In yet another wild twist on this year’s “Pride Month,” BMW replied to a question on X about its Pride Month logo and, by drawing attention to the matter, ended up getting roasted over how it changes its logo for June in the United States but not in the Middle East, a region known for not tolerating homosexuality, something that angered many who saw the logo change as, as the Daily Caller called it, a “PR stunt.”
The spat began with BWM changing its logo to a rainbow version for June and then, posting about a car in its lineup, said, “Buckle up and enjoy the ride. 🏁💙 The new BMW M3 Competition Touring with M xDrive.
#THEM3 #BMW Mandatory information according to german law ’Pkw-EnVKV’ based on WLTP: energy consumption combined: 10,4 l/100 km; CO₂ emissions combined: 235 g/km; CO2-class(es): G”
Replying, a commenter asked about its logo change decision, saying, “How come you don’t proudly display your logos pride colors on your middle east posts ???” Shocking, BMW did reply to the comment, doing so in a four-part post in which it explained its stance on Pride Month and why the logo change was not made in the Middle East.
Beginning its four-part response to the Middle East logo change question, BMW said, “In recognition of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we have decided to take a clear stance and change the logo of our international communication and marketing channels (on behalf of all BMW Group markets and brands) until the end of June.”
Continuing with part two of its response, it said, “The international channels can be accessed worldwide and thus show the logo change in all markets worldwide.” BMW then added, in part three, “However, as is customary with such communication and marketing activities, it is at the discretion of our sales companies and independent distributors to decide if they wish to join centrally initiated communication and marketing campaigns or not.”
Concluding, BMW emphasized that the decision to leave it up to the regional and local communications teams how much they emphasize the month is an “established practice,” saying, “This is an established practice at the BMW Group, which also takes into consideration market-specific legal regulations and country-specific cultural aspects.”
Predictably, commenters on both sides of the political divide were unhappy with BMW over its stance. One commenter, for example, said that she is a lesbian but wants them to just drop it and sell cars, saying, “As a lesbian, I would prefer you don’t pretend to take a moral stance on my human rights that is dependent on market conditions. Just drop the flag and go sell some cars.”
Similarly, another commenter wrote that the response and decision to take a more hands-off approach shows that the matter is much more one of PR and cultural marketing than actually caring. That commenter wrote, “Thank you for saying the quiet part out loud. Just shows how empty and fake this campaign is, trying show virtue where there is none. Hypocritical at best, evil at worst.”
Still another commenter posted another comment along the same line, calling out BMW for trying to use a cultural issue to put profits first in a particularly cynical way. That commenter said, “So we can take from this that if market conditions made the oppression of gays profitable that little rainbow of yours would disappear pretty quickly here yeah?”
Featured image credit:By Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19268325
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