Congratulations: You are a target market

Back when I was in school, a classmate went to my favorite professor and asked for a letter of recommendation for a job that she was gunning for at a big advertising firm. My prof's reply was that she was lucky that he had turned in our grades to the administration a few days earlier, because if he hadn't, he would have flunked her for asking such a question. He argued that no one holding a degree in media studies who actually understands how advertising operates could possibly want to work in the industry. I thought to myself, "Just think, Brian -- one day, you'll be that ruthless in your principles." Then I had to dash to my part-time job at Pizzeria Uno.

So I took a particular interest in this recent article in Variety on "gay advertising" and the progress that has been made over the last decade. The bad news is that more and more advertisers are looking to get into our wallets, by any means necessary. The good news is that gay people seem to be more discerning and less susceptible to niche-targeted advertising than marketers originally anticipated (we don't lunge for every rainbow-painted carrot dangled in front of us, in other words).

The article suggests that gay images in mainstream ads have become more commonplace and less controversial -- and advertisers appear to be placing more stock in response from the gay community and its supporters than it is in people who might freak out from seeing two men sitting in a car together. Gay media consultant Ian Johnson made an interesting -- if perhaps optimistic -- point:

"Brands generally have more to fear from alienating gay customers and their supporters if they try to react to the harassment by antigay lobbying groups," Johnson says. "As more lesbian and gay people come out, and more people become supportive of gay and lesbian equality, the importance of those who support gay people is of far greater value than that of those who are rabidly homophobic."

Considering that an IKEA commercial created 13 years ago that depicted two men talking about how their new table is a symbol of their commitment was yanked almost immediately due to bomb threats, the public furor over Snickersgate and instant pulling of the ad for its lack of sensitivity to gays is likely a sign of progress. And check out this still (from a recent IKEA TV ad), which shows a multi-racial family with two dads and hasn't sparked any controversy.

I noticed that we've had a forum running for a few weeks on "favorite gay ad", so I thought this article was an interesting one. What do you folks think? Are advertisers treating us just like everyone else? And further, is that a good thing? Here's the rather amazing decade-old IKEA ad, to get the discussion going: