.

00:26:58.403 --> 00:27:02.320
You could work for corporations as well, but not these huge brands.

00:27:02.320 --> 00:27:05.739
What does it mean to you if you own a company or if you're running a company?

00:27:05.739 --> 00:27:09.064
You work in comms for a company What should you be doing?

00:27:09.275 --> 00:27:22.820
I understand that there's going to be trepidation now in jumping on board any type of Pride-related marketing or campaigning, but I think what you need to look at is this way is you either need to stand by or stand down?

00:27:22.820 --> 00:27:32.496
You have to stand by it, stand by your value system, stand by your commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, or you just stand down Now.

00:27:32.496 --> 00:27:35.464
Stand down is not advised.

00:27:35.464 --> 00:27:39.423
Anyone who comes to me and asks should we do some campaign for Pride?

00:27:39.423 --> 00:27:45.317
I'm always going to say yes, but now if someone tells me this is our market, we're in this conservative here, we're small.

00:27:45.317 --> 00:27:46.220
All of our consumers.

00:27:46.220 --> 00:27:47.063
Da, da, da, da da.

00:27:47.063 --> 00:27:51.561
We don't want to create problems, we just want to be quiet on it.

00:27:51.561 --> 00:27:53.280
Am I going to agree with it?

00:27:53.280 --> 00:27:56.359
No, i'll still want you to do it, but do I understand it?

00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:05.046
Yeah, especially now, if you're going to stand down in 2023, i mean, i hate saying this, but it's okay if you think you're going to get this extreme backlash.

00:28:05.046 --> 00:28:08.519
But here's the caveat It's important to know the difference.

00:28:09.335 --> 00:28:14.799
How many of you are going to be inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to one of your campaigns or one of your meetings?

00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:16.586
No, you're not.

00:28:16.586 --> 00:28:17.519
That's not your issue.

00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:20.823
So, instead of focusing on are we woke or not?

00:28:20.823 --> 00:28:23.361
let's leave that to the big brands.

00:28:23.361 --> 00:28:28.303
What you should be asking yourself is do we support inclusivity?

00:28:28.303 --> 00:28:31.083
Do we support all communities?

00:28:31.083 --> 00:28:33.383
Do we support unrepresented groups?

00:28:33.383 --> 00:28:37.982
And in this month, do we support one black, because Juneteenth is this month?

00:28:37.982 --> 00:28:41.305
Do we support our black community with Juneteenth?

00:28:41.305 --> 00:28:45.674
And also, do we support our LGBTQIA plus community?

00:28:45.674 --> 00:28:47.934
You can still do it without making waves.

00:28:47.934 --> 00:28:50.431
You could still do it and not worry as much about the blow.

00:28:50.431 --> 00:28:52.381
Okay, you could still do social media.

00:28:52.381 --> 00:28:58.843
You could still, if you're a CEO or a leader, like that letter that I read to you from the CEO of Target, brian Cornell.

00:28:58.843 --> 00:29:14.567
You could have your monthly notes, touch on it Because, believe it or not, even though you may think no one in your building may think that way or be that way, you still don't know that It could still reach someone and make a difference.

00:29:15.222 --> 00:29:16.214
I'm gonna leave with a quick anecdote.

00:29:16.214 --> 00:29:35.574
Three years ago, when I was doing a lot of these trainings around DEI and I was learning a lot myself and I was really starting to change my thinking on it not change it, but update it You don't learn more about it and say, yeah, now's the time to embrace it I was doing a webinar, i believe, with a group, an organization conservative rule.

00:29:35.574 --> 00:29:43.095
I don't think in this industry I've seen one type of DEI type of campaign.

00:29:43.095 --> 00:29:50.095
Maybe February, maybe we'll get Black History Month, at least with clients who I worked with definitely did.

00:29:50.095 --> 00:29:51.268
But you might get that.

00:29:51.268 --> 00:29:51.855
But you're not getting pride.

00:29:51.855 --> 00:29:53.402
I've yet to get pride.

00:29:54.583 --> 00:30:10.525
But on this call, i talked about it similar to this podcast, talking about the importance of it, and back then I was definitely more bold aboutwithstanding the feedback or the blowback, but I did say you never know who inside the building is going to be touched by what you're doing.

00:30:10.525 --> 00:30:16.642
If you're so focused on the external group, don't forget the internal and what that could be saying to them.

00:30:16.642 --> 00:30:19.247
And there was a young woman on that call.

00:30:19.247 --> 00:30:20.122
I think she had just started.

00:30:20.122 --> 00:30:24.134
It may have been her first day and if it wasn't her first day, it was definitely her first week on the job.

00:30:24.134 --> 00:30:37.086
And she spoke up when I had mentioned it because I think we were specifically talking about pride and we were talking about everyone trans people And she started mentioning her sibling, who was trans and where they lived, and this worker.

00:30:37.106 --> 00:30:46.214
She lived in a very rural community And as she was explaining the importance, she said if my workplace did this, i would be touched and I probably never want to leave that workplace.

00:30:46.214 --> 00:30:58.134
And then she started crying because she said I would want them to speak to my sibling Because she knew how ostracized her sibling felt and how amazing it would feel to work for a company that saw that sibling.

00:30:58.134 --> 00:31:00.535
It was just one person, but she changed my life.

00:31:00.535 --> 00:31:04.214
I've never not thought about that person before, so I share that anecdote with you.

00:31:04.214 --> 00:31:05.842
Think about that one person.

00:31:05.842 --> 00:31:27.740
It doesn't mean that you have to have someone who's LGBTQIA plus in your walls or in your virtual walls of your company, but they might be related to someone, they might be sharing a life with someone, they might care very much about someone, and if you're the company and if you're the leader who openly supports them, well then, how great is that.

00:31:27.740 --> 00:31:28.933
How great is that?

00:31:28.933 --> 00:31:30.994
That's all for this week on the podcast.

00:31:30.994 --> 00:31:33.304
Thanks so much for listening and watching.

00:31:33.304 --> 00:31:34.226
Bye for now.

244: Lessons Learned: Promoting Pride Events and Merchandise – Insights from Target, Bud Light, Adidas, and the L.A. Dodgers

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