An Open Letter to the Advertising Industry September 22, 2008

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Advertising Week NYC - Celebration or Serious?

Posted by: MikeNY

The 5th annual Advertising Week conference has more discussion of issues, but had no mention of gay/lesbian issues or homophobia even while Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield has drawn attention to industry troubles, in addition to the NYC Human Rights Commission holding hearings about the lack of diversity in the industry. Should the conference be more issues-oriented?

CoverGirl Ellen DeGeneres

Posted by: MikeNY

What great news that Ellen DeGeneres will show everyday women that lesbians are not only smart and entertaining, they can be glamorous too! Now if only CoverGirl will start advertising TO lesbians!!

LGBT in Mainstream Ads

Posted by: Chris Michael

Harvey Fierstein once said that as far as getting out there and being seen, even bad publicity was good publicity.

I think that the more daily something becomes, the more common, the less mystery it carries. Two hundred years ago, black men were sex-crazed animals who should be barred from proper society, a hundred years ago the Jews were bent on controlling the world's media -- even JFK's presidential campaign was hindered in part by the nation's concern about a Catholic in the Oval Office.

Obviously fears like these seem ridiculous nowadays, and it's because the barriers have been broken down. We see them, so we know them; there's no mystery anymore. The end goal for any ad is to change consumer behaviour about a product -- but advertisers are also moulding public opinion. An ad works because it's a refreshing take on a preexisting public conception. By hyping or deflating that conception, advertisers can lift taboos -- many times without people realising that their perceptions are changing. And that is a very powerful sword to wield.

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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