Gay and Lesbian Advertising

advertizement Out of the deferral In 1994, Ikea created a wave of controversy when they became one of the first companies to merchandise to the dauntless community on mainstream day fourth dimension television. Despite the sign take place this ad tied(p)tu wholey sparked countless take issueent companies jump on the homo and Lesbian Advertising Bandwagon. But what is the motive behind advertising ad hocally to this community, do the phone linees take a genuine interest in the festal community or is it strictly for expanding barter?Additionally, once a business decides to advertise using ethereal content, what is the appropriate route to go slightly doing so, and how does their strategy differ between gays and homo knowledgeables? Only 4 to 10% of the universe of discourse identifies themselves as gay or sapphic. (Okenfull, 50) So why argon businesses so come to with gaining the support of this demographic? One of the biggest agreements beingness their buying p ower. plot of land they dont flummox to a large(p)er extent than heterosexual couples, a round majority argon non raising children, so they acquit much disposable income.Thus, they sport even been referred to as the Dream Market with a potential buying power of $641 billion annually (Okenfull, 49). Because this is the fore virtually reason why advertisers go after the gay community, this makes us question whether they hand a genuine interest in the gay community. We mart to gays and sapphics for business reasons because we inadequacy to sell aside product to consumers. It doesnt get more complicated than that. -Miller beer spokeswoman (Sender, 2) It is common k instantaneouslyledge that the simply point of advertizing is to amaze in more business.However, analyzing the overall shock absorber of advertising on golf-club, it looks as if there is more that comes into play than just a business decision. In fact, regardless of the callers motive to produce advertise ments that feel gay content, the overall impact of infiltrating gay content into mainstream media has truly helped advance and liberate the gay community. voluminous corporations not further reflect societys f unkepting values, tho they be also largerly responsible for shaping societys values. If there atomic number 18 more gay and lesbian imagery in the media, society testament adapt he perception that they ar ein truthwhere and averagealizes crotchet. Also, having large corporations backwards a minority-based cause, will make the majority more accepting and make the people in opposition to the cause seem more ignorant. Essentially, even just the facade of a comp any(prenominal) publicly declaring their support for gayness makes a powerful statement to society. not only is appearing to be in support of gay rights is something that will boost your business, but to have any anti-gay statement or claims can detrimentally hurt your social club as well. In 1977, Coors wa s accused of firing gays, along with several other minority groups. Journal of Community Research) Not long after a good deal controversy, chairman Pete Coors adopted an Gay-Friendly policy and also extended benefits to same-sex couples. In 2000, Coors hiked up their spending on gay advertising, putting them in the number twain secernate for most money spent on gay advertisements. (Chura, 1) afterwards a company composes seen as anti-gay, it is evident that they must fight desperately to overcome this stigma just to stay in the game. Beer is a set example of a product thats advertisements have saturated the gay market to the extent of which if you do not participate, then youre stance on gay rights is questioned.There is a very positive outcome for the some companies that certify their support to the gay community as well as a negative outcome for companies that dont. Despite this it still leaves many consumers wondering(a) of their motives. many advertisements, in a fai led attempt to show acceptance, have become the buns of gay critics. The harshest of recoil of these ads atomic number 18 in ones in which they take in obvious and slayensive gay stereotypes. It is evident that advertisers must handle these types of ads with railroad political machinee, depiction gay stereotypes can lead to further segregation or else than promoting equality.Gay consumers are very skeptical to how a company presents gay advertisements, but perhaps the biggest obstacle is to still keep heterosexual consumers that are turned make by or blatantly opposed to homosexuality. When Ikea first ran their ad on daytime television, there was a positive response from gay consumers. However, during this time period it still created enough controversy that outweighed the benefits of appealing to that market. This is when agencies quickly realised that limiting their advertisements to the confines of strictly gay and lesbian print media such(prenominal)(prenominal) as OUT magazine was a safer route for the time being.Although the initial reaction by heterosexuals to this first commercial was negative and controversial, this was also a time in history where the attitude around gay media was at a turning point . Gay shows became less of a niche market, and more mainstream. More recently, gay-oriented shows such as the L Word, Will and Grace, Ellen, peculiar(a) as Folk, and Queer Eye for a Straight Guy have increasingly pushed the boundaries of cultural accepatnce of homosexuality and have diminished the risk of backlash for firms who are percieved to be gay hospitable. (Okenfull, 50)Shows dealing with this content presumably have made the hetereosexual community more understanding to this type of lifestyle and generationally speaking, the current generation became much more samely to support the gay rights movement. Thus, compound gay ads into mainstream television and print media was back on the table. Because the decision for advertisers to target the gay community is still a very controversial submit for both tasteful and gay consumers, it is imperative to acknowledge the vast differences in how to effectively target this audience.First, it is important to recognize gay potent consumers and lesbian fe young-begetting(prenominal) consumers as a very different audience. Additionally, it is important to valuate how voiceless their grammatical sexual activity identity is. The strength of ones gender identity is based on several different factors, such as how strong their involvement and sense of belonging is to the gay community. Gay males that are identified as having a naughty degree of sexual identity, are more attracted to ads that display unequivocal gay content. (Okenfull, 54) To illustrate an ad that is explicitly gay, (refer to picture 1), I chose Virgin Mobiles Hook up Fearlessly.The ad almost positively insinuates that the cardinal males depicted in the ad are gay, if not gay, then extremely turned on by the a gay act. This type of explicitness would be most attractive to males who have a high gay identity rather than low. There is a large power construct in this advertisement. The male with wings is forcefully keeping down the other male to kiss him speckle the male on stooge, period he does seem submissive, he is still enjoying the act victorious place. I personally like this ad mostly because of the actual relevancy to the buying process.Consumers always have an apprehension to buying products, let solo a phone contract. This ad is conveying to the potential consumer to just arrive at in and try it. While the male on get through readiness have been apprehensive about the kiss, just as Youll Love Us guarantee gives you the freedom to chose without strings attached. It is a Just try it ad, and while hooking up in an office space is tabu doing it with with a gay angel is even more controversial and daring, and you cogency just Love It. I like this ad because it commun icates the point fluidly, and replaces any uncertainty with a sense of empowerment and fearlessness.While ads like these are very effective in communicating with the demographic who have a strong sense of gender identity, low identity gays and lesbians are more antiphonary to a less explicit type of advertising. Generally, gays and lesbians who have a low sense of gender identity want to define themselves by traits other than just their sexual preference. By being less explicit, they get the prospect to read between the lines, not feel alienated by their gender identity, and not have their identity to be oversexualized. To target this audience, advertisers indicates gayness without actually using a lesbian or gay couple.Instead they use covert gay imagery which uses symbols and phrases that indicates gayness such as rainbows, pride, and being out. (Okenfull, 55) To illustrate an add that does this, I chose Chevys electric car ad (refer to ad 2). There are a mother and stimulate c ar facing their child car. The caption says Mom, Dad, Im electric. The bottom of the page uses a thin bar that is intended to look like a rainbow. The copy at the bottom is So, whatever revs your engine, we support you vitamin C%, Happy Motor City Pride from the entire Chevrolet family. This is some other ad that I bring forward is done beautifully.They used a social norm of what society knows as the coming out scene. The electric car is declaring that it is not just any old car, just as a gay or lesbian would have to come out to their parents that they are not just another heterosexual. What also intrigues me about that ad is the italics on Im electric. This is presumably a play off the upbeat Its electric song. The car is excited to tell its parents that he is gay, conveying a sense of empowerment and excitement, instead of how we typically think of this meaning, which can often be a shameful and intimidating moment for many children.I also really like the ad for its relevan cy to the gay community. According to a recent survey, only ? of hetereosexuals admitted to being concerned about the environment while 55% of gays and lesbians identified that they are more likely to go green. (Koretzky). It is targeting consumers that are interested in their message, while also encouraging acceptance and becoming empowered. While even high identity lesbians are most attracted to unverbalized gay imagery, their liking towards explicit lesbian imagery comes secondary (before explicit gay imagery).But interestingly enough, lesbian imagery is extremely underrepresented. It was reported that in one of leading gay and lesbian magazines, The Advocate, lesbian-targeted imagery accounted for only 3% of the magazine advertising. Why is this? (Okenfull, 65) Not only do lesbians have typically just as much buying power as gay males, but heterosexual consumers are even more comfortable with lesbian imagery over gay imagery, which lowers the risk of heterosexuals being offende d or turned off from a product. In general, lesbians are less discriminated than gays. his is something that shows up in the workplace jibe to a recent study, gay males make 23% less than dependable males, lesbians make about the same as straight women. (Williams Institute) Perhaps society fetching a particular favoritism to lesbianism is the very reason that advertisements that interpret lesbians couples in ads targeted towards lesbians are more underrepresented. There is a oversexualization attenuated by the heterosexual community of how lesbians are viewed. I chose an ad that was apart of a campaign for a swiss Italian ski reparation (picture 3).A website was stimulusing on the success of this ad with the title of the Article Lesbians Good for Ski descent. the comment on this ad stated, Seems some brilliant ad agency came up with a campaign to promote the Swiss Italian ski resort Airolo by featuring cardinal women about to kiss (pictured above). Were going to punt a gue ss that the intended demographic was not lesbians. They were probably targeting lager louts looking for a good stag party getaway now that Prague has kicked them out. ( bother Outdoor Blog) The imagery does not have any clever tagline, or anything to empower lesbains.In fact, one of the main centerpieces of the point of this ad is the male in the background completely enamored and excited by the thought of two girls kissing. The comment on the article even states that the intended demographic was not lesbains. and makes the point that this ad was to promote a party scene. In fact, most viewers probably would not even assume the two girls in the ad as lesbians. By no means does the ad seem to support the gay community, it rather just sexualizes the fantasy of watching two women make out.A sexual lesbian experience can be arousing to straight men and women, conveying a party type of experience while if the couple was actually a gay couple about to claim in a kiss, this ad would mo st likely be only arousing to gay men, and convey the message that We are a gay friendly place rather than a Party Place. Another advertisement that depicts the sexual objectification of women is the Nikon ad. There is a hand holding up a camera in which he captures the image of two women in lingerie on top of each other. While the gender of the person taking the photo is not identified, it appears to be a male.Because of the interest in the (presumed) male figure, this ad makes it very evident that the relationship between the two women is not a committed lesbian relationship. It is portrayed to be just a sexual one with an objective to please the male. The copy at the bottom states that the Nikon S60 detects up to 12 faces. When you look closer at the ad, you can spot four males in the adjacent apartment building watching the girl-on-girl action. Many consumers were very upset with this ad, believing it to be both sexist and delegitimizing to lesbian relationships. They made the a rgument that, the advertisement is sexist relies heavily on the impulse that the lesbians are unwitting, innocent subjects violated by a voyeuristic male glaze. (Turnbell) The writer refutes this argument by stating that the two women made the conscious decision to objectify themselves by leaving the curtains open, as well letting another male to capture their (not-so) intimate moment on a camera. Additionally, the ad is relevant to the product because it successfully communicates in a clever way that that even though the faces are so far away, the camera is modernistic enough to still detect the voyeurs faces.Personally, I completely agree with the writers argument. However, I would also solicit that these types of ads do present a problem to the lesbian community. How can advertisements tastefully depict a lesbian encounter that meaningfully supports and empowers the lesbian community? Also, how can you conveys that the two women are legitimately homosexual, rather than a sexu alizing their experience? This objectification of the lesbian relationship is likely why many lesbian advertisements are underrepresented.In general, they are most comfortable to advertisements that use implicit hints of sexuality rather than involving males or females (such as the car commercial). Some argue that lesbians are female versions of male sexuality, but this argument is scrutinized because lesbians get word their experience to be completely different. Typically, lesbians are more socially authorized than gay males are. However, they have to fight harder to convince society that their identity is more than just a sexual desirability of a female. One company that has successfully done so is JC Pennys.In 2012, they released their Freedom of Expression ad (See Picture 5) that features two mothers and their daughter. While a group called One billion mystifys presented backlash to this ad, the overall response was positive. There is no overt sexual nature in this picture, it is just depicting a family photo with two mothers. As jcpenney focuses on becoming Americas favorite store, we want to be a store for all Americans. In celebration of Mothers Day, were proud that our May book honors women from diverse backgrounds who all share the heartwarming experience of motherhood. -Eric Bovin (ABC news)In conclusion advertisers have recognized the great importance of tapping into the gay market. Not only is establishing your company as being in support of this cause positive, but in some markets it is necessary. Overall, Advertising to the gay and lesbian community is not one-size-fits-all. It are also specific precautions that you must take in entering into this type of market. Not only are you going up against the criticisms of anti-gay groups, but you are also up against the scrutiny of whether your advertisement is legitimate or whether you are using the supplement of the gay community to seem more accepting and grow your consumer base.There are Advert ising Agencies must take into account the way in which homosexuals see themselves in terms of their involvement as well as the how males and females differ in what appeals to them. Works Cited Hilary Chura, Coors hikes spending on gay ads, March 27, 2000 Katherine Sender, Business Not Politics The Making of the Gay Market, New York Columbia University Press, 2005, 331 pp. , The dynamics of Brand Legitimacy An Interpretive Study in the Gay mens Community (PDF).Journal Article, Journal of Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press. JSTOR 10. Going Green, Going Gay? Micheal Koretzky, Jan 13, 2011 The Williams Institute, put down Evidence of Employment Discrimination and Its Effects on LGBT People (July 2011). Get Outdoors Blog, Lesbians for Good Ski Business (Decemebr 21,2007) James Turnbell, A sexist Advertisement? Lesbians and the Politics of the Male Glaze (December 13, 2008) ABC News, JC Penney Features Same sexuality Couple in May Catalouge, (May 12, 2012)