Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S1E22 - LGBTQ Advertising: Chasing The Pink Dollar

Episode Date: June 2, 2012

The gay community will spend over $800 billion dollars this year. A large percentage are affluent, hip and trendsetting, yet the advertising industry took decades to market to them. This week, we look at L.G.B.T. - or Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender - advertising. From the first gay characters on mainstream television in the 70s, to the first big brand that dared to openly advertise to the Gay community in 1981, to the 10-year drought of gay advertising brought by the onset of AIDS, to its resurgence due to a recession, to the flashpoint of Ellen Degeneres coming out on her TV show, to the first transgender Miss Canada Universe contestant, to the friction it all still causes today, the gay market is a fascinating study in diversity, courage, profit and respect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 1, 2012. Your teeth look whiter than no, no, no You're not you when you're hungry You're in good hands with us You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. The headline said, First Gay Caveman Found Archaeologists had discovered the 5,000-year-old remains

of what they believe was a transsexual or third-gender man. According to the Telegraph newspaper, the male skeleton was unearthed last year in a Prague suburb of the Czech Republic. It was the way the body was buried that was highly unusual. In the Copper Age, men were traditionally buried on the right side with their heads pointing towards the west. They would be buried alongside their weapons, hammers, and flint knives.

Women, on the other hand, were buried on their left sides with their heads pointed towards the east. Females were buried with necklaces, pets, and copper earrings, as well as jugs and an egg-shaped pot placed near their feet. But this unearthed male skeleton was buried in a way normally reserved for women of the Copper Age. The body was interred on its left side, with its head pointed west.

An oval egg-shaped container, usually associated with with female burials was found at his feet. None of the objects that accompany male burials, such as weapons or tools, were found in the grave. As one of the lead archaeologists noted, From history and ethnology, we knew that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously, so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake. She went on to say it was far more likely that he was one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a man of a different sexual persuasion.

While some scientists maintained that anthropology couldn't really determine sexual orientation, it was agreed the unusual burial did suggest a third gender grave. But whatever his sexual orientation, it's interesting to note that the fact he was buried with others was a sign of quote, cultural acceptance. That concept of cultural acceptance seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the intervening 5,000 years. But the concept of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people clearly has a long history. Today, that market wields enormous purchasing power,

a characteristic that usually attracts Madison Avenue like bees to honey. But that hasn't been the case historically. Instead, it's been a long, slow journey to acknowledgement. But that journey is a fascinating story. In many ways, the advertising industry has excelled at selling products for the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom industry has excelled at selling products for the kitchen, the living room, the bedroom, and the garage. It's also very good at

selling products you keep in the closet. It just hasn't been very good at selling to people who have come out of the closet. You're under the influence. The LGBT market, or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender market market is a powerful one. Their total buying power in North America will cross the $800 billion mark this year. According to surveys conducted by Harris Interactive over the past decade,

roughly 6.7% of the U.S. population self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. That translates to between 15 and 16 million adults over the age of 18. In Canada, according to the Vanier Institute of the Family, that number is 2.8% of the population, or just under 1 million people. The advertising industry has long broken the population down into segments for the purpose of marketing. Instead of relying on single-message mass marketing, Madison Avenue came to understand

that tailoring specific messages to specific groups would lead to greater sales. But the advertising industry is conservative by nature. As we mentioned in our episode on diversity last season, it took decades for Madison Avenue to advertise to African Americans, even though it was widely known that the black population represented billions in discretionary spending power. The same can be said of the LGBT market. No big brand advertising was aimed at the gay population until the 1980s. But that said, if you looked closely at some of the early print advertising,

there were subtle coded ads done by major advertisers going back as far as the early 20th century. A 1915 print ad for Palmolive Soap showed an illustration of two beautiful women nestled in bed together, dressed in frilly negligees. There is an unmistakable sensuality in the ad, with the headline, Appeals to Dainty Women. Another soap brand, Ivory Snow,

seems to have been a brand that used advertisements aimed at their market at large, but used code to talk to the gay population. In 1917, it ran a print ad in Outlook magazine, showing two men shopping for rugs, which, at the time, was a very domestic, couple-oriented thing to do. In another ad from that same year,

it shows a group of men showering in a locker room, with three of those men standing there watching the athletes as they bathe. The first line of copy reads, Not the least of the pleasures of a hard game is the bath that follows it. You can see this ad on our website. A 1939 Carp and Pillow Rest mattress ad

shows two women running on the beach holding hands. The headline announces, They must have slept on a Carp and Pillow Rest mattress. These ads ran in the most popular magazines

of the day, including the Ladies' Home Journal, Women's Home Companion, and Good Housekeeping. As writer Bruce Joffe notes, the products were mainstream, but the messages were somewhat offbeat. It was the result of one of two scenarios. Either these major brands were creating ads for their straight clientele while encoding them with subtler messages for their gay customers, or the artists creating the ads were gay themselves and purposely embedded winking messages for the initiated. The sexual suggestiveness and ambiguity of these ads is remarkable for the times. Hollywood has hinted at gay themes, subplots and characters since the beginning of cinema.

In the 1916 movie Behind the Screen, a stagehand taunts Charlie Chaplin in an effeminate way after he thinks Charlie has kissed a boy, when in fact it's a woman in drag. In 1930, Marlena Dietrich, dressed as a man, walks over to a pretty woman in a night club, and kisses her on the lips

as she finishes a performance. In the 1930s, conservative groups lobbied for a less permissive Hollywood. This resulted in the Motion Picture Production Code, which established moral censorship guidelines that lasted from 1930 until 1968. The code banned depictions of such things as questionable sexuality, rape, abortion, white slavery, obscenity, and prostitution. But for all its efforts, the production code didn't erase homosexuals from the screen. It just made them harder to find.

And for the next 40 years, it became a game of hide-and-seek with censors. But it was television and its depiction of gays that had the biggest effect on advertising. And these are the Campbells. And this is Soap. Billy Crystal's portrayal of Jody Dallas on the sitcom Soap in 1977 is often credited with being the first ongoing gay character in TV history. Next, Jody.

I don't think I ought to testify. Why? I'm gay. Oh. Well, these are more liberal times, Jody. I don't think that would matter. But it wasn't the

first. Way back in 1972, five years before Soap, there was a sitcom titled The Corner Bar that featured a recurring gay character named

Peter Panama, played by actor Vincent Ciavelli. And if you were to skip back one more year... There was an occasional gay character on All in the Family. In an episode titled Judging Books by Covers, Archie Bunker discovers one of his drinking buddies, a big ex-football player named Steve, is gay.

Arch, how long you known me? Ten, twelve years? Yeah. In all that time, did I ever mention a woman? Well, what difference does that make? You're a bachelor. So? I know, but bachelors, they're always acting kind of private. Exactly.

Oh, come on, Steve. I remember the first time I ever saw gay characters portrayed on television. It was a 1972 made-for-TV movie called That Certain Summer, starring Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen. I was 13 years old at the time, and I still remember it to this day. It was a sympathetic story of a divorced father

trying to tell his young son that he was gay. Do you know what the word homosexual means? Nick? Come on, look at me. Keep the door open. A critic called it a giant step for television. TV Guy proclaimed that television had finally grown up. 26 years later, it was given a Hall of Fame award

for its groundbreaking broadcast. Come and knock on our door. Come and knock on our door Come and knock on our door We've been waiting for you We've been waiting for you Where the kisses are hers and hers and his Three's Company too

As the 70s progressed, homosexuality began showing up in more prime time storylines. TV shows like Three's Company used it as an ongoing theme, as Jack Tripper pretended to be gay so his landlords would allow him to live with two pretty girls. Hey, uh, Mr. Roper. Yeah? Tinkerbell?

I'm Jack. Your name is Jack? I'm sorry, Jack. That series ran from 1977 to 1984, and it was around this time that the first major brand began to advertise to the gay community. The product was Absolute Vodka. And we'll be right back. If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives,

available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. In 1981, the owners of Absolute felt that the LGBT community were trendsetters, whose buying habits would eventually be adopted by other young, hip markets. So they began advertising in two gay magazines, called The Advocate and After Dark. But they didn't just buy pages, they bought the back covers. It was a statement by Absolute of its commitment, as gay magazines could never historically get any major advertiser

to buy the highly visible outside back covers. Absolute not only proudly bought them, but locked them up for two years. While Absolute initially ran their regular ads in those publications, it soon began creating gay-themed ads. One said, Absolute Glad, honoring the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation. Another said, Absolute Commitment, that showed two identical Absolute bottles on the top of a wedding cake.

A big outdoor billboard said, Absolute Out, and showed nine three-dimensional closet doors all wide open. Last year, Absolute celebrated 30 years of LGBT advertising with a big $4 million Absolute Outrageous campaign, Accent on the Out. The tagline was, going out and coming out. But even with a big brand like Absolute openly marketing to the LGBT audience in the early 80s,

it was still a rarity. When AIDS hit the news in the mid-80s, almost all gay targeted advertisinggeted advertising disappeared. Brands feared being labeled as a gay product and also risked moral majority boycotts. But it took the recession of the early 90s to bring it back. With a tough economic climate,

advertisers went in search of new affluent markets. As a BBDO adman remarked, when companies are forced to survive in a recession, they get liberal in a hurry. In 1992, cigarette maker Philip Morris ran a print ad for its Benson & Hedges special King's brand in a gay publication called Genre. It marked the first time a major tobacco company had ever advertised in the national gay press. The very next year, advertisers would finally take the plunge on television. In 1993, a TV ad for a Danish newspaper called Politiken

showed two men passionately kissing. It is believed to be a world first. On this side of the ocean, it was an IKEA ad in 1994 that was the first to show gays openly portrayed in a mainstream TV commercial. In the ad, two men shop for a dining room table. Well, you know, we went to IKEA because we thought it was time for a serious dining room table.

We have slightly different tastes. I mean, Steve's more into country. It frightens me, but at the same time, I have compassion. We've been together about three years. I met Steve at my sister's wedding. I was really impressed with how just well-designed the Ikea furniture was. He's really into craftsmanship. And his chairs are really sturdy. This table concluded a leaf.

A leaf means... Commitment. Staying together, commitment. We've got another leaf waiting when we really start getting along. It appears IKEA had reservations about airing the ad. And according to reports, it only ran in New York and Washington, D.C. after 9.30 p.m., quote, in deference to children, unquote.

Within a week of airing, a few East Coast IKEA stores were targeted by angry protesters and one store received a bomb threat and was evacuated. The ad was pulled after a few weeks. Advertising Age magazine said there had never been anything like that commercial before and said it was a giant leap for the gay community. It's interesting to note that this IKEA commercial ran one month

after Tom Hanks received an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay man in the movie Philadelphia. Clearly, LGBT issues were slowly moving into the mainstream. One big test of that change came in 1997, when Ellen DeGeneres chose to come out on her sitcom. I can't even say the word. Why can't I say the word? I mean, why can't I just say...

I mean, what is wrong? Why do I have to be so ashamed? I mean, why can't I just say the truth? I mean, be who I am. I'm 35 years old. I'm so afraid to tell people. I mean, I just... Susan, I'm gay. There was a lot of anticipation leading up to that program. Right-wing organizations threatened to boycott advertisers of that episode and took out a full-page ad in Vanity Fair calling the show a slap in the face of American families.

The resulting controversy prompted Chrysler, Mazda, JCPenney, and later Wendy's to pull their ads. A TV affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama refused to air the episode. Ironically, over 42 million people watched that night, making it a ratings extravaganza. It was reported that ABC had no problem filling the vacant advertiser slots and even charged double for the honor. It's also interesting to note that a certain commercial for Volkswagen

aired in that famous episode. It showed two young men in a VW searching for a couch, which many interpreted to be a gay couple. You may remember the ad by the music it used. Volkswagen expressed surprise that their commercial would be interpreted as showing two gay men. As a spokesperson said, we just thought of them as two college guys out on a Sunday afternoon.

But within the context of that episode, the message took on a new meaning. The Ellen DeGeneres coming out episode marked a turning point in the world of advertising. Later that same year, according to Commercial Closet, an organization that tracks LGBT advertising, American Airlines, American Express, Miller Brewing, and IBM all had a presence in gay marketing. Subaru, for example,

was one of the first major car companies to do research into the gay market and discovered a big percentage of lesbians loved their brand. Using the theme, different drivers, different roads, Subaru not only bought space in gay publications, but it used coded messages to gay women via the license plates in their ads. For example, some would say Xena LVR, a play on the popularity among lesbians of the TV show Xena Warrior Princess.

Or, plates might say P-Town, a reference to Provincetown, a popular tourist destination for lesbians and gay men. In 1996, Mystic Beverages ran this ad targeting lesbians. Mom, Dad, if you're watching, I want you to know I finally found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. Mom and Dad, this is Jen. Hi. Show your colors, Mystic. Over the last 10 years, more and more advertisers have chosen to market to the gay community. The city of Philadelphia, fittingly,

advertises to gay tourists with the tagline, Philadelphia, get your history straight and your nightlife gay. The return on investment has been extraordinary. For every dollar invested in gay marketing, $153 were returned in direct visitor spending. New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year.

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or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BitMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets

and boots, so when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at Rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N dot C-A. I take my time, I walk straight Hyundai ran a very funny TV ad in 2000 that showed a middle-aged woman driving her car with her young male lover.

When she suddenly spots her husband's car stopped at the lights up ahead, she quickly pulls the seat recline lever and her lover drops out of sight as she pulls up beside her older husband. They wave at each other, then drive away. The wife pulls the reclined lever the other way, and up pops her boyfriend. But then we cut to the husband's car. He pulls the same lever, and up pops his boyfriend.

All done to a song called Toy Boy. Toy, boy, le monde se moque du monde. a song called Toy Boy. Just advertising to the gay market is not enough to secure business, of course. Equally as important to the gay community is what a company's policies are when it comes to their own gay employees. Levi's, for example,

is a brand that is highly respected by the LGBT community. Not only was it the first Fortune 500 company to offer health benefits to unmarried domestic same-sex partners, but it supported the No to Proposition 8 campaign in California and ties white ribbons on its mannequins as a sign of support for gay marriage. American Airlines set up the Rainbow Team, the first airline to establish a dedicated LGBT sales division and website. As a result, revenue rose from $20 million in 1994 to over $193 million in 1999.

Microsoft recently made its defense of gay rights crystal clear by donating $100,000 in support of extending domestic rights to same-sex couples. Bill Gates has also made personal donations. Apple donated $100,000 as well to the No to Prop 8 campaign and gives equal rights and benefits to their employees' same-sex partners. When Out magazine published its power list of the most influential gay people in North America, new Apple CEO Tim Cook was number one.

Ellen was number two. But in maybe the most recent example of a brand that hasn't always been seen supporting the LGBT audience is the new USA Tourism campaign. The song is Land of Dreams by Roseanne Cash. Come and find your land of dreams The commercial shows imagery of beautiful American landscapes and a diversity of American people.

And as Roseanne Cash sings, there is a place for all we feel, we see a gay male couple. For all the advertisers that have included gay consumers in their communications over the years, it just might be this campaign, the campaign the U.S. sends out to the world, that may be the most

meaningful message of all. Your Land of Dreams If there's one thing the advertising world loves, it's a lucrative target market. It's just that it takes the ad world a long time, sometimes decades,

to get up the courage to chase certain markets. It wasn't until the 1970s that Madison Avenue finally courted the African American market, even though it had been worth billions for decades. It's the same with gay consumers. With discretionary spending power of over $800 billion, they are not insignificant. Absolute Vodka was the first major brand to advertise to the LGBT market in 1981. But it took 10 more years before other big brands were brave enough to come courting. Strange as it may sound, being advertised to is a sign of respect.

When a segment of the population is ignored by advertisers, it signals they are not valued. But, of course, true acceptance can't just be about business. Recently, Barack Obama said something no other president has said before, that same-sex marriage should be legal. At the same time,

a group called One Million Moms threatened to boycott JCPenney for hiring Ellen DeGeneres to be its spokesperson. Yet, back in 1997, JCPenney pulled its advertising from Ellen's Coming Out episode. And recently,

the first transgender contestant ran in the Miss Universe Canada contest. At first, she was barred from competing, until pageant owner Donald Trump overruled the decision. All of which proves that we may have traveled 5,000 years since the gay caveman, but we haven't traveled many miles when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Just calling to say the seat lever in your wife's car has been repaired. Again.

We've never seen a reclining lever break so many times. Anyway, it's ready for pickup. Under the Influence was produced by Pirate Toronto and New York. Episode scheduling and coordination handled by Debbie O'Reilly. See you next week.