NPR's Pla Money podst looks at how Suba began marketg to the gay and lbian muny, and how helped turn around the pany the '90s.
Contents:
- HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
- THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”
- GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
- MARKETING: SUBA EXPANDS S ASSOCIATN WH GAY, LBIAN GROUPS
- ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
It was such an unual cisn—and such a succs—that helped ph gay and lbian advertisg om the g to the mastream.
THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”
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. ”At that time, gay-iendly advertisg was largely limed to the fashn and alhol dtri.
GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
When a 1994 IKEA ad featured a gay uple, the Amerin Fay Associatn, a nonprof, mounted boytts, and someone lled a (fake) bomb threat to an IKEA Poux explas, the attu of most bs toward LGBTQ advertisg was: “Why would you do somethg like that?
You’d be known as a gay pany. ” In the 1990s, Poux worked at Mulryan/Nash, an agency that specialized the gay market. “All the l of marketg went out the wdow at this fear” of marketg to gays and lbians, he says.
Wrg The Huffgton Post, the reporter Ron Dicker ptured some of the cultural nfn that followed:When one Suba ad man … proposed the gay-targetg ads talks wh Japane executiv, the executiv hurriedly looked up “gay” their dictnari. While Bent, who is gay, didn’t reveal his sexual orientatn for fear of overshadowg the effort, he nohels rells holdg pany meetgs wh nam along the l of “Who Are Gays and Lbians? Suba of Ameri knew had to support s gay and lbian employe if wanted to appeal to lbian ctomers, so they schled a meetg wh a senr Japane executive to make the se for domtic-partnership benefs.
MARKETING: SUBA EXPANDS S ASSOCIATN WH GAY, LBIAN GROUPS
”By 1996, Suba ads created by Mulryan/Nash were appearg both gay publitns and mastream media.
ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
In rponse to the ads, Suba received letters om a grassroots group that acced the rmaker of promotg homosexualy.