SALON

Wednesday, Jul 4, 2012 11:00 PM UTC

Supporting gay rights is good for business

Salvation Army is learning the hard way

By

Topics: AlterNet, Gay Rights, Gay Marriage, Consumerism, Business,

Supporting gay rights is good for business (Credit: Oreo on Facebook)
This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

By now everyone has seen the rainbow-filled Oreo that the cookie company mocked up for Pride month. It was the Picture That Launched a Thousand Facebook Comments (actually 54,000, as of this writing), a large number of them hateful. But for all the homophobic insults and calls for an Oreo boycott, Oreo has seen no credible threat to its business. In fact, many LGBTQ rights supporters are more likely than ever to go out and buy a box of the cream-filled cookies, both to spite the haters and support a company that appears to have bravely taken a stand for gay rights.

AlterNetIn reality, Oreo’s move wasn’t all that brave. You can be sure that Oreo, which is made by Nabisco, which in turn is owned by mega food corporation Kraft, knew exactly what it was getting into. Kraft knew it would rile some homophobes’ feathers but that the majority of Americans who now support same-sex marriage would hold more weight.

Indeed, as ThinkProgress’ Zack Ford points out, there has been no significant, organized effort to boycott Oreo or its parent companies — just a lot of incoherent threats and one Facebook group that appears to have been taken down.

Kraft knew things would turn out this way because its move has plenty of precedent. Over the past few years numerous corporations have issued public statements in support of gay rights, with no major damage to their bottom lines. Starbucks, Nike and Amazon — companies not exactly known for their dedication to social justice — all went in for marriage equality this year.

And then there’s JC Penney, which earlier this year came under fire from anti-gay group One Million Moms for hiring Ellen Degeneres as a spokesperson. Rather than back down amid the criticism, JC Penney stood by its decision, and a few months later, to further crystallize its stance, put out a few ads featuring same-sex parents.

In each of these cases, the companies calculated the risks of making a pro-gay rights proclamation and determined that doing so would be in their best interest. Frankly, gay rights is good business. The Washington Post’s Dan Zak reports:

The risk-reward equation for corporate advocacy has changed over time, says Bob Witeck, president of the District-based Witeck Communications, which specializes in the gay and lesbian consumer markets.

What’s the worst thing that could happen to Kraft? A denouncement from a special-interest group like One Million Moms….

What’s the best thing?

An army of people sends your product around the Internet, and your century-old brand suddenly seems cutting-edge.

Indeed, Oreo’s “gay cookie” stunt got a lot of people who might not ordinarily be inclined to shill for one of the largest food corporations in the world to declare its love for Kraft products all over social media.

Capitalistic motivations aside, it is good news that Oreo put out that rainbow cookie image; it reinforces the fact that LGBTQ acceptance is now something close to mainstream. And it shows what little tolerance our society now has for outright bigotry.

This is a lesson the Salvation Army is learning, rather painfully, this summer. The international charity made waves earlier this month when one of its employees, Major Andrew Craibe, went on an Australian radio show and was questioned by one of the show’s gay hosts, Serena Ryan:

Ryan: According to the Salvation Army, [gay people] deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?

Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.

Ryan: So we should die.

Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.

The Salvation Army has long been the target of LGBTQ rights groups for its anti-gay policies and lobbying efforts. (The group professes that homosexuality is a sin forbidden by the Bible and has been accused of denying services to LGBTQ individuals and pressuring clients to renounce homosexuality.)

In the past, efforts to draw attention to the charity’s policies have not reached a particularly mainstream audience. But now, Craibe’s inference that gay people deserve to die has blown up all over the media. It’s bringing a ton of attention to the policies that the Salvation Army is perhaps less open about these days, given the shift in attitudes about LGBTQ rights in the U.S.

The Salvation Army may not be a corporation like Nike or Kraft, but it is a major international charity, and charities are big business these days. There’s no question that the group is motivated at least in part by improving its bottom line (i.e., maximizing donations).

Indeed, it certainly seems that the group is now trying to backtrack. The organization has apologized ”to all members of the GLBT community and to all our clients, employees, volunteers and those who are part of our faith communities for the offense caused by this miscommunication” and said that it wishes to build “a more healthy relationship with the GLBT community” — something it seems unlikely to do as long as it continues to declare homosexuality a sin.

In other words, the Salvation Army is learning the lesson that Kraft obviously already knows: the tide is turning, and you have to turn with it to keep making a buck.

Lauren Kelley is the activism and gender editor at AlterNet and a freelance journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Salon, Time Out New York, the L Magazine, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter.

More Lauren Kelley.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 28 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from AlterNet, an award-winning news magazine and online community that creates original journalism and amplifies the best of hundreds of other independent media sources.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations