When Burger King created its Proud Whopper for San Francisco’s Gay Pride parade and Pride Week, it probably thought it stood on a great idea. Because it did.

People were not told that the burger sold only at its Market Street store in San Francisco was the same Whopper burger as always. Only the wrapper had changed. It was rainbow coloured and when opened, the message inside was revealed, “We are all the same inside.”

Twitter and Facebook went wild. Most comments were negative. Burger King copped a walloping both sides – the anti-gay for the company’s advocacy of gay pride and the pro-gay who viewed its advocacy cynically.

The attacks came despite Burger King’s donating sales of the Proud Whopper (which is only available at the Market Street, SF location) to its McLamore Foundation, for scholarships benefiting LGBT college-bound, high school seniors who are graduating in 2015.

Apple has also faced scornful responses to its support of the LGBT community. But that hasn’t deterred it. Apple’s chief executive officer, Tim Cook, marched – literally and figuratively – down a road lined with media gossip about his sexual preferences last week. This was the first year that Apple officially sanctioned its people’s participation in the parade.

Cook marched (literally) with members of the company’s LGBT affinity group, 9to5Mac.com, wearing one of Apple’s Gay Pride t-shirts…as did 5,000 Apple employees, some of whom had taken long flights  from far away countries to march. Meanwhile, CNBC and NPR ignited a media game of Chinese whispers about Cook’s (perhaps) being gay.

Apple created a new rainbow coloured logo for 2014 – a good idea after previously getting the LGBT colour bands wrong…

It handed out vouchers for free iTunes songs at the parade…

And it created a heartstring tugger video of its view of the parade set to Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars, which it launched on YouTube on July 7, with this description:

On June 29, thousands of Apple employees and their families marched in the San Francisco Pride Parade. They came from around the world — from cities as far as Munich, Paris, and Hong Kong — to celebrate Apple’s unwavering commitment to equality and diversity. Because we believe that inclusion inspires innovation.

The film was made by Miami production company, David, and directed by Smuggler’s Henry-Alex Rubin.

Cook makes a cameo appearance, as do a number of Apple products – an iPad Air being used for logistics operations and very many iPhones in the hands of employees. It closes on the tagline, Inclusion inspires innovation, which Cook also tweeted on parade day.