Some brands didn’t do rainbow logos this year, I wonder why?
Plus: Nancy Reagan, welcome to the exclusive FLOTUS stamp club
Some brands didn’t do rainbow logos this year, I wonder why?
Nancy Reagan, welcome to the exclusive FLOTUS stamp club
The origins of the American family photo are getting two whole Smithsonian exhibitions
Some brands didn’t do rainbow logos this year, I wonder why?
It’s Pride month, and you know what that means: here come the rainbow social media logo makeovers.
The trend was popularized in 2015 after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, but don’t expect quite as many of them for Pride 2022.
Here’s what I found looking through Twitter profiles for top U.S. companies, brands, and professional sports leagues:
Just ten out of the top 50 biggest companies in the U.S. have rainbow logos: Walmart, CVS Health, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Bank of America, Pfizer, Citigroup, and IBM.
Two of the top 50 companies had rainbow logos last year, but not this year: AT&T and Verizon. Both have tweeted about Pride.
Of the major professional sports leagues, the MLB, NHL, and WNBA all changed their logos. The NFL didn’t, but their bio currently reads #Pride365.
The award for best rainbows goes to the Coca-Cola Co. and Grindr for their gradients.
Obviously a temporary social media logo change doesn’t necessarily say anything about how a company values queer employees or customers, but it’s an especially interesting Pride to watch when it comes to corporations.
Gay exhaustion and eye rolling continues, evidenced this year by the “…that’s why this month for Pride I’m partnering with…” meme format, and companies are getting pressure from the left and right.
From the left, closer scrutiny of corporate political donations means some companies risk looking like they’re simply “rainbow washing” their brand by changing their avatars. All three companies that opted to not go rainbow so far this year after doing it in 2021 were major corporate contributors to anti-LGBTQ politicians, according to Popular Information. Since 2021, AT&T has donated at least $1,052,000 to politicians who support legislation that negatively targets queer people, Verizon has donated at least $559,762, and Walmart, which changed its logo to a rainbow version after data was gathered for this story, has donated $954,250.
From the right, companies are being pressured to stop sounding off on social and political issues altogether. Last month State Farm canceled a planned program to provide LGBTQ-themed books to teachers and libraries, and Exxon included Pride and Black Lives Matter flags among the “external position” flags prohibited from flying at its corporate headquarter’s flagpole.
Nancy Reagan, welcome to the exclusive FLOTUS stamp club
The White House announced Monday that first lady Jill Biden will help unveil a new stamp honoring Nancy Reagan next week, ushering the late actress-turned-FLOTUS into an exclusive club.
Only a few first ladies have gotten stamps. America’s first, Martha Washington, was the first women to appear on a U.S. stamp ever in 1902, followed by a second stamp in 1929, according to the National Postal Museum. Her third stamp came in 1938 as part of a “Presidential Series” that depicted the 29 U.S. presidents who had died up to that point, Ben Franklin, an image of the White House, and her.
Her immediate successor Abigail Adams got a stamp in 1985, and the fourth U.S. first lady Dolley Madison got one in 1980. Lady Bird Johnson got an entire souvenir sheet of six stamps in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of her birth. It included a stamp of her official White House portrait painted by Elizabeth Shoumatoff, plus five stamps with art of landscapes with flowers in honor of the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, which she pushed for.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving first lady in U.S. history, has been on three stamps. Her first, a purple five-cent stamp, was issued in 1963, followed by blue 20-cent stamp in 1984, and a 32-cent stamp depicting her meeting a young girl during a trip to Detroit in 1935, released in 1998.
The Reagan stamp is getting “roundly blasted” for coming out during Pride month because of the Reagan administration’s record on the AIDS crisis and LGBTQ issues, the Advocate reported.
The origins of the American family photo are getting two whole Smithsonian exhibitions
Christmas cards are an annual tradition for many families in the U.S., and power couples who want to show off their relationship status only need to snap a selfie. But long before digital cameras and smartphones, American families had to sit for daguerreotypes, a type of early photo named for its inventor, French artist Louis Daguerre.
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is set to open two new exhibitions on July 1 looking at early family photos from the 18th century: Family Ties: Daguerreotypes and Powerful Partnerships: Civil War-Era Couples.
Family Ties will feature more than a dozen family portraits, including nuclear families, brothers and sisters, men and their father-in-law, and uncles and their nieces and nephews, according to the Smithsonian.
Powerful Partnerships will cover five Civil War-era power couples:
Nathaniel Banks, a House speaker, and Mary Theodosia Palmer Banks
John Frémont, a governor of Arizona Territory and governor and U.S. Senator for California, and his wife, writer Jessie Ann Benton Frémont
President Ulysses S. Grant and first lady Julia Dent Grant
Union general George McClellan and his wife Mary Ellen Marcy McClellan
Charles Sherwood Stratton and Lavinia Warren Stratton, circus performers known for their small stature and by their stage names General Tom Thumb and Little Queen of Beauty
The prints on display for the Civil War power couple exhibition will be made from original negatives by famed American photographer Mathew Brady, who also photographed Abraham Lincoln and shaped a nation’s self perception.
Sitting for a daguerreotype took between three to 15 minutes when the technology was introduced in 1839, according to the Library of Congress, which may seem like a long time until you stop and consider how many selfies it takes until you’re finally satisfied with one to post. Exposure time was later cut down to less than a minute, but by the 1850s, the daguerreotype was replaced by an even quicker process.
Family Ties will be open through June 11, 2023, and Powerful Partnerships will be open through May 18, 2025.
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Correction: Martha Washington has been on three stamps, a feat that I incorrectly said only Eleanor Roosevelt had achieved in a previous version of this post. I regret the error.
Update: This post was updated on June 3, 2022 removing Walmart from the list of top companies that had a rainbow logo last year but not this year after it updated its Twitter avatar.