The CEO to the growing driving service Uber, Travis Kalanick, honored Pride Week, which celebrates the LGBTQ community, by officiating free weddings for same-sex couples in San Francisco. Uber showed their support—and publicized their product—by offering free transportation to a free wedding ceremony, as well as a free honeymoon.
In a blog post, the company wrote, “We’re thankful to be based in San Francisco, a city that recognizes love doesn’t have to look any certain way. In honor of Pride Week, we’re celebrating the inclusive idea that love is love with something that lasts a lifetime.”
The company partnered with a variety of local vendors in the Bay Area to ensure the finest weddings for the loving couples. The site explained the event details on their website, stating:
“You’ll walk down an aisle surrounded by flowers from BloomThat and candles from Bella J. After you both say, ‘I do,’ we’ll celebrate with dessert from SusieCakes, cheers with champagne from Iron Horse and you’ll receive a gift bag from L,” Uber said on their site.
Uber also paired up with HotelTonight and Alaska Airlines to provide flights and hotels for honeymoon accommodations,” according to Business Insider.
In the past, the company has delivered food, music and ice cream to costumers, but weddings? Never been done before. While many praised the company for its fun way to honor same-sex marriage, others took to criticize the event as a massive publicity stunt.
Matt Conn, founder of Midboss and GaymerX Conference remarks on the marketing technique in TechCrunch.
“Yeah, pretty gross,” Conn said. “While it’s nice they’re giving away free trips to people who want to tie the knot… it seems like a very gross way to enter into what should be a lifelong commitment. It seems like a way to get people who are using their app to be like, ‘Oh, Uber supports LGBT people, they’re great.’ It’s a very see-through attempt by straight folks to try to capitalize on the ‘hot’ trend of gay rights. It’s just disrespecting marriage.”
Photo: via Valleywag
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