Gay Advertisg’s Long March Out of the Closet

Contents:

• HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
• GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
• ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
• GAY ADVERTISG’S LONG MARCH OUT OF THE CLOSET

HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY

A Democratic print had jt passed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and after IKEA aired one of the first major ad mpaigns pictg a gay uple, someone had lled a bomb threat on an IKEA store. It was such an unual cisn—and such a succs—that phed gay and lbian advertisg om the g to the mastream. It’s that Suba cultivated s image as a r for lbians—and did so at a time when few pani would embrace or even acknowledge their gay ctomers.

“The women were practilly mercials for Suba, ” John Nash, the creative director of the ad agency that ultimately ma Suba’s gay and lbian advertisements, relled 2004. Gay seemed to be on the losg si of the culture war: the Clton Admistratn had jt created s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regardg homosexualy the ary, and 1996, Congrs would pass the Defense of Marriage Act.

GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?

Mastream movi and TV shows wh gay characters—like Will & Grace—were still a few years away, and few celebri were openly gay. When Ellen Degener beme a rare exceptn 1997, and her character the show Ellen me out as gay an episo of the s, many pani pulled their ads. When a 1994 IKEA ad featured a gay uple, the Amerin Fay Associatn mounted boytts, and someone lled a (fake) bomb threat on an IKEA store.

Today, this IKEA ad of a gay uple shoppg for a dg room table seems mundane. In the 1990s, Poux worked at Mulryan/Nash, an agency that specialized the gay market.

ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?

“All the l of marketg went out the wdow at this fear” of marketg to gays and lbians, he says. When one Suba ad man, Tim Mahoney, proposed the gay-targetg ads talks wh Japane executiv, the executiv hurriedly looked up “gay” their dictnari. Bent rells holdg pany meetgs wh nam along the l of “Who Are Gays and Lbians?

The Suba team knew they had to support their gay and lbian employe if they wanted to appeal to lbian ctomers. By 1996, Suba ads created by the Mulryan/Nash ad agency were appearg both gay publitns and mastream media. In rponse to the ads, Suba received letters om a grassroots group that acced the rmaker of promotg homosexualy.

Like nerds who grow up to nont their bulli, Suba executiv realized that the people opposg the acknowledgement of gays and lbians were not as imposg as they seemed. Suba’s semal role gay advertisg is famo the bs and marketg world, but the rmaker’s role cultivatg s lbian-iendly image is ls well known among laypeople.

GAY ADVERTISG’S LONG MARCH OUT OF THE CLOSET

The light among niche dience groups “undg” the hts Suba ads surprised the marketg team—and the se of s gay-iendly ads, so did straight dienc’ ignorance. While gay and lbian nsumers loved the shout outs the license plat, straight people would only notice featur like a bike rack.

Pl Poux, who helped e up wh the license plate ia, says he held foc groups wh straight dienc where he’d show ads featurg gay upl. Even after an hour of talkg about gay issu, they’d thk a man was shoppg wh his uncle. ” But Pl Poux says there was some fort to the fact that the gay marketg went unr the radar.

As more pani began marketg to LGBT dienc, secret dg beme somethg of a playbook known by the term “gay vague”—a way for pani to reach queer dienc wh mimal risk of a nservative backlash. This famo Volkswagen ad, which was perceived as gay-iendly, is credibly subtle. While Volkswagen played y about whether an ad perceived as gay-iendly really portrayed a gay uple, Suba sponsored events like gay pri paras, partnered wh the Rabow Card, a cred rd that stead of sh back offered donatns to gay and lbian , and hired Marta Navratilova, a lbian and former tennis pro, to appear Suba ads.