The rainbow is no longer the first thing consumers notice

Written by Joy Esser

The first weekend of August is one I always look forward to. Living in the Netherlands, it means Pride. This year feels even more significant because Amsterdam is hosting World Pride. It’s also 25 years since the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, with Amsterdam at the centre of that historic moment.

It’s a chance to celebrate how far we’ve come, while also reflecting on how society, consumers and brands have changed over the past quarter century. This year, one thing stood out immediately.

Where had all the rainbow logos gone?

A few years ago, Pride was impossible to miss. Brands changed their logos overnight, campaigns appeared across every channel and rainbow branding became almost unavoidable. This year feels noticeably quieter.

That made me wonder.

Have brands become less supportive? Has Pride become less important? Or has something more fundamental changed?

I think it’s the latter. Consumers have become far more sophisticated in how they judge brands. They no longer take campaigns at face value or assume a logo change reflects genuine commitment. They’re asking whether the message matches the reality.

Pride has become one of the clearest opportunities to answer that question. Consumers don’t expect perfection, but they do expect consistency. What a brand says in June or August should reflect what it has done throughout the rest of the year.

In that sense, Pride has become a measure of credibility.

Consumers have changed.

Ten years ago, a rainbow logo was often enough to signal support. Today, it’s only a small part of the picture. Consumers have become remarkably good at spotting the gap between authentic commitment and performative marketing. They judge a brand less by what it says during Pride and more by whether that message aligns with everything they’ve already experienced from it.

A campaign doesn’t prove anything on its own. It adds to the impression people have already formed.

Pride itself has evolved.

What began as a protest became a movement for visibility, equality and celebration. As society changed, brands became part of that journey. For many, their support genuinely mattered. Representation helped normalise inclusion at a time when doing so wasn’t always commercially comfortable.

Some brands have built that credibility over decades.

Absolut is a good example. Since the early 1980s, it has consistently supported LGBTQ+ communities through advertising, partnerships and advocacy, long before Pride became a fixture in the marketing calendar.

Levi’s has taken a similarly long-term approach through employee initiatives, community partnerships and fundraising. Their Pride campaigns don’t feel performative because they fit into a much longer history of action.

Some brands have built that trust over time. Others have simply attached themselves to the moment. Consumers are increasingly able to tell the difference.

Today, the questions go beyond whether a brand has a Pride campaign. People want to know what sits behind it. Does the organisation create an inclusive workplace? Does it support LGBTQ+ employees throughout the year? Does it continue investing in communities once the flags come down? And perhaps the toughest question of all:

Would this brand still speak up if doing so became commercially difficult?

The answers shape whether Pride comes across as a genuine expression of a brand’s values or simply another seasonal campaign. We’ve also seen the opposite happen. In recent years, several companies have quietly scaled back or withdrawn Pride campaigns in response to political pressure or concerns about consumer backlash. Whether those decisions were right or wrong isn’t really the point.

What matters is what those moments reveal. Values only carry weight when they’re maintained under pressure. That applies far beyond Pride.

Whether a brand is talking about sustainability, diversity, purpose or social impact, consumers are asking the same question: does this campaign reflect who the brand genuinely is, or just who it wants to appear to be?

Perhaps that’s the biggest shift in modern marketing. Consumers aren’t looking for brands to comment on everything. They want the positions brands do take to feel credible.

The strongest brands understand that credibility develops through consistent behaviour over time. Their marketing reflects values that people have already seen in action.

The rainbow is no longer what consumers notice first. Credibility is.