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Branded is a weekly column devoted to the intersection of marketing, business, design, and culture. Pride Month is looking a little different this yearat least when it comes to corporate brands. For years, big brands and retailers have broadcast their (at least symbolic) support for the LGBTQ+ community through everything from social media accounts tweaked with rainbow-flag colors to special Pride merch collections and sponsorship of established parades and other events. But in the first year of a second Trump presidency, the administration has expressed noisy hostility toward diversity in general, and as a corporate value specifically. It has been particularly hostile toward the trans community, for example, banning transgender service members from the military and introducing legislation that would curtail gender-affirming healthcare. All this has evidently quieted some businesses Pride participation: A Gravity Research poll found that 39% of hundreds of surveyed companies plan to reduce Pride-related engagement this yearand none planned to increase Pride engagement. A startling 65% reported they were preparing for potential backlash to whatever support they showed. Anecdotal evidence backs up the idea of a more cautious corporate Pride approach. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mastercard, Nissan, and other brands did not continue their sponsorship of the famous New York City Pride March. NYC Pride, which organizes the parade and related events, has said it is facing a budget shortfall this year. As Newsweek recently noted, brands from BMW to NFL teams that have added rainbow visuals to their logos in the past arent doing so this year. Target, which has been known to treat Pride as a major marketing eventa practice that attracted conservative criticism and boycott callsremains an NYC Pride corporate partner. But many on social media have roasted its 2025 Pride collection as bland and defensive. In fairness, Targets collection usually gets some roasting, but this year the theme was its noticeable non-noticeable aestheticprimarily inspired by the color beige, as one review put it. View this post on Instagram A post shared by connor clary (@connor.clary) In a notably blunt example of a brand rethinking its Pride strategy, a leaked Slack message from the pet-toy subscription service BarkBox sought to explain why the company was pausing promotion of its Pride Collection, featuring items such as the Proud Pup Rainbow Tug and Daddy Dolphin toy: Right now, it stated, pushing this promo risks unintentionally sending the message that were not for you to a large portion of our audience, referring to the Pride products as politically charged. This was heavily criticized, and BarkBox CEO Matt Meeker apologized, saying the message doesnt reflect our values, and noting its Pride-themed merch was still very much available. (Earlier, a former Trump attorney complained on social media about receiving Pride-themed BarkBox products; after Meekers apology, she announced that she would cancel her subscription.) View this post on Instagram A post shared by Spencer Meade (@spennyislennie) While a politically polarized atmosphere is clearly playing a role in the apparent tamping down of many brands embrace of Pride, its worth acknowledging that this embrace has always been met with a certain skepticism. The argument that corporate alignment with Pride always had more to do with courting customers than supporting gay or transgender rights is sometimes summarized as rainbow capitalisma largely superficial practice that may have aided LGBTQ+ social acceptance, but did so as essentially a side effect of the profit motive. In fact, recent Pew Research Center polling found that 68% of LGBTQ+ adults (and 54% of non-LGBTQ+ adults) believe that companies promoting Pride Month do so primarily because it helps business. Only 16% and 13%, respectively, believe a genuine desire to celebrate LGBTQ+ people as the prime motivation. (The remainder believe such promotion is the result of pressure to support LGBTQ+ people. About 61% of non-LGBTQ+ Republicans agreed with that, compared to around 30% of Democrats, according to Pew.) In addition to noting companies stated plans to scale back public engagement with Pride this year, the Gravity Research survey noted that most internal initiatives connected to LGBTQ+ rights are continuing. As polarization deepens, brands are favoring lower-profile, internally focused strategies that minimize public exposure while signaling commitment to employees, the report said. The handful of brands sticking with pro-LGBTQ+ messages this Pride Month are winning some praise for positive, productive campaignsfrom Mac cosmetics making a $1 million donation (its largest) to several LGBTQ+-focused nonprofits in connection with a new Kim Petras lip gloss collaboration, to Ikea donating proceeds from certain projects to LGBTQ+ charities and sponsoring the San Francisco Pride Parade, to a Levis collection with a $100,000 donation to nonprofit Outright International, which focuses on LGBTQ+ human rights. The skittishness of their peers just makes these efforts look that much more sincere. And definitely less beige.
Category:
E-Commerce
About $22 billion of SpaceX’s government contracts are at risk and multiple U.S. space programs could face dramatic changes in the fallout from Elon Musk and President Donald Trump’s explosive feud on Thursday. The disagreement, rooted in Musk’s criticism of Trump’s tax-cut and spending legislation that began last week, quickly spiraled out of control. Trump lashed out at Musk when the president spoke in the Oval Office. Then in a series of X posts, Musk launched barbs at Trump, who threatened to terminate government contracts with Musk’s companies. Taking the threat seriously, Musk said he would begin “decommissioning” SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft used by NASA. Hours later, however, Musk appeared to reverse course. Responding to a follower on X urging him and Trump to “cool off and take a step back for a couple of days,” Musk wrote: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.” Still, Musk’s mere threat to abruptly pull its Dragon spacecraft out of service marked an unprecedented outburst from one of NASA’s leading commercial partners. Under a roughly $5 billion contract, the Dragon capsule has been the agency’s only U.S. vessel capable of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station, making Musk’s company a critical element of the U.S. space program. The feud raised questions about how far Trump, an often unpredictable force who has intervened in past procurement efforts, would go to punish Musk, who until last week headed Trump’s initiative to downsize the federal government. If the president prioritized political retaliation and canceled billions of dollars of SpaceX contracts with NASA and the Pentagon, it could slow U.S. space progress. NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens declined to comment on SpaceX, but said: “We will continue to work with our industry partners to ensure the president’s objectives in space are met.” Musk and Trump’s tussle ruptured an extraordinary relationship between a U.S. president and industry titan that had yielded some key favors for SpaceX: a proposed overhaul of NASA’s moon program into a Mars program, a planned effort to build a gigantic missile defense shield in space, and the naming of an Air Force leader who favored SpaceX in a contract award. Taking Dragon out of service would likely disrupt the ISS program, which involves dozens of countries under a two-decade-old international agreement. But it was unclear how quickly such a decommissioning would occur. NASA uses Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft as a secondary ride for its astronauts to the ISS. SPACEX’S RISE SpaceX rose to dominance long before Musk’s foray into Republican politics last year, building formidable market share in the rocket launch and satellite communications industries that could shield it somewhat from Musk’s split with Trump, analysts said. “It fortunately wouldn’t be catastrophic, since SpaceX has developed itself into a global powerhouse that dominates most of the space industry, but there’s no question that it would result in significant lost revenue and missed contract opportunities,” said Justus Parmar, CEO of SpaceX investor Fortuna Investments. Under Trump in recent months, the U.S. space industry and NASA’s workforce of 18,000 have been whipsawed by looming layoffs and proposed budget cuts that would cancel dozens of science programs, while the U.S. space agency remains without a confirmed administrator. Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, Musk ally and billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, appeared to be an early casualty of Musk’s rift with the president when the White House abruptly removed him from consideration over the weekend, denying Musk his pick to lead the space agency. Trump on Thursday explained dumping Isaacman by saying he was “totally Democrat,” in an apparent reference to reports Isaacman had donated to Democrats. Isaacman has donated to some Republican but mostly Democratic candidates for office, according to public records. Musk’s quest to send humans to Mars has been a critical element of Trump’s space agenda. The effort has threatened to take resources away from NASA’s flagship effort to send humans back to the moon. Trump’s budget plan sought to cancel Artemis moon missions beyond its third mission, effectively ending the over-budget Space Launch System rocket used for those missions. But the Senate Commerce Committee version of Trump’s bill released late on Thursday would restore funding for missions four and five, providing at least $1 billion annually for SLS through 2029. Since SpaceX’s rockets are a less expensive alternative to SLS, whether the Trump administration opposes the Senate’s changes in the coming weeks will give an indication of Musk’s remaining political power. SpaceX, founded in 2002, has won $15 billion of contracts from NASA for the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and development of SpaceX’s Starship, a multipurpose rocket system tapped to land NASA astronauts on the moon this decade. The company has also been awarded billions of dollars to launch a majority of the Pentagon’s national security satellites into space while it builds a massive spy satellite constellation in orbit for a U.S. intelligence agency. In addition to not being in U.S. interests, former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said canceling SpaceX’s contracts would probably not be legal. But she also added, “A rogue CEO threatening to decommission spacecraft, putting astronauts’ lives at risk, is untenable.” Joey Roulette, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
Amazon famously started as an online bookstore. In the three decades since, it has disrupted how people buy, read, and review books through steps like undercutting local bookstore prices, launching the Kindle, and buying the book-review platform Goodreads. Now, Amazon has announced new job cuts, including at its Kindle and Goodreads teams, Reuters reports. In total, the company is reportedly cutting fewer than 100 jobs across its book division. Since 2022, Amazon has laid off about 27,000 employees as part of a cost-cutting strategy, according to CNBC. The online retailer claims its decision should streamline the impacted departments. As part of our ongoing work to make our teams and programs operate more efficiently, and to better align with our business roadmap, weve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles within the Books organization, an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. Criticism over Goodreads stewardship Amazon bought Goodreads in 2013 and has since been accused by the publishing industry of neglecting the book tracker and having only bought it to prevent competition. Goodreads hasnt been all that well maintained, or updated, or kept up with, Jane Friedman, a publishing industry consultant, told The Washington Post in 2023. It does feel like Amazon bought it and then abandoned it. The online retailer also has a review system and launched a Your Books feature in 2023 for customers to track all their digital and print titles and get reading suggestions (another option available on Goodreads). Fast Company has reached out to Amazon for comment on how many jobs were cut at Goodreads and whether the online retailer is reducing its investment in the book review platform. Some individuals also dont use Goodreads because of its connection to Amazon, as noted by CBC last year. There are entire Reddit threads devoted to alternatives with comments like, I am doing everything to avoid Jeff Bezos. Thats a bit easier to do these days as far as trackers go. A number of alternatives to Goodreads have emerged over the years, such as The StoryGraph, Bookly, and BookWyrm.
Category:
E-Commerce
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