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By Joe Arney

As president of Boulder-based Young Ideas, Morgan Young has helped his share of major companies navigate crises and put out public relations fires.

But Bud Light鈥檚 campaign with a social media influencer and the resulting outrage from a portion of its customer base鈥攚hich emptied AR-15s at beer cans on social media鈥攅ven has him scratching his head.

鈥淚 just don鈥檛 know what the thought process was,鈥� said Young, a teaching assistant professor at CU Boulder鈥檚 College of Media, Communication and Information. 鈥淚t came across as so inauthentic, especially when they attacked their own customers and said the campaign was a way to approach a new fan base. And then they alienated the LGBTQ community by backing away when their customers started shooting cans of beer.

鈥淵ou know, I鈥檓 from San Francisco. It鈥檚 an urban center with a long progressive history on many issues, including LGBTQ听issues, and I haven鈥檛 seen a lot of Bud Light in my time at any event I鈥檝e ever attended. And Bud Light is not going to change that just because you put Dylan Mulvaney鈥檚 face on a can of light beer.鈥�

Being authentic, Young and other CMCI experts said, means meaningful engagement with the LGBTQ community, a year-round commitment to supporting gay rights and understanding that a brand can鈥檛 please everyone.

鈥淭here鈥檚 more to this than whether your Twitter handle is a Pride flag,鈥� said Jamie Skerski, a teaching associate professor and director of the Josephine Jones Speaking Lab. 鈥淏eing authentic in this space means evaluating your actual company practices鈥攅verything from promoting inclusive benefits to having gender-neutral bathrooms.鈥�

If you鈥檙e just rainbow washing, 鈥渁 savvy consumer will quickly smell out a marketing gimmick,鈥� Young said鈥攅specially when those gimmicks don鈥檛 align with our own values, a challenge for communicators in the age of social media-created echo chambers.

Consumers 鈥榟ave more power now鈥�

Brands, he said, no longer have the luxury of staying on the sidelines, especially when consumers have more power than ever to create controversy with a tweet.

鈥淎s consumers, we have more power now. Brands really need to adjust to that reality鈥攁nd they have to stick by their values once they start getting hit from a segment that is not their customer. Your brand has to be able to say, 鈥榃e know we can鈥檛 make everybody happy, but we don鈥檛 have to sell to everybody.鈥欌��

Both professors pointed to different brands鈥擮penTable, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nike, Old Navy, Pop Tarts, Skittles and others鈥攖hat aren鈥檛 shy about messaging that chooses a side.

鈥淔or me, it comes down to a business decision that is about values, as opposed to being about one customer base or another,鈥� Skerski said. 鈥淲hat it鈥檚 going to take is those brands saying, we鈥檙e not going to open any more stores in Florida, or we鈥檙e not going to have our tournaments in states that are taking reproductive rights away from women.鈥�

During June, she said, OpenTable鈥檚 dining reservation app recommended nearby gay-owned restaurants, 鈥渨hich is what Pride month should be about鈥攆inding tangible ways to support the LGBTQ community, both politically and baby直播appally.鈥�

Meanwhile, Young said, 鈥渨hen I was a kid, the bad guy was Nike,鈥� a company whose leadership seemingly embraced child labor in developing countries to help it become a global sports brand. But most of its brand ambassadors are influential people of color, and when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem, 鈥渢hey realized they couldn鈥檛 sit on the sidelines.鈥�

That helped usher in its Dream Crazy campaign, supporting people of color and the LGBTQ community with athletes like Megan Rapinoe and Serena Williams. Its Kaepernick ad featured the athlete delivering the line 鈥淏elieve in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.鈥�

鈥淭hey lost a certain audience, but they also found a very new audience,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I think Nike was able to look at the arc of society, and say, this is where we think society is going. But most importantly, this is the kind of brand that we want to be.鈥�