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:
- GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
- ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
- THE ARE THE TOP 10 GAY AND LBIAN CARS
- WHAT ARE THE TOP GAY-FRIENDLY CARS?
- HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
Apparently, we as a society are so wrapped up the ia of how "gay" objects, clothg styl, and activi are that we n't even leave tomobil out of ! Th, the guys at Car Talk, those te terers of r nversatn, have e up wh the: lists of the top 10 gay and lbian rs. Let's take a look,… * subaru a gay car *
It was such an unual cisn—and such a succs—that helped ph gay and lbian advertisg om the g to the mastream.
ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
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. “The environment around this is so angry we feel we lose no matter what we do.”At that time, gay-iendly advertisg was largely limed to the fashn and alhol dtri.
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 store.As 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.
THE ARE THE TOP 10 GAY AND LBIAN CARS
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?”A 50-year-old nglomerate like Fuji Heavy Indtri, the parent pany of Suba, is not normally where one would look for a lear social progrs. 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.
“It was the easit thg we did.”By 1996, Suba ads created by Mulryan/Nash 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.
WHAT ARE THE TOP GAY-FRIENDLY CARS?
Like nerds who grow up to nont their bulli, Suba executiv me to realize that the people opposg the acknowledgment of gays and lbians were not as imposg as they seemed.One of the reasons that, the days, the rmaker’s role cultivatg s lbian-iendly image is ls well known is that so many straight people were bld to the subtext of the advertisements.For s first Suba ads, Mulryan/Nash hired women to portray lbian upl. And Stay Out” uld refer to explorg the outdoors a Suba—or g out as gay.
HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
They like cipherg .”The light among niche dience groups “dg” the hts Suba ads surprised the marketg team—and the se of s gay-iendly ads, so did straight dienc’ ignorance.
While many gay and lbian nsumers loved the shout-outs the license plat, straight people would only notice featur like a bike rack.