LGBT activists call out corporations for superficial Pride month participation
By Jenan Taha
Compared to only a few years ago, large corporations have become increasingly involved in Pride celebrations across the nation. Throughout the month of June, storefronts and online ads are filled with Pride merchandise and promotions, and every other restaurant is offering rainbow versions of their menu items. After seeing the frustrated reactions from LGBT friends and Twitter users, I decided to create a video piece to investigate the topic and explain why this “pink marketing” is problematic.
Using a mix of interviews, B-roll footage and archive video, I produced a social media documentary featuring opinions from local LGBT activists and Twitter users. I also created some animations to narrate the story using Adobe Premiere and After Effects. This piece was not only meant to explain the growing Pride marketing phenomenon but also offers an alternative to patronizing these big businesses—focusing on what you can do to support local LGBT organizations. This video is one of a series of short social media documentaries I plan to create that digs deeper into the trending conversations among the Twitter community.
Jenan Taha is a recent journalism and Arabic graduate of the University of Texas. Her interests include documentary filmmaking and multimedia storytelling, with a focus on news stories made for the web. Her pieces focus on issues in minority groups and underrepresented people in the media, such as the refugee community, LGBT people and others. She aims to educate her peers and tell the stories of lesser-known issues in Austin's diverse communities.