From CarGus to Doros, when me to mercials, 2021 was pretty gay.
Contents:
- THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER
- HOW GAY UPL TV MERCIALS BEME A MASTREAM PHENOMENON
- WHY GAY AD NETWORK?
- THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”
- PHOTOS: THE HISTORY OF GAY ADVERTISG (IT’S OLR THAN YOU THK)
- JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
THE 50 GAYT ADS EVER
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. * gay advertising *
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.
Inially, that seemed like an all-too faiar slap the face for gay Amerins, perhaps even a step back for their llective social standg.
HOW GAY UPL TV MERCIALS BEME A MASTREAM PHENOMENON
* gay advertising *
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.
… 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.
“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.
WHY GAY AD NETWORK?
From the gay-charged ads of the '20s and '30s to that Marky Mark Calv Kle undi ad. Click here to check them out. * gay advertising *
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. 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.
THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”
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. 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. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.
In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them, ” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.
PHOTOS: THE HISTORY OF GAY ADVERTISG (IT’S OLR THAN YOU THK)
Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.
“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self, ” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry.
JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY A FIRST FOR US-BASED PRO LEAGU
The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water. “Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.
For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch.