South Korea’s largest alcoholic beverage provider Oriental Brewery expressed its support for the Seoul Queer Culture Festival which starts Saturday and sexual minorities, according to the company’s social network accounts on Friday.

On its official Twitter account, the company posted an image of a rainbow-colored Cass can with a message that read, “(The company) supports your color, YASS!” with hashtags such as “#queer festival.”

It also said the company sends cheers to the 20th anniversary of the festival, the only event for homosexuals held in Seoul.


This marked the first time that a large-size business has officially expressed support for the sexual minorities through its marketing.

Since 1978, the rainbow has been a symbol of advocating for the human rights of the sexual minorities.

Some market observers pointed out that the unprecedented move of the beer company was partly attributable to its current CEO Bruno Cosentino from Brazil.

He served as vice president of AB InBev’s Asia-Pacific Office. The company is based in Belgium that was the world’s second country to legalize same-sex marriage. The Belgian firm acquired OB in 2014.

It is, however, yet uncertain whether the rainbow Cass can will be officially available for purchase.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)