LGBTQ+ History Month
In the UK, it’s LGBTQ+ history month, and MAG wanted to reflect on the history of LGBTQ+ marketing. For our industry, it’s important to remember the history of LGBTQ+ marketing only goes back 50 years. The first ever advert to feature a gay couple was by IKEA and it showed in the US, and the creative featured two gay men shopping for a dining table. Until that time, only a few major advertisers had acknowledged gay lifestyles in their ads – but these were almost exclusively print campaigns, under the radar. Nobody had run a gay-themed mainstream TV commercial before. Ikea said the ad’s aim was to emphasise that everybody was welcome at its stores and it won much praise from community activists. "The Ikea ad humanises us," one said. "The importance of that cannot be overstated."
Others, though, were angry. Ikea’s phone lines were apparently flooded with angry calls, whilst conservatives called for a boycott of the company and the Ikea store in Hicksville, New York, was evacuated after a bomb threat.
It wasn’t until three years later that Unilever bit the bullet to become the first British advertiser to screen an ad featuring an overtly gay couple.
By 2004, it was reported that 35% of the top 100 U.S. companies directly targeted LGBTQ+ consumers with ads; they knew the community had buying power. But while representation increased, it largely did so only for the lesbian and gay parts of the community, missing the broad spectrum of identities, and adding to the stereotypes.It took years for trans and nonbinary people to see themselves reflected in marketing, but brands like Nike broke the mould by telling stories of trans individuals, and others like Clean and Clear via Johnson & Johnson centred trans people without making the fact that they were trans the focus of their ads. Progress can take time, but progress IS progress.
So where does adland go from here in terms of authentic and genuine representation? Asad Shaykh of Grey London puts it perfectly:
“ Even though adland has embraced LGBTQI+ representation in its work, 72% of the same community think the way they are presented in advertising is tokenistic, according to research commissioned by the Gay Times and Karmarama. Putting LGBTQI+ simply as characters that can be interchangeable with all genders is not enough. We need to see our lives reflected in the stories we tell, not just as cut-out characters simulating social norms.
Our history is a tapestry of rich, vivid, hard, bright lives, lived with pride. There is novelty. There is cruelty. And a whole host of honesty. There are stories of survival, heroism, hedonism and activism. We are a people who have always lived on the edges of society, helping it expand its horizons, sometimes at our expense.
In the media industry, we are in a unique position to showcase this proactive force. What we create, and the stories we tell the world, have a huge influence on both culture and individual experiences. We are quite literally in charge of the cultural control room.”
Overall, it’s an obvious fact that LGBTQ+ representation in the advertising industry is essential for promoting greater understanding and acceptance of the community. It is a way for LGBTQ+ people to have a voice and make a positive impact, both in society and in the industry itself. But for brands and marketers to reach our community it has to be done authentically and genuinely.
