Why is still so shockg to see gay people mastream ads? At a time when every other mographic is practilly shoehorned to marketg for the sake of diversy, gays and lbians are still all but visible the TV advertisg landspe. But while you might not have seen many yourself, gay-themed TV ads are fely out there. To close out Gay Pri Month, we tracked down 50 of them om around the world and anized them to seven tegori that seem to keep poppg up ("Lbians Are Hot," "Don't Tell Mom," etc.). Check out the llectn after the jump.
Contents:
- ADVERTISG HAS E OUT: VIEWERS’ PERCEPTN OF THE PORTRAYAL OF LBIAN, GAY, AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS ADVERTISG
- THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER
ADVERTISG HAS E OUT: VIEWERS’ PERCEPTN OF THE PORTRAYAL OF LBIAN, GAY, AND TRANSGENR CHARACTERS ADVERTISG
Hor is the leadg gay social work outsi the U.
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.
THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER
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.
It was IKEA that first ma wav wh their mercial that featured an openly gay uple. As one of the first reprentatns of a gay uple takg part normal activi, like shoppg for furnure, this mercial paved the way toward LGBTQ+ acceptance durg this era. For the first time, mastream Ameri saw a gay uple portrayed the same as any other uple a healthy, romantic relatnship.
But wh gay marriage still illegal and a lgerg stigma surroundg queer inti, most brands played safe. Dpe the growg prence of gay characters early 2000s entertament, pani still risked backlash for showg explic LGBTQ+ clivy. Levi’s took a more direct approach wh a mercial that had two distct endgs, one for a straight dience and one for a gay dience.