Article: Ian Johnson, Out Now

 August 4, 2014

Having worked in what is now known as 'LGBT marketing' since the early 1990s, we at Out Now have observed a great deal of positive change.

For example, in 1992 when we commenced operations, there were almost no well-known people who were out of the closet as gay. Since then, there have been immense numbers of people from various fields such as business, entertainment, academia and even sports who are now widely accepted as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. In 2012, when we set out to make a promotional video 'Everyday Heroes' - about the ONBC - Out Now Business Class LGBT tourism trade networking association - we were literally spoilt for choice and able to include almost 200 identities. We could have added even more had the three minute video been longer. You can see for yourself here.

Corporate comings-out 

This trend has been mirrored in the corporate sector. Out Now went from having just one client in Australia during its first year - due to the scarcity of brands wanting to associate themselves with 'the gay market' - to having now worked with many of the world's leading brands in markets across the world.

Quantity of course is not always akin to quality and in those intervening years we have worked on many campaigns of which we are strongly proud. But some companies (not our clients* of course!) have made some rather difficult missteps in their attempts to connect with the target audience of LGBT customers.

Inclusion is a good thing, right?

The latest campaign by a Burger King outlet in San Francisco has caused some debate within the LGBT community itself about whether the linking of the city's annual Pride celebration to a hamburger is progress. Or not.

Here is how the company intended the campaign to be seen and reacted to:

You see that is the campaign's hook - the fact that each Proud Whopper burger's rainbow colored wrapper - when opened - reveals the statement: "We are all the same inside." The burger itself was a standard Whopper costing the standard $4.25 to buy.

So despite being able to be accused of trivializing what for many is an important celebration of their identity - namely annual Pride celebrations - the company has also been criticized from another angle.

Start here: Get your house in order first.

The Human Rights Campaign in the United States ranks companies based on the quality of their LGBT inclusion policies. One of the important metrics for these rankings is how well the company treats their staff. Do they offer an Employee Resource Group (ERG) for LGBT staff and their allies?

As it turns out, Burger King as a corporation scores quite poorly on the HRC index with just 55 out of a maximum score of 100. One of the reasons is that they offer no protections for staff related to gender identity. Transgender staff do not enjoy the kinds of health care benefits offered by other companies, such as McDonald's Corporation.

This has led to much debate within the LGBT community as to whether the Proud Whopper is progress - or just exploitative commerce in action.

What do you think?

Personally, I think that this campaign is just that bit too obvious to be as good as it could have been creatively. More importantly, at Out Now we consistently advise and work with clients to pay close attention to their staff-related LGBT policies and practices before attempting to take the brand to market targeting LGBT customers.

Respect is always a two-way street - and has to be earned.

Making sure a company's own house is in order before waving a rainbow flag is sound advice which Burger King could do well to ponder before their next LGBT market outing.  

*Would you like some disclosures with that? Remember that first campaign we worked on during our first year back in Australia? It was actually a research project for a company called Competitive Foods who hold the Burger King franchise, known as 'Hungry Jacks' locally in Australia - and they do, indeed, sell Whoppers downunder.
   
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