The pink pound’s hidden history

The pink pound is not what you think it is; or, rather, I want to convince you that it’s a lot more than you think it is. Depending on whom you think has most agency in commercial relationships, the pink pound (or pink economy) has generally been defined as the spending power of gay men and lesbians, or as an increasingly lucrative target market courted by some savvy marketers. Proponents of the value of the pink pound describe gay men in particular as having a greater disposable income than the average consumer and as being earlier adopters of new products. According to an Ingenious Group marketing conference in 2006, the pink pound was already worth some £70 billion to British business.