LA Pride Bucks National Trend by Retaining Most of Its Brand Sponsors

Yahoo

07-05-2025

LA Pride, with its annual parade taking place the heart of Hollywood next month, is bucking a national trend by holding onto its corporate sponsors as brands like Mastercard, Budweiser, PepsiCo, and Citi divest from similar events in major U.S. cities.
The day-long festival, scheduled for June 8, lists Delta, Coca-Cola, Casamigos tequila, Mac cosmetics, Sony Pictures, AEG, L'Oreal, Honda, the National Football League, and at least a dozen more companies on its sponsor roster. Toyota didn't renew a three-year deal that had expired, but was replaced by another brand, organizers said.
The event, which drew more than 130,000 attendees in 2024, has relatively the same number of backers-and the same total budget-as in previous years, according to Kareem Cervantes, vice-president of the board of directors of organizer Christopher Street West.
The news comes as Pride parades in cities such as New York, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington D.C., and others have seen their partner lists shrink amid a public pull-back of corporate support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities.
Leaders at Christopher Street West say LA Pride's 55-year legacy may be one reason for the brand stability, along with the goal of building long-term relationships with partners via an assist from agency A&Co.
"We refer to ourselves as the elder Pride," Cervantes told ADWEEK, noting that the event has had time to develop its infrastructure. "We have history on our side."
Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts are among the famous grand marshals of this year's LA Pride parade.
Additional brand backers-Stoli vodka, Ugg, Nordstrom, and a host of local civic, health, and cultural organizations-will take part in the parade and its accompanying Pride Village street fair.
Rethinking Pride
The endorsements come amid a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) backlash from President Donald Trump's administration, while transgender rights have become a hot-button culture-war issue. Brands ranging from Anheuser-Busch and Diageo to Comcast and Nissan have dialed back or dropped their Pride sponsorships, with some citing the current economic instability.
Politics loom large, though, with 61% of companies saying pressure from the Trump administration has caused them to rethinking their Pride activities, per Gravity Research's Pride Pulse Poll.
In recent months, Trump signed an executive order to "end radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing." Since then, 39% of companies have said they plan to reduce their Pride-centric support, with Gravity Research noting that Pride engagement is "being re-engineered-as polarization deepens, brands are favoring lower-profile, internally focused strategies that minimize public exposure while signaling commitment to employees."
The situation has meant hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue to Pride events, according to national nonprofit USA Prides, including the loss of 30-year Pride partner AB InBev in its St. Louis hometown.
At least a few brands with recent DEI-related controversies-Target and H&M among them-will take part in Pride celebrations in L.A. and New York. At the same time, Minnesota's Twin Cities Pride announced in January that it was turning down Target's sponsorship in the wake of the retailer's DEI rollback. Target, via an emailed statement, said it will 'continue to support local Pride events around the country, as we have done for many years.'
LA Pride, which often signs three-year deals with its endorsers, said there are fall-offs and changes each year on the sponsor roster but that "no one has come to us this year and said they're not renewing because of the current political environment or the rollbacks in DEI," Cervantes said.
And though the deadline for deals has passed, organizers may continue adding more brands because of ongoing interest, he said, likely to the free street fair that has entertainment programming, food trucks, and brand booths.
LA Pride recently announced talent for the parade, with actor Andrew Rannells serving as celebrity grand marshal. Niecy Nash and Jessica Betts are vanguard grand marshals, while Trino Garcia and Adam Vasquez (content creators known as TrinoxAdam) are community grand marshals. With its "Pride Marches On" theme, the event will pay tribute to first responders, relief groups, city officials, and others who served the area during the devastating fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.
Continuing deals with media outlets ABC News (via channel KABC7), Hulu, TelevisaUnivision and iHeartMedia will broadcast the event on TV, streaming services and radio.