Alcohol companies (along with over “vice industries” like tobacco companies) have a history of being the first to really enthusiastically include/exploit LGBTQ+ populations in their marketing campaigns, so I guess it doesn’t come as a surprise, but I definitely have mixed feelings about it and it’s definitely something that should be looked at critically.
Target is also selling ace flags in most of their larger locations (haven’t seen them in the smaller city target lines that don’t have the Bullseye’s playground section), so I guess that for better or for worse 2019 is officially the year that Asexuality really joined the capitalist-exploitation-at-pride party?
“Budweiser is also hosting several Pride events, including a three-day asexual event. The brand is partnering with asexual activist and model Yasmin Benoit to bring visibility to this part of the community.”
What the…? Is <a href=“https://tmblr.co/mZhD2ndLSdvHsoEN81fGvsw”>@yasminbenoit</a> aware of the concerns that some people might have about this?
I don’t really mind corporate sponsorship in general, but corporate sponsorship from alcohol companies scares me. That’s a public health problem. I’m a craft beer person myself and I know not to impugn people’s individual choices with respect to alcohol. But when you’re getting targeted advertising, statistically that’s going to cause problems for a lot of people.
Hard liquor companies have been advertising to LGBT people for a long time, and it certainly impacted the queer student group that I participated back in college. There was an awful lot of binge drinking, and for many it was a way of dealing with personal despair. It was for me too.
Studies show asexuals have a really high rate of teetotaling, and maybe that means we’ll be resilient to targeted alcohol advertising. But it also might mean that there’s that much more room for things to get worse.
“China produces more rainbow flags than anyone. My nightmare is there is a factory with nearly slave labor, forced to live within the factory complex and get up every morning and have to churn out more and more rainbow tchotchkes.” He says he didn’t create the rainbow flag in order for others to profit off of “rainbow junk”.
He is horrified by some of the things he has seen. He says, “Walking down Castro Street, I can’t pay my rent, but I see rainbow dildos in the shop windows and rainbow keychains, rainbow rings, rainbow candles and so on.” He said it is similar to when the best music ends up as elevator music. He is gratified that the power of the rainbow caught on as rings, but that power can be diluted by over-commercialization.”
