Two media attempts to cheer you up after the hellroarin' success of Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day:
AlterNet runs a piece called "Six Brands Playing Footsie with Conservatives and Paying the Price." It starts well, with reassuring stats about how the haters are old people who "don’t buy stuff!" and the young are overwhelmingly for gay marriage. And the author takes a sharp look at the Komen debacle. But the other examples go limp by the end.
Tiffany Hsu and Ricardo Lopez at the LA Times write "Many Businesses Seek Favor Among LGBT Customers," offering a wide range of some meaty, some meager evidence of companies courting queers. JC Penney hiring Ellen, Bank of America and nearly 40 other companies offering tax relief to gay employees. You'll recall two years ago Lady Gaga had to break up with Target for their antigay ways and hate funding; now they're running this ad and selling rainbow t-shirts to raise money for the pro-gay Family Equality Council. Some actiivists are skeptical of Target's turnaround. The article also mentions cultural changes at formerly antigay Coors and the grandpappy of them all, Cracker Barrel, which "once required that any employees who did not display 'normal heterosexual values' be fired. The Lebanon, Tenn.-based company now employs a nondiscrimination policy and diversity training."
For more on the subject, read the guru of gay marketing Bob Witeck's book Business Inside Out: Capturing Millions of Brand Loyal Gay Consumers or Alexandra Chasin's Selling Out: The Gay and Lesbian Movement Goes to Market. Or for a different view, read The Tragedy of Today's Gays.
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