Olly Alexander calls out brands who put ‘bare-minimum effort’ for Pride-themed products

Years and Years' lead singer Olly Alexander didn't hold back when he took to Instagram to criticise brands for trying to profit from rainbow-themed products during Pride month.

Alongside a picture of a very vague e-mail asking Alexander to do a post for a brand's "amazing Pride collection", the singer wrote on Instagram:

My manager has been getting requests like this every day, I’m guessing it was emailed out to a bunch of people, no details on what this amazing pride collection is or what this big famous brand with lots of money plan to do with any ‘proceeds’.

But Alexander, who has previously been vocal about issues surrounding anti-LGBT+ bullying, HIV screening and mental health, didn't stop there, sayinng:

I just.... the bare minimum approach here makes me laugh. No matter where you stand on corporate brand-pride tie ins it’s hard not to feel this years 2019 pride collection of mouthwash, t-shirts (socks shoes jumpers glasses hats ) banks and sandwiches has felt especially icky. representation matters, of course, and corporate pride / rainbow capitalism might be hideous but at least queer people are getting paid.

The 'Desire' singer goes on to say that simply "redoing your logo" into Pride-themed colours is not enough for brands, writing:

I know there are well intentioned people behind many of these campaigns but....just no. Re-doing your logo in a rainbow and ‘dOnAtInG a PoRTiOn Of pRoCeEds’ is not enough!!!!(possibly not even happening with this brand!??)) I wish brands would realize how embarrassing this kind of shit is 🤦🏼‍♀️

Alexander's gained a lot of praise for his critique of such brands, with Sam Smith commenting "amen" underneath the picture, and Ru Paul's Drag Race season 7 winner, Violet Chachki, simply commentinng: "SCALDING HOT TEA".

HT Pink News

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