Queer folks are poking fun at corporations during Pride Month by parodying advertisements aimed at the LGBTQ community on Twitter and TikTok.
June 1 was the start of pride month and tweets started rolling in, all following a similar script: A queer person shares something—possibly fictionalized—about their past, identity, and/or coming out journey, and then reveals a fictionalized partnership with a brand.
One of the first advertisement parodies posted on June 1 seems to be from Katie Jo, a TikToker and comedian. That night, she tweeted that she’s “never officially come out as bisexual before.”
“In part because I’m married to a straight man and I’m scared that people won’t take my bisexuality seriously,” Jo tweeted. “But I’ve realized life is short, which is why this pride I’ve decided to partner with Taco Bell, so I can Live Mas-“
On Thursday, Jo’s tweet had almost 160,000 likes on Twitter. Jo asked Taco Bell to make a donation to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that aims to prevent suicide among LGBTQ youth.
Another tweet comes from writer Maddy Fellows, who tweeted that she was bullied for dating a girl as a teenager.
“They called me a ‘carpet muncher,’” Fellows tweeted. “That’s why this pride month i’m partnering with Stanley Steemer the Carpet Cleaner—” Fellows’ tweet had almost 130,000 likes on Thursday.
Comedian Dylan Adler shared a similar story: He said he was bullied, called slurs, and thrown in a trash can for being gay.
“That’s why this pride I’m partnering with GLAD trash bags,” Adler tweeted on June 2.
Krishna Aghi, a scientist and grad student, said that dealing with desirability politics as a trans woman of color “makes it so hard to get railed.”
“And that’s why this Pride month I’m partnering with Amtrak,” Aghi tweeted.
A reply to Aghi’s tweet addressed the appeal of the phenomena itself.
“I’ve read more than 6 of these tweets and I NEVER see it coming,” @nani_xxxx tweeted.
The surprise of the tweets seems to be in their striking similarity to real Pride Month ads, like a TikTok posted by The Old Gays, a group of four older queer men, in June 2021. The video starts with each man explaining his coming out journey: being outed against their will, losing a parent at a young age, fearing coming out to parents, and the uncertainty that comes with exploring one’s identity.
Suddenly, the four men are in front of a Shake Shack sign, all holding milkshakes.
“The Old Gays are Unshakeable!” they say before describing the restaurant’s Pride shake. A year later, the video has almost 3.5 million views, and commenters shared that the advertisement brought them to tears.
The parody trend has made its way to TikTok, too. TikToker Tre Vayne posted a video on June 1—which had almost 45,000 views on Thursday—full of corporate Pride partnership jokes. In it, he jokes that he’s partnering with the Department of Homeland Security, Monsanto, and even the National Rifle Association.
“Love is love,” he wrote in the video’s caption. “And a check is a check.”
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