THE 90-MINUTE ALLY: HOW SPORTS BRANDS CAN BREAK OUT OF PERFORMATIVE ALLYSHIP
Photo Credits: @IMAGO/Zoonar
17 Sport explores how sports brands can build meaningful Pride campaigns.
It’s currently Pride Month, that time of year where we see communities come together to celebrate individuality and be with each other authentically, and brands put their pride hats on to join in. But often their addition to the conversation does the opposite of enhancing their CSR image. For years, we have seen brands do some great things for the community, whether that be through awareness campaigns, large scale charitable donations or simply being a good ally. But we have also seen it go the other way. Allyship can often be performative and the LGBTQIA+ community will see right through it if it is.
In sports, allyship takes both forms. While there are inspiring success stories, there are also cautionary tales. The latter typically stem from two sources: brands seeking easy corporate social responsibility (CSR) points by treating Pride Month as a checkbox, and brands that genuinely want to make an impact but simply don't know how. 17 Sport works with brands to address the gap in knowledge, listen to communities, and ensure that brands can show up in a way that feels authentic to both them and the audience.
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
There are quite a few examples of when Pride focussed campaigns in sport have gone south, many of which you’re probably already familiar with.
A notable example would be the MLB Pride Patches. After implementing the patches across all clubs with the onus of showing support, several Tampa Bay Rays players, including pitcher Jason Adam, refused to wear them during the Pride match, stating they “don’t want to encourage” the LGBTQIA+ “lifestyle,” while also saying they want queer and trans fans “to feel safe and welcome”. This is what happens when a league like MLB tries to show its allyship as a badge of honor rather than doing the work to make sure that the space itself is inclusive and safe for everyone.
In the wider marketing sphere, Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney is an example of a pride campaign that comes from a place that doesn’t feel authentic. After the far right, anti-trans crows heavily berated the campaign, Bud Light seemingly disappeared from the conversation leaving Dylan to manage the negative fall-out by herself without any support. The only comment came from parent company Anheuser-Busch’s CEO Brendan Whitworth who stated that Bud Light “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” A statement labelled as a meagre apology that did nothing to empathise with Dylan herself. Prior to this, Anheuser-Busch has come under fire for donating large sums of money to anti-LGBTQIA+ organisations, causing Stonewall to ban their alcohol from their venues.
These failures reveal the core issue with superficial allyship; it lacks the internal backbone to withstand somewhat inevitable external pushback. When a Pride campaign is seen as a seasonal marketing gimmick without internal alignment, the company inevitably abandons the community the moment controversy hits. True allyship requires standing firm, backing your talent, and ensuring your corporate political dollars match your public-facing progressive image - that disconnect is what doesn’t ring true.
WHEN THINGS GO RIGHT
On the flip side, there have been a plethora of Pride focussed sports campaigns that have resonated deeply with the community and made a real impact.
The first and most prevalent example is Stonewall’s Rainbow Laces campaign which centres around the statistics that three times as many LGBTQIA+ people face discrimination whilst exercising. It’s a campaign where athletes, coaches, and fans can swap their regular shoelaces for rainbow-colored ones to show that LGBTQIA+ people are welcome in sports. The campaign aims to reduce the stigma around sporting spaces to ensure that LGBTQIA+ individuals feel welcome in the space. All proceeds from the campaign go to Stonewall's efforts to support the community. Whilst some may see the campaign as just swapping laces, it has its foundations in clear statistics and raises vital funds that go straight to the community.
Integrating this into the sport system came with the Team Pride campaign, bringing big brands together to support this arm of the campaign and make sure it was wider than a community initiative. Unilever, Sky Sports and Barclays still remain members of Team Pride and make sure the campaign is supported through investing their expertise and strategic guidance, engaging other sport institutions and governing bodies and creating a team of rainbow laces supporters through their staff and customer networks.
This work gives a brilliant example of how to activate authentically. Instead of just putting a rainbow on anything you can get your hands on within the company ecosystem, it gives a whole sporting community a simple, highly visible action to take right on the pitch while funding actual change through Stonewall. By bringing major brands into Team Pride, it ensures that inclusion goes beyond a grassroots effort, but something backed by the biggest brands across the industry.
CREATING AUTHENTIC CAMPAIGNS
What sets apart the good from the bad in the examples above is operational grounding. If a campaign isn’t backed by effective internal and external policies, it quickly devolves into "rainbow-washing." To ensure your brand's allyship is authentic, use this checklist before launching a Pride initiative:
Year-round Inclusion: Inclusion needs to be considered year-round and properly embedded rather than treated as a one-off. Pride has to go beyond a single event, like just featuring LGBTQIA+ athletes or dropping a limited-edition rainbow product for June.
Announce intentions honestly: If your brand isn’t quite there yet, that’s okay. Pride can actually be a great time to announce your intentions to become better, but you have to be transparent about the roadmap to get there rather than pretending you've already crossed the finish line.
Internal rigor first: You build real trust by initially demonstrating support for your own LGBTQIA+ employees; featuring them authentically, protecting them, and investing in programs or organizations if that’s a pillar you're focused on. Public marketing and internal policies aren't mutually exclusive, but having that internal rigor is an absolute must.
At the end of the day, breaking out of performative allyship comes down to shifting your focus from a 30-day marketing window to a 365-day commitment. The LGBTQIA+ community can spot rainbow-washing from a mile away, but they also recognize and reward brands that show up with genuine substance. By grounding your campaigns in real internal policies, stepping up when things get tough, and giving people concrete ways to take action, your brand can move past the fluff and become an ally that makes a purposeful impact.
