It’s truly remarkable that there is a marketing team out there that thought it would be a good idea for ANZ Australia to take sides in one of the most divisive national debates of our time. Of the 12.7 million Australians who voted in the Same-Sex Marriage survey, 38.4% of votes fell on one side, 61.6% fell on the other.

At the risk of offending 4,873,987 potential Australian customers, ANZ Australia has introduced the GAYTM. Yes, they’ve managed to sexualise a bank transaction, although they look more like something from the set of George Clooney’s, Batman and Robin.

AGL Energy also distanced themselves from 4.8 million potential customers, in the name of diversity and inclusion, sharing videos and photos from the Midsumma Festival, an annual celebration of LGBTQI culture, with their 25.5k Facebook followers. Reactions, of course, are mixed. A number of people have threatened to leave. But what’s truly fascinating is that any business, anywhere, would willingly risk offending so many potential customers. Does really it pay off for a company to participate in these sorts of things?