A meaningful flag – A powerful marketing tool

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.

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