Pride Month kembali menjadi momen di mana banyak merek menonjolkan pesan inklusi dan representasi. Kampanye bertema pelangi memenuhi feed media sosial setiap Juni, namun pertanyaan yang kerap muncul adalah: berlanjutkah komitmen itu ketika Juli tiba?
Perdebatan kini bergeser dari sekadar apakah merek ikut serta pada Pride Month, menjadi apakah partisipasi itu diterjemahkan ke tindakan nyata sepanjang tahun—dalam kebijakan perusahaan, praktik rekrutmen, dan keterlibatan berkelanjutan dengan komunitas.
Contoh aktivitas merek selama Pride Month
Beberapa perusahaan menegaskan komitmen jangka panjang mereka. Daniel Kim, SVP, Tinder Asia, Match Group, menyatakan, “At Tinder, Pride Month is an important moment to celebrate and amplify LGBTQIA+ voices, but our commitment to inclusivity extends far beyond Pride season.” Perusahaan itu juga menunjukkan fitur produk yang memungkinkan pengguna memilih lebih dari 50 identitas gender dan sembilan orientasi seksual, serta inisiatif seperti Tinder Queer Made Weekend yang sudah berlangsung selama lima tahun.
Sektor hiburan juga ikut merayakan dengan cara berbeda. Gautam Dutta, CEO, Revenue & Operations, PVR INOX Limited, menegaskan pendekatan perusahaan yang lebih berfokus pada program budaya daripada iklan konvensional: “At PVR INOX, our commitment to inclusivity is not a seasonal trend; it is a core ethos that we have actively done for a long time, most notably through specialized cultural platforms like our Pride Film Festival.” Tahun ini, perusahaan menyelenggarakan showcase langsung yang menampilkan Sushant Divgikr, dikenal sebagai Rani KoHEnur, dan hasil kegiatan diarahkan untuk inisiatif berfokus pada komunitas.
Bagi merek kecil, kampanye Pride juga dipandang sebagai percakapan budaya. Kruti Soni, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Anahata Organic, memaparkan niat di balik kampanyenya: “The intention behind our campaign was simple: to remind people that Pride is not a new idea arriving from elsewhere. Many of the values we celebrate today have always existed within our own cultural and spiritual traditions.”
Kesenjangan kampanye dan tindakan
Meski demikian, banyak aktivis dan pembuat konten LGBTQIA+ menilai visibilitas di bulan Juni tidak lagi cukup. Pasangan queer asal Bengaluru, Sougata Basu dan Mayank Kalra, menyoroti perlunya konsistensi: “A disconnect between Pride Month messaging and year-round action can make inclusion feel performative rather than genuine,” they said. “While increasing visibility in June is valuable, LGBTQIA+ identities and experiences exist throughout the year. When brands remain silent for the remaining eleven months, it can weaken trust and raise questions about their commitment to the community.”
Mereka menambahkan bahwa inklusi sejati melibatkan praktik yang berkelanjutan: “Authentic inclusion means consistently representing LGBTQIA+ people in campaigns, workplaces, products, and decision-making throughout the year. It involves hiring inclusively, amplifying queer voices, supporting meaningful initiatives, and featuring real stories rather than relying on token gestures.”
Suara serupa datang dari kreator Manish Poonam yang mengingatkan dampak reputasi jangka panjang jika merek hanya aktif di bulan Juni: “For me, when brands suddenly get loud in June and disappear for the rest of the year, it signals performative allyship more than real care. It feels like visibility without responsibility.” Ia menyebut konsekuensi yang lebih luas, “The community becomes a campaign moment instead of a lived reality. That gap slowly breaks trust because queer people can sense when they are being celebrated versus when they are being used.”
Kepercayaan publik dan langkah yang diharapkan
Beberapa pengamat merek menggarisbawahi bahwa kredibilitas kampanye Pride tergantung bukti organisasi. Nisha Sampath, Founder, Bright Angles Consulting work, berujar, “A brand can participate in Pride Month without speaking about LGBTQIA+ issues year-round. But the credibility of that participation depends on whether it is backed by real action.” Ia menambahkan, “If Pride communication is limited to a rainbow logo or a one-month campaign, with no evidence of inclusive hiring, employee support or community partnerships, it reads as opportunistic.”
Menurut Sampath, kampanye paling kuat bukan yang paling gaduh, melainkan yang mencerminkan praktik internal brand: “The brands that hold up to scrutiny are the ones where Pride is a reflection of how they already operate, not a seasonal campaign.” Kritikus lain, Hamsini Shivkumar, menyatakan bahwa banyak partisipasi awal bermotif tren: “I don’t think most brands that were earlier participating in Pride month were doing it out of conviction about the cause. They just jumped on the ‘Woke’ bandwagon because it came from the USA and they wanted to appear cool and with it.” Tambahnya, “So most of the support so far has been opportunistic bandwagoning.”
Di sisi kreator dan influencer, pesan sederhana namun tegas juga muncul. Sujal Thakkar mengatakan, “For me, it’s pretty simple: if your support only shows up when the rainbow logo does, people notice.”
Diskusi ini menunjukkan bahwa pergeseran dari kampanye musiman ke praktik inklusif sepanjang tahun menjadi tolok ukur baru bagi merek yang ingin dipandang serius oleh komunitas LGBTQIA+. Tanpa bukti tindakan berkelanjutan, pesan yang keras di bulan Juni berisiko berubah menjadi gestur semata di mata publik dan komunitas yang ingin didukung.
