This 1994 Ikea Ad Was TV's First-Ever Ad Wh a Gay Couple - Curbed

Contents:

• HOW GAY UPL TV MERCIALS BEME A MASTREAM PHENOMENON
• HOW IKEA MA HISTORY 1994 WH THE FIRST GAY COUPLE AN AD
• THIS 1994 IKEA AD WAS TV'S FIRST-EVER AD WH A GAY COUPLE
• TIFFANY & CO. JEWELRY AD CAMPAIGN FEATUR ITS FIRST GAY COUPLE
• IKEA’S “DG ROOM” FEATUR FIRST OPENLY GAY COUPLE COMMERCIAL

HOW GAY UPL TV MERCIALS BEME A MASTREAM PHENOMENON

Inially, that seemed like an all-too faiar slap the face for gay Amerins, perhaps even a step back for their llective social standg. Televisn ads aren’t as important the digal marketg age as they were a generatn ago, but some ways they reprent a fal ontier of mastream cultural acceptance for gay equaly, acrdg to several marketg experts who specialize helpg major rporatns sell products to the gay muny. “It’s not about gay people as much as is ntemporary nsumers, ” Bob Weck, print of the LGBTQ marketg and munitns nsultg firm Weck Communitns, told CNN Bs.

HOW IKEA MA HISTORY 1994 WH THE FIRST GAY COUPLE AN AD

… Gay and LGBTQ nsumers, Gen Z and Millennials, their attus are so different about the ordars of same sex marriage today. AFA and s subsidiary, One Milln Moms, have been nstant fo to gay and lbian tolerance Amerin culture.

THIS 1994 IKEA AD WAS TV'S FIRST-EVER AD WH A GAY COUPLE

“Fay entertament is not the outlet which to be polilly rrect by forcg tolerance and acceptance of homosexualy – a sful liftyle that Scripture clearly ems as wrong. Today, the world’s biggt advertisers primarily e targeted web ads as a means to market products and servic to gay Amerins a hyper-foced way. “That’s where we saw this huge sh of advertisg wh the to pani and bankg and travel pani, ” Mark Elrk, CEO of the Gay Ad Network, told CNN Bs.

TIFFANY & CO. JEWELRY AD CAMPAIGN FEATUR ITS FIRST GAY COUPLE

Elrk’s firm has helped some of the world’s largt rporatns velop polici and marketg strategi for gay dienc for the last 25 years, mostly onle and on social media. “Wh TV, if you wanted to n a mercial wh LGBTQ characters, you were nng on a work that wasn’t gay targeted.

Zola Chief Marketg Officer Mike Chi said The Hallmark Channel didn’t take issue wh Zola 2017 when the onle weddg registry and planng pany sent the work a prev ad featurg a gay uple. That mercial showsed ttimonials om several heterosexual newlyweds and one gay uple talkg about their posive experienc g Zola. Weck, the LGBTQ market expert, has seen the spendg power of gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenr Amerins uptick slightly om about $790 ln 2012 to more than $800 ln to date by his own timat.

From 2012 to 2017, the percentage of Amerins who intified as lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr also rose a b om 3. Heterosexual Milliennials’ overall fort beg around gay and lbian dividuals dropped om 53% 2017 to 45% 2018, acrdg to the latt rults of the annual Acceleratg Acceptance report missned by GLAAD and rried out by Harris Insights & Analytics.

IKEA’S “DG ROOM” FEATUR FIRST OPENLY GAY COUPLE COMMERCIAL

But the largt generatn of young adults is still far more acceptg of gay marriage than their precsors.

A Pew Rearch poll released May showed 74% of Millennials support gay marriage 2019 pared to 58% of Generatn Xers and 51% of baby boomers. Brands that chose to reprent gay and lbian people were takg a huge risk. In 1986, the vodka brand Absolut created an ad that clud the artwork of Keh Harg, an AIDs advote who was openly gay at the time.

To draw a rrelatn to the prent day, another vodka brand, Stoli, 40 years later produced an ad honorg polician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk wh a specially themed bottle–and a robt ad mpaign to support the lnch. Even though their support was often subtle, the ads still shocked the world wh their mastream reprentatn the face of a wily homophobic culture. Wh the ntug taboo agast gay reprentatn and the backlash om queer-iendly ads the 1980s, brands ntued to shy away om the overt reprentatn of LGBTQ+ people most advertisements.