The “pink pound” has generally been defined as the spending power of homosexual men and women (and now more generally LGBTQIA+ community members). It is suggested that gay men especially have a greater disposable income and more likely to adopt new products than the average consumer. Some companies use advertising and product placement to appeal to queer consumers in order to get our custom.

The pink pound can be very obvious in nature with firms putting rainbows on their products, especially around LGBTQIA+ Pride month. Many companies show their ‘support’ by making their social media logo and adverts rainbow-themed. I use inverted commas around the word support as some of these companies fund policy which is specifically anti-LGBTQIA+, these companies, such as Chic-Fil-A, a fast food chain in the United States, are happy to take our money whilst destroying our lives.

Thankfully, most other companies fly the Pride flag for less devious motives, however at the end of Pride the rainbows fade and LGBTQIA+ people, experiences and issues are forgotten once again no matter the motives of the companies that do or do not adopt the rainbow.

Is rainbow capitalism always deceitful?

Rainbow capitalism is not virtuous, however it does highlight that most people understand the power and importance of acceptance and inclusion. The hypocrisy of Pride-only merchandise and advertising is a sign of a society’s attitude to queer people, issues and experiences. If organisations take the effort to show (fake?) inclusiveness, tolerance and celebration, it suggests that large parts of society consider these as a virtue, even if these these virtues are not actively practiced.

Sometimes people don’t want to practice these attitudes, however many do not want to be perceived as lacking these virtues. Sometimes it is what a person or organisation looks like which is more important to them than their actual values. This can make it difficult to know what companies and products are actually queer friendly – if people are sticking a rainbow on things to make money, to not look the odd one out, or to signal virtue, then who can we trust? Who means it when they fly the rainbow colours?

As mentioned above, understanding who and what these companies support and approve of is a good place to start, which if you have spoons can be relatively easy to establish. And, of course giving money to local queer creators whenever you can helps mitigate many of these issues too. I especially love it when queer creators get more support, love and custom when Pride comes. Whether small, large, local or aboard, I would rather see rainbows and advertising represent queer people during Pride month, than the alternative of complete ignorance of queer experiences and needs. When it comes down to it, we are all living in a capitalist Hellscape, we might as well stick a rainbow on it.