If you live in any major western city during June, aka Pride Month, you’re probably well accustomed to the mass of rainbow flags flapping in the wind on every window, balcony or storefront. In the current climate, it’s considered good marketing for companies to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. It’s common for brands to give their logo the rainbow-makeover without a second thought. But what happens when consumers realize that those very same brands actually fund and support anti-LGTBQ politicians? 

Brands That Live in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Throw Rainbows Around 

This common practice of exploiting the rainbow flag by putting on a facade of inclusivity is called Rainbow Washing (or occasionally Pinkwashing and Rainbow Capitalism): The act of using or adding rainbow colors to advertising, apparel, accessories, landmarks, etc, in order to indicate progressive support for LGBTQ equality (and earn consumer credibility) – but with a minimum of effort or pragmatic result.

As public awareness grows, brands that take part in Rainbow Washing are quickly faced with a new reality: their consumers, whether they’re LGBTQ+ or allies, are holding them accountable for their actions. Changing a brand’s logo and taking some photos of the team waving rainbow flags can put a spotlight on the brand’s actions. Present-day consumers require authenticity, and in Pride Month, this means support, not empty words. One could say that in today’s age of information, any major brand is actually living in a glass house. Every word said and every action taken are constantly held up to scrutiny under the watchful eye of the public. Customers don’t need to be social activists to easily uncover any dark secrets hidden behind a rainbow logo.  

Using the Cyabra platform, our analysts detected an interesting trend while studying some of the biggest brands that have posted pro-LGBTQ+ messages on their social media. Wary consumers quickly came up with evidence revealing that some of those companies have actually donated a sum of over $10 million to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and organizations. The irony of plastering the pride flag on those brands did not go unnoticed by social media. Deloitte, AT&T, Walmart, FedEx, Charter and many others were subjected to mocking responses and retweets calling them out for hypocrisy. 

Visibility Vs. Authenticity

Mark this in your calendar, brands: 2022 is the start of a new era, an era in which we all have to think and plan every word written on social media, because your audience will hold you accountable for your actions. Ten years ago, every brand that gave visibility to the rainbow flag during Pride Month was celebrated. Nowadays, visibility is a habit, and the name of the game is authenticity. Rainbow Washing brands whose message was perceived as inauthentic were met with a large, passionate, and very authentic wave of consumer rage. 

AT&T

Sharing their VP’s emotional coming out story, AT&T never expected to be called out and threatened with a boycott, especially not from a pro-LGBTQ+ audience. Their tweet reached no less 782,000 profiles, engaged by 391 profiles. 96% of this engagement (likes, comments and shares) was negative, exposing more and more consumers to AT&T’s support of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians. 

What are you doing to ensure you do not give money to anti-LGBTQ politicians? Because quite frankly, you are.

— Your Mom's GBF… MBA (@TJAC_1814) June 2, 2022

The greatest impact you could make on LGBTQ folks would be to stop donating to politicians who pass laws to hurt us.

Y’all are on every single infographic showing who the community should ditch over their political contributions.

— Ash Hall (@LGBTActivist) June 10, 2022

Deloitte

Deloitte wasn’t one of those brands plastering on a rainbow-colored logo and a “love is love” post: the company actually put many work hours and money into an inclusivity survey for Pride Month, interviewing no less than 600 LGBTQ+ employees (none of them Deloitte employees) about their everyday life at work. The impressive survey quickly started trending, but not anything like Deloitte dreamed it would: Deloitte’s Tweets spread to 532,000 profiles on Twitter, and were engaged by 266 profiles. But here’s the real shocker: 92% of those retweets, replies and posts concerning Deloitte showed a negative sentiment, pointing out the irony of creating a pro-LGBTQ+ survey while supporting anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and organizations. 

An even better, more meaningful way to celebrate #PrideMonth would be to stop donating to anti-#LGBTQ politicians!

— Christopher Roesch (@IO_Chris) June 4, 2022

Please stop donating to anti-LGBTQ politicians.

Deloitte has donated at least $843,400 to anti-LGBTQ politicians since 2021

— Pam💔 – Happy Pride 2022 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ (@pm_mcdaniel) June 2, 2022

Walmart

Unlike Deloitte and AT&T, Wallmart’s social account didn’t feature any emotional stories or well-thought surveys – only a cute puppy dressed for Pride. However, having donated 1M$ to anti-gay politicians, even the adorable rainbow-wrapped pup couldn’t save Wallmart from the raging social media. The tweet spread to 580,000 profiles and was engaged by 290 profiles. 89% of this engagement was negative, proving that brands can be called out for Rainbow Washing whether they (allegedly) try to make a difference, or just selling some colorful pet accessories. 

Selling LGBT MERCH DOESNT MAKE YOU A ALLEY! THATS NOT BEING A ALLEY! Its called market!!

— RECKLESS Blonde (@BlondeReckless) June 17, 2022

Don’t wear our colors. We know whose pockets your money is in.

— Jonathan Griffin Carlisle (@jgcarlisle3) June 11, 2022

But you gave $954,250 to anti-LGBTQ efforts? Why is that?

— ps_from_cali (@ps_from_cali) June 11, 2022

The Unflattering Colors of the Rainbow 

Deloitte, AT&T and Walmart weren’t the only brands to find themselves in the heart of a Rainbow Washing storm: 

• When Fedex tweeted their support, 120 profiles showed an engagement that was 96% negative, bashing Fedex for their donations to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and organizations. 
• Charter and Comcast, both offering LGBTQ+ content on their services for Pride Month, experienced a similar fate: 
  • 288 profiles engaged with Charter’s tweet, with 277 comments and quotes – 92% of them negative. 
  • Comast had 173 profiles engaged with their tweets, 82% of them are negative. 
• The Home Depot, that tweeted a greeting for Pride Month, was engaged by 215 profiles, We found 96 comments and quotes on their tweets – 94% of them are negative. Home Depot tweets spread to 430,000 profiles on Twitter. 

As 2022 Pride Month is nearing its end, perhaps it’s time for brands to realize that they can’t play both fields: if they wish to carry the pride flag, they need to be worthy of it. Their new consumers are active, observant and alert, and they demand honesty and authenticity. Consumer hate might not be able to stop Rainbow Washing, but it’s more than willing to give brands hell for it. 

How can they support Pride and support GOP at the same time? Have you read the new Texas laws on pride and transgender? I suggest you do so and wonder why you keep supporting these people!

— Elizabeth standridge (@Elizabe83931161) June 19, 2022

Want to read the full report written by Cyabra’s analysts? Contact us to receive it, free of charge!

Cyabra’s report is based on Twitter data collected between June 1 and June 22.

Fear the Day You Trend on Twitter? We’ve Got You Covered. 

Cyabra measures impact and authenticity in social networks. We offer global brands, corporations, and government agencies the ability to understand narratives, discover trends, and reach real audiences. Our AI software can monitor online conversations and determine where content is coming from, ultimately allowing your company to plan ahead based on real-time trends, and terminate disinformation problems before they grow out of hand.

Contact us to learn more!

Learn More about Rainbow Washing: 

• Your Rainbow Logo Doesn’t Make You an Ally
• The growth of rainbow Washing 
• These 25 rainbow-flag waving companies donated 13M$ to anti-gay politicians since 2021

Brazilian PR agency Lew’Lara\TBWA is known for representing brands that disrupt the creative space.  Like when they launched the new Nissan Versa by covering it with stickers of tweets complaining about sedans.  They challenged the preconceived notions about the car segment and drew major attention for Nissan in Brazil.

In that campaign, TBWA proved that it keeps its ears to the ground and pays attention to online narratives.  It is only fitting that an agency with such attention to detail would partner with a platform like Cyabra’s that will allow them to identify, analyze, and understand online dialogues.

TBWA disrupts markets, Cyabra disrupts disinformation

Through this partnership, our artificial intelligence technology allows TBWA-Brazil’s brands, including Nissan and Gatorade, to monitor online narratives, analyze content, and track the reach and impact of social campaigns.  This includes being able to determine the authenticity of authors and delineate between genuine engagement and fake content.

With the rise of bots and deepfake technology, social media and content-sharing channels are getting clogged with disinformation that can become disastrous for public relations if allowed to fester.  Cyabra’s analytics platform lets TBWA and other agency clients monitor any online conversations that mention their brands.  They can gather insights into the origins of the content and influential authors involved, be they automated bots, disingenuous trolls, or cleverly-fabricated “sock puppet” profiles.  Agency leadership can then assess these efforts and take appropriate measures to respond, alter messaging or campaign strategies and protect their client’s image in the public sphere.

Cyabra’s software also tackles genuine content created by real people.  It empowers agencies like TBWA to keep their finger on the pulse of what customers are saying in digital spaces.  This social listening capability lets them learn both what their audience thinks about their brand, products and promotional efforts as well as how they usually engage with the company online.  By knowing what’s normal and expected for their audience, TBWA and their clients can then engage in meaningful ways and spot changes in sentiment quickly and more effectively.

Finally, with Cyabra’s agency services, clients like TBWA can track how far social conversations reach and trace where the content started.  Are people talking about this because of something they saw in the news or from a competitor’s post or a faceless fake account?  How far did it reach and how many people joined the discussion?  This type of information is vital in planning how an agency should approach a topic and for crafting future, targeted campaigns.

Marketing with Cyabra – Knowing Your Audience

Cyabra’s social analytics platform offers PR and marketing agencies the ability to find the truth in what is becoming an evermore cluttered digital space and empowers them to become the foremost authority on their target audiences.  Our AI software gives agencies essential tools to monitor what is really going on in online conversations and track where content is coming from, ultimately allowing them to plan ahead based on real-time trends and terminate disinformation problems before they grow out of hand.

Are you a PR or marketing agency looking to hear more about Cybra’s disinformation detection and online monitoring services for agencies? Read more about the partnership here or contact us to learn more!

Vaccine Disinformation- What Does it Really Mean?

As the world begins to deploy COVID-19 vaccinations, the news is flooded with articles about the threat of vaccine disinformation. These articles claim that fake news and disinformation surrounding the vaccines is rampant and influencing the public’s view of the vaccine. However, what remains unclear is where this disinformation comes from, how it spreads and what the motivations are behind it?

We’ll tackle each of these questions step by step.

Social Media as a news source

Let’s first talk about the medium for where these conversations take place. As we know, social media today has significantly impacted the media landscape. The days of checking newspapers, local media outlets, or even simply google, are nearly obsolete for much of the public. Today, social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, have taken over news sources. This means that anyone on these platforms is now a source of news.

Social Media Users

Now, we can talk about who these sources are and their influence and reach.

There are the people that you know personally- your friends, family members and acquaintances. These may have similar outlooks as you- you likely have what in common. Oftentimes, we trust these sources- you know where they come from and what they represent.

Public figures are another category. These can be celebrities, politicians, business leaders or influencers. These figures can have the power to influence the decisions that we each make each day- this can be anything from political views to the shampoo that you should use.

We also have social media accounts used by media outlets that share their articles. While reliable media outlets are active on these platforms, non reliable sources have the ability to become just as active and influential.

Lastly, we have fake profiles. These include fake users, avatars, bots, sockpuppets and actual real people who are paid to promote specific agendas. These profiles are used to spread and amplify messages or information.

While fake profiles are seemingly the more obvious source of false information, the other categories can often be equally, if not more, dangerous. Public figures, influencers, friends and acquaintances are real people that are sources of any and all information- real or fake.

See where the problem begins?

Now that we understand the different sources of information, we need to understand what these sources are capable of.

Fake news, Disinformation and Misinformation

To further understand the problem, we need to define what fake news, disinformation and misinformation, a less popular phrase, really means. While these all fall under the category of false information, each phrase is distinct and carries important differentiations that are often missed.

Misinformation is false information that is spread deliberately or accidentally, regardless of the motivations behind it.

Disinformation is false information that is deliberately biased, fabricated or misleading. This can be manipulated narratives, facts or propaganda.

Lastly, fake news is false information that is purposefully created in a format that copies mainstream media to spread misinformation, conspiracy theories or hoaxes. Sometimes, these messages are not directly fabrications, but rather sensational, emotionally charged or misleading false information.

Each of these examples of false information pose threats. While some false information on social media can be spotted (that’s a conversation for another blog!), the more “trusted” a source is, the higher the risk

Types of Vaccine Disinformation

Now that we understand both the different categories of social media as well as the different types of false information, we can return to our original topic- vaccine disinformation.

As we know, one of the most globally discussed topics is the pandemic, creating an overabundance of information. This means that parties interested in this topic- and I believe it’s safe to say that this is a large percentage of the population- are susceptible to consuming false information.

As the pandemic conversation has turned to vaccines, we are witnessing an increase in the spread of false information. Some of this information is spread both by malicious social media users as well as altruistic users.

Here are some examples of the the reasoning behind the social media users spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation:

1. Exploitation: People want to make money. By hooking readers into information about the vaccine, they can advertise their own agendas in connection to vaccines. For instance, Cyabra identified a campaign of fake profiles on Facebook that exploited the online interest in COVID-19 to advertise Bitcoin.

2. Answers: When times are hard, people want answers. They look for comfort in reasons and explanations about what is happening. This is a feeding ground for conspiracy theories to thrive, which has led many to believe that the virus is a way for world leader’s to control their citizens.

3. Community: People like to feel that they belong. They seek connections and by attaching themselves to an idea or opinion and engaging in social media conversations, they become a part of a community. Many social media users will seek out these communities to feel a purpose.

COVID-19 has brought out the vulnerability in all of us. Unfortunately, this leads to an environment where false information spreads, and spreads fast. And social media can be a hotbed for this.

The Dangers

Now that we understand what vaccine disinformation really means, it’s important to highlight its dangers. Put simply, mistrust and confusion causes vaccine hesitancy, leaving efforts to end the pandemic that has killed 1.85 million people in severe danger.

The infodemic is our latest public health threat, and we need to stop it.

Cyabra is actively monitoring the social media conversations surrounding COVID-19. Our latest report on vaccine disinformation details our findings.