Homosexuals are not only valuable and loyal customers, they have also become treasured workforce during the last years. Diversity is a hot topic in human resource departments in the most companies. But diversity is not only popular among private companies, also public authorities are focusing on recruiting LGBT people. This differs a lot from country to country. The most negative example is the discriminating “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) policy of the US army. The situation in Britain is totally different, like this double spread in the British gay magazine “Proud” shows.
The first page is an advertorial-like interview with two testimonials, who are talking about the work as a police woman or man. Only the last questions is a about how they feel about their sexuality in respect to their job. This is supposed to emphasize, that being homosexual is not a big topic in police departments anymore. That incidents of homophobia are mentioned, is something I especially like. It is just honest and makes the whole ad authentic.
The second page is a pure recruiting ad. The words “gay” or “homosexual” are not mentioned anymore. Only the main visual of a ladder spoke with rainbow colors shows who is the target group. This image symbolizes, that homosexuality is everything else than an obstacle to make career at the “Hertfordshire Constabulary”. The whole ad is rounded off by the information, that the constabulary is among the top 100 Stonewall employers. Stonewall is a British LGBT- lobby and charity group, which annually awards employers for their achievements in the field of equality.
Lesbians as target group
The following ad of the London Fire Brigade sets completely aside any use homosexual symbols or special wording. However, the main visual of a woman with very short hair in addition to the release of this ad in the British lesbian magazine G3, makes the target group obvious. On the one hand is it a understandable aim to create a an ad without any LGBT symbols. On the other hand is the the use of a woman with stereotypical lesbian appearance questionable.
It would be great to see more recruiting ads in gay magazines. They are offering career chances and – which is much more important- recruiting ads promote, that it is an advantage to be out in the job, for both: employee and employer.
This is a new ad by McDonald’s running in France. It deals with the time before the coming-out, a time with a lot of secrets. This is time is also representing McDonald’s way of dealing with LGBT topics in this spot very well. I do not expect a “gay in your face”-spot, but this is just “lurking”. You really have to follow the storyline to get it. I guess that in the U.S. this would be something progressive, but in middle Europe, this is a bit boring. On the other hand, every organisation is welcome to deal with LGBT-topics and especially McDonald’s will reach many young people with this spot, who are in the same situation as the boy. And maybe this is just the first step to a more progressive campaign.
There is always a lot of criticism and concerns, when the LGBT rights movement and commerce meet. Especially in queer and gender study essays, you find a fear of a sell-out of the movement. But if we look back in current gay history, we can see, that the LGBT movement and commercialization walked hand in hand. In two simple formulas: more gay rights = more gay commerce and more gay commerce = more gay rights. But why is this so? This could be answered with “visibility” and “acceptance”. Before the gay rights movement came up, homosexuals were simply not visible as a target group for businesses, because they had to hide due to backward legislation. The gay rights movement lead to a change of this laws, which lead also to more acceptance in the public. This acceptance is also important for businesses. Even nowadays some companies are afraid of being identified LGBT-friendly, mainly because this could scare of conservative customer groups. Fortunately, many companies are open to gay customers today. In my opinion, this is also a benefit for the community, since advertisements for LGBT lead to more visibility in public and, again to more acceptance.
In the best case, a company does not only try to make new gay customers, but also support the causes of the LGBT movement itself. Yes, I mean with money. Let´s face the truth, this movement needs money. An example was the whole anti-gay propaganda around Prop 8. We can only fight this media-dirt-campaigns with own campaigns and constitutional lawsuits. Both are very expensive.
One example, where commercial interests and support of gay rights meet, is parship. Parship is Europe’s leading dating service for people in search for a serious relationship. There is a straight version of parship, but also gay-parship. Below you find their latest advertisement for gay-parship. The main difference of this dating service is, that the members are aiming for a serious, long-term relationship. For many gay and lesbian couples, the last step, an equal marriage is still missing. This is also the topic of the head line “In love, engaged and now?”. To make an equal marriage finally possible and not only some second class civil partnership, parship supports “The Whit Knot”, a non-profit organization, which was founded in response to Prop 8 in November 2008.
The rainbow flag is – together with the pink triangle – the most used symbol of the LGBT movement since 1970´s. It is a sign for protest and pride, but is also used as symbol for gay businesses. When marketeers discovered the gay niche, it became also prominent sign in ad campaigns.
Some of the most famous ads with the rainbow flag are done by Absolut Vodka.
I think, that it is important for a successful campaign to use the rainbow in a creative way and to integrate this symbol with regards to the content of the ad. Samsung used the flag in a more or less uncreative ad this March.
We can also find the rainbow flag in ads of medium sized businesses, since since gay marketing is also profitable for smaller and local businesses. This ad is maybe a bit amateurish in its execution, but the elements are well chosen. Especially clever is the use of the “sister sledge” song, which maybe also indicates, that this is an LGBT-owned business. The rainbow is integrated in its natural form.
This professional ad by a local car dealer is interlacing the rainbow theme very well with the head line (German: “Schon Frühlingsgefühle” = English: “Already spring fever”). On the one hand refer the butterflies to spring (when they appear again in general), on the other does the proverb “butterflies in one´s stomach” also exist in German language (Schmetterlinge im Bauch haben). This proverb again in its meaning close to “spring fever”, both are about falling in love. So the rainbow colored butterflies are a symbol for homosexual love. Of course is spring also referring to the the product, a cabriolet. You see the interlacing of this add is very tight and working on many levels.
Volkswagen is aiming for gay customers for a longer time. Their advertisements are of high quality and very clever.
The first advertisement is from last years spring. “Frühlingsgefühle” is similar to the English expression “spring fever”. At first glance, the viewer (I did at least) could consider this ad to be mass marketing. Spring fever refers to the fact that this is a cabriolet. The second view reveals, that there are to guys in the car. Two guys with spring fever.
The current ad is more sassy. The head line “Und auf welchen stehen Sie?” means translated “And into which one are you?”. It is surely more into your face than last years ad, but is still surprising. I also like the fact, that this ad has sport as a setting and helps to get rid of the myth, that homosexuals are not into soccer.
Volkswagen is also tackling other niches like Turkish-speaking people: Read more here
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