¶ … advertising geared to the gay and lesbian communities. Specifically, it will discuss advertising in the context of gay and lesbian culture, and how particular ad campaigns are significant to the gay and lesbian communities. While society has become more accepting of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, there are still many aspects of culture and society that disapprove of the gay/lesbian experience. Traditionally, mainstream advertising has not courted gays and lesbians, but some advertisers have recognized the size and dimensions of the market, and are beginning to break down the barriers in advertising to gays and lesbians in mainstream markets. In the last decade, advertising has become more open, and the gay lifestyle has become more accepted. Advertisers will continue to create new markets to create new opportunities for business and industry, and the gay/lesbian market is still waiting to be fully tapped.
The gay and lesbian lifestyle has existed for thousands of years, but it is only fairly recently been seen as a viable advertising market. Many experts and researchers believe gay advertising existed in the 1920s, citing several examples of print ads that seemed to indicate a gay or homosocial relationship between men (Boyce 26). In addition, author Alexandra Chasin cites a 1976 New York Times article that discussed the efforts of gay publications to attract mainstream advertisers, and other early recognition of the growing gay and lesbian marketplace (Chasin 30). Thus, advertising to gays and lesbians seems to have existed in some form for decades, but it is only in the last decade that it has really "come out of the closet." In fact, today there are numerous marketing companies entirely devoted to the gay and lesbian advertising market, and numerous studies have been conducted that indicate this market is profitable, viable, and growing. One report notes, "gay/lesbian consumers tend to be highly educated (37% are college graduates and one-fifth have graduate degrees) and in high-income brackets (27% have an annual household income of $100,000 or more)" (McFarland and Garber). Clearly, this is a viable advertising market, and as the gay/lesbian lifestyle becomes more open and accepted, then more advertising will appear that is geared to gays but also appeals to a general audience. Included in this analysis are some marketing terms such as "market," "demographics," "mainstream," "commodity," "niche market," "B2B," and "campaign." "Market" is a group of people or customers who represent the target audience for a particular product or service. "Demographics" are statistics used by advertisers to determine age, sex, and other important information regarding the market. "Mainstream" is the "normal" group of Americans that advertisers market their products to, such as white heterosexuals. "Commodity" is the product or service being sold. "Niche market" is a specialty market out of the mainstream, such as gays and lesbians, or Hispanics. "B2B" is the shorthand term for business to business, and finally, a marketing "campaign" is a series of ads or a group of different ads targeted to a specific group of consumers. For example, a Toyota marketing campaign might include print, radio, television, and Internet ads regarding a specific car line or auto feature.
One aspect of gay advertising is still being underrepresented, and that is the lesbian market. Perhaps two of today's most famous lesbians, Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell, are changing the way the world looks at lesbians, but the lesbian lifestyle is still not as recognized as the gay lifestyle, and advertisers target fewer lesbians than gays in their marketing campaigns. One writer notes,
Lesbians have not been targeted as consumers by the advertising industry for several historical reasons. First, lesbians as a social group have not been economically powerful; thus, like other social groups who lack substantial purchasing power (e.g., the elderly), they have not been attractive to advertisers. Second, lesbians have not been easily identifiable as a social group anyway (Clark 485).
Therefore, even as the gay and lesbian market is expanding, there are some limitations to what advertisers will do, and who they will target. One classic example of lesbian marketing is a John Hancock Insurance commercial that aired during the 2000 Summer Olympics and the World Series. The ad featured two women in line at an immigration office, holding their new baby they had just brought back from China for adoption. The two women discussed becoming a "family," and at the end one said to the other, "You're going to make a great mom," and the other said, "So are you." The ad drew so much criticism from the public that Hancock edited it several times,...
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