An Open Letter to the Advertising Industry September 22, 2008 AdRespect Advertising Education Program

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James Franco Dropped By Advertising Campaigns Over His Gay Themed Films
Posted by: Adam Stazer
http://www.back2stonewall.com/2013/03/james-franco-dropped-advertising-campaigns-gay-themed-films.html
In a red carpet interview last week at SXSW, James Franco suggested that he has been dropped from three advertising campaigns due to his involvement in two gay-oriented films he put out at Sundance, and not due to his image as the companies reported. He produced Kink and co-directed and starred in a forthcoming Travis Matthews film, Interior.Leather Bar. Franco suggested that this exemplifies the homophobia that still exists in American media. As many advertisers have already begun to notice, gays and lesbians will only continue to become an increasingly visible part of American society. While the exact reason for Franco having been dropped from these campaigns is unclear at this time, the depiction of raw gay sexuality as portrayed in these films was no doubt part of the conversation. Other explicit films depicting heterosexual sex rarely if ever raise an eyebrow among the public, and neither should these.

Gay-Themed Ads Are Becoming More Mainstream
Posted by: Danielle
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/06/gay-themed-ads-mainstream-_n_2821745.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
Above is an article posted by the Huffington Post regarding the new Kindle ad that features a gay couple. I've been delighted to see this Kindle commercial running fairly often. What Kindle did really well in this ad was incorporate a gay couple into a story line that didn't center around their orientation. They essentially normalized this couple and more importantly they weren't necessarily the punchline. This is the best type of integration for LGBT couples in advertisements because it doesn't play off their perceived differences as a joke. Eventually more same-sex couples will seamlessly be incorporated into advertising, and it’s novelty will wear off with every ad (which the article refers to a bit as ‘going mainstream’), but that’s simply the process of normalization which I think should be the ultimate goal.

Do Gay People Really Make Up 3.5% of the Population?
Posted by: Mike Wilke
There have been many statistically significant marketing surveys over the years that generally seem to find about 5% to 7% identified as LGBT, so it is a surprise that these numbers turned out lower. However, any one survey that isn't an actual census is never enough to form a "truth" -- it takes multiple surveys using varied methodology to reach a consensus on a question.

An Open Letter to the Advertising Industry

September 22, 2008

To the Advertising Industry:

New York City has a long and proud history of being both a center of the storied advertising business world and a mosaic of diversity.

Advertising has the job of selling products and services and also to stand out. But all too often, commercials use classic stereotypes of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people for humor, with stock homophobic and transphobic responses. It is true for advertisers big or small, in progressive or conservative industries, and sometimes those with good corporate policies.

Such depictions do not serve the advertiser or the LGBT community. They can encourage narrow-minded individuals toward discriminatory behavior and even acts of violence. Polls show that today's increasingly diversified consumer landscape is rapidly and widely accepting of LGBT people, making such old-fashioned approaches in ads distasteful and ineffective.

We challenge the ad industry to reexamine any lingering conventional wisdom that LGBT stereotypes, homophobia and transphobia are considered successful approaches to selling products by actually testing it with general audiences. We encourage advertisers to seek out best practices on LGBT references in advertising, such as those provided by Commercial Closet Association (CommercialCloset.org/bestpractices), to tap into client and agency LGBT employee resource groups for guidance, and to actively include LGBT consumers when testing campaigns for feedback.

Both the business world and society will gain when advertising punchlines pay attention to the bottom line and reject stereotypes, homophobia and transphobia.

Sincerely,

Thomas Duane, NY State Senator
Neil Giuliano, Exec. Dir. GLAAD
Deborah Glick, NY State Assembly Member
Nancy Hill, American Association of Advertising Agencies CEO
Micah Kellner, NY State Assembly Member
Michael McLaren, McCann Erickson U.S. President
Rosie Mendez, City Council Member
Daniel O'Donnell, NY State Assembly Member
Christine Quinn, City Council Speaker
Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President
William Thompson, NYC Comptroller
Tiffany R. Warren, Arnold Worldwide VP Director of Multicultural Programs & Community Outreach
Tony Wright, Lowe Worldwide CEO
Michael Wilke, Founding Executive Director, Commercial Closet Association

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