A photo of Kraft’s mayonnaise labelled “Real Gayo” has gone viral this Pride Month, but is the product real or fake?
June marks Pride Month, the celebration to honour the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. On 28 June 1969, police raided Stonewall Inn – a gay club in Greenwich Village – sparking six days of riots outside the bar. It’s now regarded as the catalyst for the global gay rights movement.
Decades later, Pride-themed merchandise spikes every June, with members of the LGBTQ+ community criticising brands for rainbow capitalism and pinkwashing – the commercialisation of all things Pride.
The latest brand seemingly celebrating the occasion is Kraft – the conglomerate behind the all-American cheese singles – with their new mayo packaging.
But is “Real Gayo” a real thing?
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Is Kraft’s Real Gayo real or fake?
Nope, Kraft’s Real Gayo is not real!
The product in question is a squeezy bottle of mayonnaise, fittingly designed in a rainbow bottle for Pride Month. While the colour isn’t concerning, it’s the name and slogan that had us – and Twitter – in disbelief.
Firstly, advertising “Add pride to your next BLT” makes no sense, and highlighting “bonus trans fat” and “closet free eggs” really is a stretch to add LGBTQ terms into their marketing.
Real Gayo isn’t a real product; the photo was expertly photoshopped by a digital creator called Doctor Photograph. The original was first posted on Instagram on Thursday (June 2nd 2022) and another internet user added a Snapchat caption to make it look even more realistic.
If it was real, it’d definitely be marketing gone too far.
We have to commend Doctor Photograph for his impressive editing skills though since even the bottles in the background have been modified.
Here’s another mayo design:
Kraft supports the LGBTQ+ community
The food manufacturer has yet to post messages embracing Pride Month 2022, but they raised money for BIPOC members of the LGBTQ+ community two years ago.
We’re sure that Kraft is still behind them since the New England Patriots lit up Gillette Stadium with a rainbow flag on Thursday – the football team is owned by Robert Kraft, the chairman of the Kraft Group.
Three brands that are actually helping out the LGBTQ communities
These following companies aren’t jumping on the bandwagon to boost their sales – they’re giving back to charities supporting LGBTQ communities.
Fossil
100 per cent of proceeds from the sales of the new collection will be donated to The Trevor Project, a non-profit focusing on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth.
Puma
Cara Delevigne has partnered with the sports brand featuring apparel with vibrant graphics and logos. The model came out as pansexual in a Variety interview in 2020 and has been praised for being one of the most visible queer women in Hollywood.
20 per cent of the proceeds will be given to GLAAD.
Morphe
All proceeds from Morphe’s Made With Pride collection will be given to The Trevor Project. The makeup brand has donated nearly $900k to LGBTQ organisations, including $400k to The Trevor Project.
