What have Budweiser’s ‘demi-sexual’ drinking cups got to do with Pride?

It’s June, which means it is Pride month. Which means brands are desperately painting rainbows over their merchandise in an attempt to seem woke. Ikea, for example, has launched rainbow shopping bags to bring queer cheer to the budget-furniture shopping experience. The shaving-kit company Harry’s has given us rainbow razors for a more progressive depilatory session. And Listerine has come out with a rainbow-themed bottle of mouthwash for gayer gargling.

I was pretty sure that Pride-branded mouthwash was the peak of performative corporate ally-ship, but, just a few days ago, Budweiser UK came along and told Listerine: “Hold my beer.” Rather than just smothering its cans in your run-of-the-mill rainbow flag, Budweiser – which is an official sponsor of Pride in London – decided to up the ante with limited-edition cups featuring nine flags that “celebrate the diversity within the LGBT+ community”.

So how does this diversity pan out via the medium of cup? Well, Budweiser gave us a taste of its campaign on Friday, tweeting explanations for the nine colour-coded vessels. There’s the asexual pride cup, for example, which features a black, grey, purple and white schema. “Black is for asexuals who don’t feel sexual attraction to anyone,” Budweiser tells us sagely. “Grey is for grey-asexuals, who sometimes feel sexual attraction, and demi-sexuals, who only feel it if they know someone well. White nods to non-asexual allies, and purple represents the whole community.”

There are eight more cups and about eight million more colours to go, but let’s just stop there for a second so that I can shake my homosexual head in confusion. I know that Budweiser is an expert in watering things down, but this incredibly specific, colour-coded categorisation seems to dilute the whole point of Pride. Perhaps, though, I am being cynical. Perhaps I am overlooking the widespread persecution of demi-sexuals and grey-asexuals in society. Perhaps, having been validated by a multinational beer brand, an oppressed grey-asexual will now be able to hold hands with another grey-asexual on the street without worrying about being called a graggot, gryke or whatever slur it is that people use against grey-asexuals.

To be fair to Budweiser, the grey-asexual example is one of the more niche categories it is celebrating; it also has, for example, a transgender cup, a bisexual cup and a lesbian cup. The brand also worked closely with Pride London and a number of LGBT charities for its Fly the Flag campaign – which is something a lot of companies don’t bother doing. TransPals UK, one of the groups Budweiser partnered with, countered one criticism of the campaign by tweeting that the partnership “will provide much-needed funding & support to the South LDN Trans community”.

Budweiser’s colourful campaign has, suitably, provoked a diverse range of reactions. Some people are delighted that a mainstream brand is drawing attention to things such as gender fluidity; others are bemused by the fact that a beer company is telling us all that “pink is for femininity, blue for masculinity … black represents lack of gender and white stands for all genders”. My own nuanced take on the campaign is that: 1) it’s ridiculous and 2) I’d rather snog Ann Widdecombe than drink Budweiser. But that’s just my own hot-pink lesbian opinion. Anyway, happy Pride, everyone.

• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist.

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