Pride and Perception: How the Inclusion of LGBTQ Themes in Advertising Influences Consumer Perception

Diverse representation, and the inclusion of LGBTQ themes has been increasingly prominent in modern marketing campaigns. Although such practices are valuable, and can advance inclusivity in mass communication, many consumers have mixed attitudes toward brands that incorporate queer references. This can often influence their ad attitudes, or trigger rainbow-washing perception. The latter is said to most typically occur in campaigns released specifically for Pride Month. To better understand which types of queer ads evoke different brand attitudes, and which other factors can contribute to forming consumer perception, this study investigated the following research question: To what extent does the level of inclusion of LGBTQ themes in advertising impact consumer’s attitude toward the brand, considering the mediating roles of rainbow-washing perception and attitude toward the ad, and the moderating role of LGBTQ involvement among Dutch Gen Z residents? This study was guided by the theory of indirect persuasion, CSR, corporate hypocrisy, and the ELM theory. A quantitative online experiment was conducted, in which the participants were exposed to three types of ads, with different degrees of explicitness of queer themes (an explicit queer ad, an implicit queer ad, and a heterosexual ad with no such themes). After being shown the stimulus, their brand and ad attitudes were measured, along with their rainbow-washing perception, and LGBTQ involvement. The findings evidence that the level of queer explicitness affects the consumers’ attitude toward brand, and that both implicit and explicit queer ads are favoured over those that do not include diverse representation. Moreover, it was discovered that both rainbow-washing perception and one’s ad attitude serially mediate one’s brand attitude. LGBTQ involvement was not reported to have a moderating effect on rainbow-washing perception; however, the explicit ad was evidenced to evoke rainbow-washing the most prominently. The results of this study uncovered interesting insights into how consumers react to brands partaking in queer advertising, which possess both societal and practical value.