While the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the legalization of gay marriage this week, some of the biggest companies in the world risked isolating its conservative consumer base to come out in loud support of marriage equality.
Brands from Bud Light to Martha Stewart Living riffed on the Human Rights Campaign red equal sign that has gone viral on Facebook.
Although the image of Paula Deen riding the symbol — with the caption "It's like two sticks of butter, y'all" — that has been going around is clearly a parody, many other companies have created legitimate social media campaigns to show their unabashed support for the cause.
Bud Light re-created the red equal sign — a symbol of people's support of marriage equality that has taken over Facebook newsfeeds — with two cans of Bud.
The company has received a lot of Facebook hate, but it doesn't care.
Martha Stewart Living decided to spread the message with cake.
Expedia changed its cover photo to the popular image linked to marriage equality advocacy.
HBO's "True Blood" gave the red equals sign a supernatural edge.
Smirnoff's message is clear: "Every pairing is perfect." Note how the straws are holding hands. But not all Facebook fans loved the message. (Read comments below.)
Absolut has long been an ally to the gay rights movement. Wednesday it showed its "Absolut Support" of gay marriage.
Absolut began advertising its support of gay marriage as early as 1989.
Kenneth Cole posted this message of support for equal rights on its Facebook Tuesday while the Supreme Court was listening to arguments on the subject.
Although Kenneth Cole has been a long-time ally to the movement. This billboard recently popped up in New York City.
The company also ran this print campaign in favor of marriage equality.
Oreo has supported gay rights in the past but was relatively silent regarding this week's Supreme Court gay marriage case. Mashable wonders if this tweet is a subtle message about marriage equality.
Oreo tweeted this image for gay pride day in 2012.
The gay pride Oreo, from Kraft's Facebook page.
Last month Levi's posted this ad — with a white equals sign — to show its support of the Human Rights Campaign's fight for marriage equality.
But its fight has been going since 2009, when Levi's attached a pro-gay marriage white ribbon on the pocket of all of its new jeans as a symbol of the company's opposition to Prop 8.
In October 2012, Nordstrom sent an email to all employees announcing its full support of gay marriage.
The letter from Blake, Pete, and Erik Nordstrom — the president and presidents of merchandising and stores, respectively — began discussing the company's respect towards gay and lesbian employees and early anti-discrimination policy.
It continued:
"We feel the next step in this journey is to now support freedom to marry, also called marriage equality. There is a lot of awareness of this issue across the country and we've heard from many employees and customers. We gave this thoughtful consideration and felt the time was right to come out in support of this civil rights issue. It is our belief that our gay and lesbian employees are entitled to the same rights and protections marriage provides under the law as all other employees. We also believe supporting freedom to marry will help us create a more attractive and inclusive workplace for our current and prospective employees. Again - this decision is consistent with our long-time philosophy of inclusively and equality for our customers and employees.
"We recognize there are differing opinions about freedom to marry. We hope we've been clear about why we made this decision. To all of our employees - if you choose to talk about this with each other, please do so respectfully. We want you to be informed about our position so you can also respectfully answer any customer questions that come your way."
In July 2012, right around when Chick-Fil-A came under fire for slamming gay marriage, Target released this wedding gift registry ad featuring a gay couple. Some still criticized the company for not taking an official stance against Minnesota's traditional marriage bill, however.
Of the Minnesota bill, a Target spokesperson said, "We recognize that there is a broad range of strongly held views on the MN Marriage amendment. Consistent with our longstanding support of civic engagement, we strongly encourage our team members to exercise their right to vote in November."
JCP was criticized by the right for using openly gay personality Ellen DeGeneres as its spokesperson, but the company didn't care. It also ran this ad featuring two dads for Father's Day 2012.
Although JCP isn't scared to show ads featuring same sex couples, it hasn't made an official statement regarding gay marriage.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been particularly vocal about his support of gay marriage and last week told stockholders that disagree, "You could sell your shares at Starbucks and buy shares in other companies."
In 2012, Starbucks — along with other Northwest companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Nike, and Google — supported legislation that would legalize gay marriage in Washington State.
Some companies have been unbelievable in their support of gay marriage. But now here's another kind of unbelievable.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/major-brands-that-support-gay-marriage-photos-2013-3?op=1#ixzz3geLZ5GXJ
