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It was Pride Month, and that’s mostly about rainbow attention and events. In the US it is also widely used for marketing purposes. But that month, and all Pride parades and parties, are still regularly questioned: is that really necessary? Yes, because although a lot has been achieved, it is still incredible how much negativity around the theme of ‘LGBT+’ comes to the fore. How a 6-second reel goes viral and draws the trolls out of their lairs.

Just as an introduction: I have been doing PhD research on Marketing the Rainbow for a few years now, in which I look at the how and why of organizations, brands and companies that use the LGBT rainbow, or focus on the rainbow consumer. And then I sometimes come across ‘remarkable’ things, to say the least. Here’s a standout experience on a tram in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam public transport

GVB Amsterdam has been paying attention to Pride Amsterdam, the city’s largest event, for years. Without commercial gain: just to show support and celebrate. In 2021, they decided that the tram, which they had dressed in rainbows, would continue to run after the Pride festivities: “It is important to always remain visible. At GVB we want to create a safe environment for everyone, both at work and on the tram, bus, metro and on the ferries. Not just this Pride week, but 365 days a year.”

So I regularly see that colorful tram passing by. The texts on it say, among other things, “Everyone is welcome here” and #Youareincluded. Beautiful statements, colorful appearance. And by “Everyone” they mean everyone – but it turns out not everyone agrees with that.

Now of course I know that you should ignore comments in general, but especially those from trolls: see also my earlier article “Haters and trolls on social media: the ‘submitted letters’ of the 21st century”. But because I base my research on this, I find it useful to scroll through it. It doesn’t really make me happy.

Line 2

When I recently saw Tram Line 2 approaching, I made a video of exactly 6 seconds, which I posted on the Facebook page of my Marketing the Rainbow research. Facebook suggested to me, boomer, to make a reel of that, so – why not? I almost felt like Gen X, maybe a senior Millennial myself…

Now for me that page is just one of the platforms for publishing blogs and examples from my research, but not the most important thing: there are only 1,300 followers, while on YouTube I have five times as many. Not shocking yet, but I did have 1.8 million views there last year. It’s all not commercial, but scientific. In my articles I give a score to a brand or company, but I am not paid by them. An average post on my FB page gets 100 engagements with some decency. I once reached 1,000 with a reel on FB.

Also read: Haters and trolls on social media: the ‘letters to letters’ of the 21st century

But Line 2 did it differently. This reel suddenly went viral. Within a few weeks I had 36,000 viewers. Here it is.

You can see the reel of the remaining comments here: I say “leftover” because some were so outrageous, offensive, or hateful that I reported them and deleted them. There were about 500 comments, but almost half have been removed (including the discussions underneath).

Public transport

Previously I showed that there are many public transport companies that pay attention to the (in)safety of LGBT people in public, and specifically in transport. And that – and why – they want to show that you are welcome there. In a European Union survey, 50% of LGBT people said they avoid certain places or locations, and one of the places they felt was most unsafe was… ‘public transport’.

It is clear that the theme is important for public transport. In addition to beautifully decorated trams, the GVB also thought about ferries. In 2018, they organized a competition together with Boomerang Agency to create a design for thematically decorating an IJ ferry. There were more than fifty entries. The colorful Pridepont was festively unveiled by Pride ambassador Dolly Bellefleur, GVB director Alexandra van Huffelen and winner Naomi Jansen.

Connexxion also participated, in Rotterdam RET decorated a tram in rainbows, and the NS is also paying a lot of attention to this. The Trainbow platform represents LGBT+ employees and great campaigns are also created, and even a TV commercial: Taste the freedom.

Trolls

Back to the tram, where the trolls came into action. And not even the professional complainers, but also ‘ordinary’ Dutch people who were bothered by that tram. It started with a gentleman who was angry “Because these kinds of things are shoved down your throat. Just gets annoying.” Entire discussions arose between the viewers, which quickly degenerated into hard-against-hard. After two substantive arguments, the fight usually starts and the conversation is no longer pleasant, let alone useful.

After the algorithms spread the video internationally, people from the Bible Belt, who didn’t want to expose their children to ‘these kinds of ideologies’, plus people who felt left behind (in the US, by Line 2? I mean but). And of course the anonymous trolls with too much time on their hands who posted all kinds of emojis, usually accompanied by unsavory curses and untruths. Oh, and ‘woke’ came up often: see also my article Get woke, go broke.

Boost

I thought it was interesting to boost the reel, just €16 for about 10 days. Due to uber-political correctness, FB has removed the options to choose your target audience based on being or supporting LGBT, and even interests such as Pride, Advocate (magazine) or interest groups are gone, so you can no longer really ensure that your message ends up with the right people… Although: who are the right people? The LGBT people who already know this story and think that tram is funny? Or just to reach people to show what is happening elsewhere in the world?

Well, there you go: another 30,000 viewers were added, and the number of comments rose to 500. Half of the original posts spoke of the shame of the wasted public money, and the unwanted confrontation with the rainbow (originally a sign from God, naturally).

Many also demanded attention for that ‘pathetic forgotten group’: the heterosexuals. They also deserved such a tram, a Pride and a month. {I will refrain from further comment here}.

Of the 239 comments, 192 were likes, 15 were laughs, 14 were love, 14 were hateful and 4 were sad – and it was shared 10 times. The vast majority were positive, although those 18 negatives and their companions did dominate the comments.

Conclusion

The ideas and reactions of some people make it clear that actions like those of the GVB, and posting them on social media, are still necessary for the customer journey. Representation -> visibility -> normalization -> tolerance -> acceptance -> respect. So it will take some time before these kinds of colorful – and well-intentioned – campaigns are no longer necessary, unless it is to celebrate diversity instead of supporting vulnerable groups.

Alfred Verhoeven is a marketer and is in the final phase of his PhD research Marketing the Rainbow.
He previously wrote for ILOVEGAY about  Pride Month, The Oldest Rainbows, Royal Dutch Shell part 1 and part 2, Marriott part 1 and part 2, Super Bowl Ads: What Would Jesus Do?, Zalando’s journey from activism to size-inclusive shoes, Zalando goes from controversies to hidden stories, Get woke, go broke, Spain has 6.8 billion reasons to love rainbow tourists, How Spain markets itself as rainbow destination, Everyone’s gay in Amsterdam, I Amsterdam, Gay Capital, The Ideal Traveler, Diversity & Language, Playing with Pronouns, Abercrombie & Fitch : The Rise & The Fall, Play the gayme: about SIMS and Candy Crush, Diversity in Toys, LEGO does the rainbow, Barbiemania, Bud Light and the 4 bln dollar woman, Dutch retailer HEMA loves everybody, Pronouns, About those rainbows, Alphabet soup, M&M’s and the lesbian invasion, Magnum and the lesbian wedding, Marketing the Rainbow: the process and all that came before it, Sport and (un)sportmanship,  Why you need a supplier diversity program, BeNeLux LGBTIQ+ Business Chamber (BGLBC), From B2C and B2B to B2G and G2G (oh, and G2C), The Men from Atlantis, The other kind of cruising, Booking.com, Home Deco, Haters and trolls: the ‘letter to the editor’ of the 21st century, 5 Bizarre LGBT Videos, TRANSparency, Transgender persons as a target group, Matchmaking, 5 videos that went viral, From Representation To Respect, Cultural sensitivities and social involvement in marketing, 4 reasons to practice diversity and The Rules of Market Segmentation.