From Support to Celebration: How to Celebrate Pride Month With Video

Spotlight real stories

It’s easy to slap a rainbow filter on a product and call it a Pride campaign, but today’s audiences expect more. That’s what makes video such a good channel to use as it gives you the space to explore the why behind your campaign. 

One of the most effective ways to do that is to use storytelling featuring real stories from LGBTQ+ individuals, whether they’re your customers, employees, or community partners. Instead of crafting narratives from the outside looking in, invite people to share their lived experiences. Think user-generated content (UGC), behind-the-scenes stories, social media takeovers, interviews, or a-day-in-the-life clips. 

Whichever route you take, involve LGBTQ+ staff or collaborators in your content creation process from the start. Their voices aren’t just needed in front of the camera, but behind it too during the planning phase. 

Opt for shareable over shoppable

While it’s tempting for retail e-commerce brands to create shoppable videos that feature rainbow-coloured socks or slogan T-shirts, your videos should focus on driving awareness instead of sales. It’s a cultural moment and not a sales season. Videos filled with product placements and discount codes risk coming off as opportunistic, even if well-intentioned.

You can, for example, create a brand mission video that centres its messaging on inclusive hiring initiatives or sponsorship of queer events or fundraising for NGOs. This way, you contribute to the cultural conversation. Plus, you also grow brand awareness (which will later translate into sales). 

Tone it down

Pride is both a celebration and protest. While you can be creative and cheerful, be mindful of your tone. Your video should respect the deeper meaning behind the month. 

Make it an ongoing commitment

Videos spotlighting the queer community shouldn’t be restricted just to June’s content calendar. Sure, you can increase your focus during Pride Month. However, to show that your retail brand truly supports the community, you should use videos featuring LGBTQ+ voices and issues throughout the year to highlight your ongoing commitment. 

From two-minute documentaries to a 30-second clip, here’s how a few major brands have used video marketing to contribute to Pride Month:

Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein’s This Is Love campaign launched in 2024 honours Pride Month with authenticity, emotional depth, and visual storytelling. True to Calvin Klein’s aesthetic roots, the video features sleek, cinematic visuals. The camera work is intimate, capturing small gestures and honest interactions that speak louder than even their famous CK logo. 

It’s the level of visual sophistication that makes the campaign memorable and shareable. Instead of looking like a Pride ad, it feels like a short film.

This is achieved by giving celebrities like Cara Delevigne a platform to strip down and speak openly about the highs and lows of love, including self-love. This makes the message feel grounded in real, lived experience. 

Another reason which makes this campaign such a good example is that Calvin Klein successfully manages to tie Pride Month to their own product without losing its authenticity. It subtly switches the narrative about love to how clothing is such a key tool for self-expression.

Converse

Converse is a fashion brand, so design matters. Their Proud to Be video is full of colourful backdrops, without falling into the trap of using colour without substance. It manages to do this by pairing the colourful visuals with real, honest storytelling that spotlights voices from the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s these voices, from different backgrounds, genders, and orientations, sharing personal reflections on identity, expression, and pride that are the focus point of the ad. The Proud to Be campaign stands out because it doesn’t try to define Pride. Instead, it invites people to define it for themselves. 

The power not only lies in the verbal messages, but also the body language of its diverse cast. Their confident body language gives its product range an expressive quality that makes the moments eye-catching and empowering.   

Macy’s

Macy’s is another brand that shows how fashion styles become tools of empowerment, whether it’s a wig, pin, suit, or cape. It features LGBTQ+ youth that use fashion as means of discovery, self-determination, and affirmation. 

While the video celebrates everyday young people (and the self-expression power of fashion), it acknowledges that it’s not always as easy as to pop on a pin and find acceptance. That’s why they partnered with The Trevor Project that provides crisis services to LGBTQ+ youth to make a world of acceptance a reality for more. As such, the call to action isn’t “Buy Now” but “Donate Today”.

Bath & Body Works

Bath & Body Works took a slightly different approach to the other retail brands discussed above. To celebrate the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month, they collaborated with two perfumers, Victor Bartash and Chiaki Nomura, to create their Love Always Wins collection. This collection includes a wide range of products inspired by the feeling of ultimate freedom using a fragrance with notes of rainbow citrus.  

To launch this new range, they created a video that takes you behind the scenes of creating this new product range. It also features one of Bath & Body’s own employees, Julianne Fletcher who shares her connection to and support for the community.