If you're having trouble telling your Facebook friends and Twitter followers apart, you're not alone. After same-sex marriage was legalized across the US on Friday, social media became awash in rainbows. And as you've seen, it's not just the humans going multihued—the #brands are in on the action, too.
This isn't the first time social-media accounts have been used to rally behind a cause. After the Sandy Hook school shooting, some people and companies turned yellow, and the tech community went black to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, the bill that would have allowed the US government to shut down websites. But perhaps no other issue has enjoyed the same congratulatory display as same-sex marriage. Following last Friday's Supreme Court decision, companies as varied as American Airlines, Gap, and MasterCard changed their social-media insignias to rainbow-colored logos in support of the historic ruling. Doing so was a quick, visual way to align themselves with the LGBTQ community. We were ecstatic about the ruling over here at WIRED, and expressed that by changing not just our social-media avatars but also our main logo on WIRED.com.
But as Buzzfeed expressed in a poll this morning, the next question is: How long will all the rainbow logos last?
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"It’s an amazing thing that within 30 minutes of the decision, there’s this branded visual expression that you can make through social media," says Shoshana Winter, the executive planning director for digital integration at advertising agency mcgarrybowen. Once the immediacy of the news wears off, what next? When should companies revert back to their old identities?
WIRED, for our part, removed the rainbow-inflected logo from the site yesterday and will drop it from social media by the end of today. Our reasoning? The rainbow logo belonged to a communal moment of joy in America. Though we are still delighted by the news, we consider the rainbow WIRED akin to a newspaper's front page on the day of a momentous event: a snapshot in time, rather than a long-term rebranding.
"There's a danger of jumping on the bandwagon," says Allen Adamson, North American chairman of the brand consulting agency Landor. Removing the rainbow too soon might seem insensitive to the long fight leading to this moment. But keeping it up without demonstrating more support for the cause could be construed as opportunistic. Once a company has jumped, as many have over the last few days, it needs to figure out if it's up for a lengthy ride. "If they really believe in this cause," Adamson says, "they’ve got to stay committed to it beyond its trending on Google Analytics."
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If gay rights is a high-priority issue, then it's time to translate that visual expression into action, by devoting more air time or social programs to promote understanding and acceptance of gays, lesbians, and their families. Tylenol, for instance, had already invested in a #HowWeFamily TV campaign featuring families of same-sex couples. The brand did not change its logo after the court's ruling, but if it had, it would have gained permission after the topic stops trending, Winter says.
If, however, the brand isn't investing in the cause beyond its social-media efforts, Adamson says it has a week—tops—to pull the flag. "It's either very short or very long. Anything in between is muddy."
