Crappy local car dealership ad promotes marriage equality

The normalization of same-sex marriage in brand ads has been well documented over the past few years, with significant statements by Microsoft, Target, Kindle, Mariott, and Honey Maid — among many others.

But at this point, does revealing that a character in a mainstream ad is married to someone of the same gender have any "Shock Value" left?



I'm happy that equal marriage is the new shibboleth for brand hipness. I just wish the creatives would move past using same-sex marriage as the whole point of their ads, and just have it be no big deal. (Some decent scripting would be a bonus.)

Considering the reactionary work of groups like One Million Moms, however, I guess I may have to wait a few years for that.

By the way, SF Bay CBS, my source for this post, points out that Canada was doing "surprise lesbian couple" ads back in 2008:

Maple Leaf joins the big brands backing same sex marriage

It's getting harder and harder to keep track of all the ad campaigns that embrace marriage equality. The most recent headline-generator was Honey Maid's "wholesome" campaign, and especially their video response to the resulting criticism.

Compared to such epicness, the brief validation of two women in wedding gowns in this rather heavy-handed emotional brand video seems almost conservative:



Same-sex marriage has been nationally recognized here in Canada since 2005, so the brand isn't taking the same chances as an American one would.

Regardless, good for Maple Leaf. I don't usually buy their products, as I'm kind of grossed out by processed meats that come from industrial facilities. But at least they're adding some progressive social realities to their brand.

Happy Valentine's from a very manly brand of lube

A soldier's homecoming becomes a pitch for marriage equality. It's been done before (and better) by UK activist and director Mike Buonaiuto.



But this one has more than human rights to sell. It's also pitching you the most hilariously gendered brand of lube I've ever seen:

Their women's line is called "Pink". No, really! A gentle reminder that this is, after all, an American company.



Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you get some love today, even if it's from yourself.

Reimagining #Sochi sponsor ads with pride

Scottish ad industry blog The Drum is partnering with Chip Shop Awards and One Minute Briefs to challenge creatives to "show how Winter Olympics sponsors could promote the LGBT message in Russia."

One Minute Briefs is featuring hundreds of entries on Twitter. Some are mere sketches, and others are rife with gay stereotypes and crude sexual imagery. The ones I'm featuring here are among my favourites out of the 50 shortlisted by The Drum.

You can vote for your picks, today, right here.

Related posts:

Google goes gay for #Sochi
After Barilla, pro-gay pasta parody ads are cropping up all over the place

After Barilla, pro-gay pasta parody ads are cropping up all over the place

After anti-gay comments by Barilla's Chairman set the internet on fire this week with talk of a global boycott, smart pasta brands have been taking shots at their biggest competitor:

This one is my favourite, but unfortunately it's not real, according to Garofalo's Facebook page. They point out that the neopolitan dialect in the headline is incorrect.

The subhead is in standard Italian. It roughly translates as "We don't care who you do it with, as long as you do (make) it al dente!". However, an Italian friend tells me that "tost" makes it more crude, essentially saying, "We don't care who you do it with, as long as you do it hard!"

Despite distancing themselves from the parody ad, Garofalo wrote, "The only families that are not Garofalo are those who do not like good pasta".

This one's "real". It's from Buitoni's USA Facebook page

.
And this is from Bertolli, on their German Facebook page.

Canada's Italpasta also got in on the action.

"Traditions are what you make them," says wedding ring ad with two brides

The latest ad to take advantage of progressing American attitudes towards equal marriage comes from Long's in Boston. Nicely done!

Via Adrants

Storage advertiser embraces equal marriage

Weird art direction, but their heart's in the right place. Via @guerrillafutures on Instagram (as seen on Boing Boing)

Mystery posters promote guns as an LGBT rights issue

Over the past few years, the LGBT rights movement in the United States has been phenomenally successful. So I guess it's not that surprising that another movement — the lobby against tightening gun control — would try to align itself with the equal marriage cause.

According to Buzzfeed staffer Sarah Karlan, these posters "have been popping up around the Washington State Capitol in the last several days" and the QR code leads to a pro-gun website called “A Human Right.”

According to MSN, however, the site's owner denies being behind the wild postings. Nashville commercial photographer Oleg Volk told James Eng:

"The photo poster is my design, the line drawing isn't. I encourage re-posting of my graphics, so I approve of the use in general. The specific use wasn't coordinated with me but that's just fine, pre-approval is not necessary. 

"I have no idea who posted them but they acted as my allies in the cause. I want everyone -— especially people who have been traditionally facing discrimination and danger — to be more secure and independent. Minorities of all kinds are in that exact predicament."

(I also wonder why there's what appears to be a Lebanese flag in the first one.)

This isn't a unique combination of positions. Libertarians, for example, support both LGBT and gun freedoms (among many others). But this particular positioning, at this particular time, seems mighty cynical to me.

Is this NZ beer billboard the right way to welcome equal marriage?

Now that New Zealand has equal marriage, this ad brings up the question of whether the advertiser is taking a cheap shot at same-sex marriage or simply "normalizing" it by including gay people in some rusty old step-parent humour.

According to the brewer:

‘‘Our intention with the current Tui Yeah Right billboard ‘Dad’s new husband seems nice’ was to highlight the common situation or uncertainty experienced when someone’s parent remarries. 

‘‘Given the recent passing of the Same Sex Marriage Bill in Parliament, this ‘Yeah Right’ line is a topical spin at the age-old situation of a parent's new partner.’’

Tui's Facebook page is hosting an impassioned discussion of the ad's intentions, including the (regrettably) inevitable homophobic comments.

Adfreak's David Kiefaber concludes, "I don't think Tui meant any actual harm here, but the delivery was crap. If you have to explain a joke, that's proof that it bombed. That's not something you can blame on the audience."

Microsoft shows some love for equal marriage

More evidence of the sea-change in marriage rights for same-sex couples that has taken over the United States. Although I can't help but note that it's probably a lot easier for the "mainstream" to watch two beautiful women kiss each other than two men. But anyway, baby steps.

Here's the ad:



Ad by Deutsch NY. Tip via Business Insider.

Kindle ad gives a shout-out to equal marriage

Worth watching:



Nice work. A little forced, but it's progress.

A feather in the cap for Amazon. But Google managed to screw it up.

According to Queerty:

...a Queerty reader tipped us off this morning that YouTube has removed the ad for Amazon’s e-reader because of a “violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams and commercially deceptive content.” 

He wrote, “I checked the link, and confirmed that was what happened: no video, but a notice that it had been removed.”...
Fortunately, by this afternoon the ad was back on the site.

Apparently, YouTube reacted to user complaints against the ad as "inappropriate", while allowing several homophobic comments to stand (in a violation of their own policy). Boo.

Tip via Buzzfeed

Subway location in France offers "straights only" Valentine's deal

Opposing Views reports:

A branch of the Subway chain in Angers, France was forced to close recently after a Valentine’s Day special was offered to heterosexual couples only. 

The store’s owner put up a poster advertising a meal deal for couples that included a footlong Subway sandwich, a drink and a dessert each for 14 Euros. Bracketed next to the word “couples” were the letters “H/F,” indicating a couple was defined as a man and woman only. 

Also on the poster was an asterisk that read: “Discrimination (?) No, the marriage for all law has advanced, but has yet to be ratified by the Senate. Until then, I’ll use my freedom of expression.”

The special offer was apparently made by a rogue franchisee, and spent Subway France spinning on Twitter and Facebook.

On Saturday, when the news had gone global, they even posted in English on their Facebook page:

As we stated in response to many posts yesterday: The SUBWAY ® brand is strongly committed to maintain the values ​​of diversity and inclusiveness in its restaurants around the world and does not endorse in any discrimination of any kind . , we apologize to all the people being offended by individual initiative to promote Valentine's Day a restaurant in Angers, France. All SUBWAY ® restaurants are owned by franchisees and are managed independently. We work with the owner of the restaurant in order to strengthen our values ​​and company policy.

The French National Assembly recently approved a law that would legalize same-sex marriage and give the same rights to all married couples to adopt children. Although the legislation has met with organized protest, a recent poll indicated that 63% of French citizens support equal marriage.

But not, apparently, that one rogue sandwich artist who caused his brand a massive embarrassment.

TD Bank features same-sex couples in "mainstream" ads

The ad above was shared by my favourite Sicilian-Canadian reader, Jackie Di Caro. It appears in the Toronto Star.

Looking for background, I found that the "lifestyle" section of TD's web site also features a video with two men on the page about "becoming a couple".

What's cool about this isn't the fact that a major brand is targeting gay consumers. With their stereotyped double-income-no-kids lifestyle, committed same-sex couples are a marketer's dream. But instead of running a niche campaign in "gay" media, TD is simply adding same-sex couples to the rotation of its depictions of families. And it's not even a recent development. TD has  participated in, and sponsored, Pride parades for several years. The bank recently produced its own had-hitting It Gets Better video. And it walks the walk — it is recognized as one of "The Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality".

Via This Gay Relationship

What will all this gay-positiveness do to one of Canada's largest banks, and to society as a whole?

From a 2011 post in the blog "This Gay Relationship":

...if TD doesn't stop presenting all of these positive images in their newspaper ads, I might just get the idea being a gay male couple is as normal and natural in Canada in 2011 as has been the case for straight couples since the beginning of time (or at least since TD began advertising in big city newspapers). I'm not sure what would happen if the general population started to get that idea. Who knows where that could lead us. 

This is all awesome, from a progressiveness point-of-view, but it is also a great example of how traditional organizations are adapting to a changing social climate. In 2012, TD reported it had $1.6 billion of net income in the fourth quarter, bringing the total for year ended Oct. 31 to $6.47 billion.

Pranksters successfully trade their homosexuality for some free Chick-fil-A with a fake coupon

John Nelson and Robert Stiefler run the satirical Chick-fil-A Foundation, through which they troll fundamentalist Christians in the name of LOLs. It's presumably a reaction to the chicken fast food chain's recent messy run-in with the public fight over equal marriage in the US.

The coupon, above, was part of the Chick-fil-A Foundation's "Trade Your Homosexuality for a Chicken Sandwich Day!" promotion last year.

In the video below, John and Robert actually succeeded in redeeming two of the coupons at an unspecified Chick-fil-A, despite the fact that the fake text says it's valid at the controversial NYU store and only on March 6, 2012 (the video was just published two days ago).

I'm wondering if the manager just gave them the sandwiches to get rid of them quickly.

Here's a less obvious fake coupon from the site:

Tip via Gawker

This ad is so gay

Via Adrants

And isn't that wonderful?

Red Hook, a beer brewed in Washington and New Hampshire, has come out in favour of marriage equality in the run-up to next Tuesday's election in the United States. Americans in Maine, Maryland and Washington will also have the opportunity to vote for equal marriage amendments, and Minnesota voters have a "traditional marriage" one to consider.

This year's massively-polarized political climate has several brands to "take sides" on LGBT issues, including Oreo, Target, Gap and JC Penney flying the rainbow flag, and Chick-fil-A becoming an accidental shibboleth for the anti-equality movement. And Marriott International, an organization that "once counted Mitt Romney as a corporate board member" and whose owner "is among the candidate's top donors," is (ironically?) targeting lesbian couples in its advertising.

Adrants' Steve Hall points out:

It's always a gamble when a brand takes a stand on such polarizing issues. At risk is the loss of business from one end of the spectrum or the other. But it's admirable when a brand is brave enough to publicly share its collective beliefs.

It is great. Although I'm not sure a microbrewery is taking much of a risk in appealing to a more progressive audience.

Expedia comes out with touching same-sex marriage travelogue

Apparently, One Million Moms haven't seen this yet. Expedia Travel joined the many American brands that are coming out in support of same-sex marriage when they launched this short as part of their "Find yours..." campaign:



The campaign line is, "We know that every trip is unique, personal and has the potential to be transformational. With more travel options than anyone else, we exist to help each individual find exactly what it is they are looking for."

About this video, they state, "On this trip, Artie Goldstein travels across the country to attend his daughter's same-sex wedding, a journey that will test him, challenge him, and ultimately change him in unexpected ways."

It's a nice statement about love and acceptance. Unfortunately, many others have taken to Expedia's Facebook page to make statements of hate and intolerance, as documented by Buzzfeed:

However, in the words of Dan Savage, it gets better. As of this writing, the most recent comments are overwhelmingly positive:

Anti-gay group steals men's wedding portrait for homophobic mailer

Copyright Kristina Hill

The photo above celebrates the 2010 engagement of Tom Privitere and Brian Edward. Taken (and legally owned) by Brooklyn photographer Kristina Hill, it is an intimate portrait of two men intending to formalize their life together (NY State legalized same-sex marriage the next year, but they had already wed in Connecticut).

Below is a direct mail sent to constituents of Colorado State Senator Jean White (R), a proponent of same-sex "civil unions," by Public Advocate of the United States.

From their horrible web site:

Public Advocate offers strong and vocal opposition to :

• Same sex marriage and the furtherance of so-called "Gay Rights";

• The National Endowment of the Arts or taxpayer supported art and the federal funding and endorsement of pornography and obscenity as legitimate forms of art from any agency;

• The mainstream media's promotion and glorification of drug abuse, teenage sex, gangs, atheism, homosexuality and other immoral behavior and beliefs;

• The passage of hate crimes and thought control legislation that creates inequality in our state and federal legal systems and singles out Christians or moral thinking people for persecution, fines, and harrassment by the government at any level;

• "Pro-choice" or abortion strengthening legislation that upholds or expands the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973;

• The creation of special classes of Americans at the expense of the traditional American family.

(Bafflingly, they also claim to support "Equality under the law, regardless of one's sexual orientation")

You'll note that they have no statement on intellectual property laws. But Tom, Brian and Kristina do. They're suing PAUS (what a lovely acronym) in U.S. District Court, seeking damages, costs and attorney fees for the allegedly unauthorized use of the copyrighted photo.

When contacted by NBC News, PAUS President Eugene Delgaudio said  he was looking into it but did not elaborate.

The complaintants' attorney, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Christine Sun, told NBC:

“The use of Tom and Brian’s likenesses, or of Kristina’s copyrighted photo, was wholly gratuitous. Public Advocate could have just paid for a stock photo of a gay couple kissing but instead Public Advocate decided to take this very personal photo of this happy moment and use it to attack gay people.  … the doctrine of fair use is not intended to allow people to use copyrighted work just because it’s cheaper than paying for something.”  

A fair warning for all marketing people, homophobic or not.

Thou shalt not steal gay porn to protest equal marriage

This digital mailer, paid for by the "Committee to Save the Erie County Republican Party," is an attack on a Republican New York state senator who was the decisive vote in the state's gay marriage legislation.

The rest of it reads, "Sometimes they're political whore$. Make sure your Son says, 'Thank you, Mark Grisanti'." Buzzfeed IDs the "committee" as Matthew Ricchiazzi, a Cornell University graduate who ran a failed campaign for Buffalo mayor.

I was more curious about where the committee got the image. It dosen't look like stock photography, and it is unlikely they did a photo shoot. So I put our a query on my social media networks.

Liam Quin, a follower on Google+ , cropped the image and did a Google similar-image search. Bingo.

The image is from a gay porn movie called Zeb Fucks Wayne (warning: porn link). The photo is from the still on that site. ("I have not actually watched the movie, I'm afraid," Liam adds.)

Stealing is mentioned in the 10 commandments. Same-sex marriage is not. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Wendy's gets burned on Chick-fil-A Day

Business Insider reports that several Wendy's locations in North and South Carolina posted the message "We stand with Chick-fil-A" this morning. (It's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day)

It was the work of one of the franchise's biggest restaurant owners, Jim Furman, CEO of Tarheel Capital.

Interestingly, Tarheel's corporate site has a Mission Statement that opens with:

We manage our business by the Golden Rule,treating others as we would like to be treated,holding ourselves to high ethical standards.

Hmmm.

The signs weren't up for long. While Mr. Furman told regional media that the signs were changed quickly because the company "felt it was time to go back to their marketing message."

This is what Wendy's Corporate Twitter-bot had to say:

Unfortunately, when the US national debate over equal marriage is this ugly, it's hard to get the stain of intolerance off your brand — even when it isn't deserved.

Umm... guys?

Berenstain Bears — Conscientious objectors in the Chick-fil-A war

The Berenstain Bears brand of kids books has been pulled unwillingly into the Chick-fil-A shitstorm, according to NBC news.

The row with the Jim Henson Company and gay rights advocates over CEO Dan Cathy's recent comments about "traditional marriage" have created a divisive PR climate around the fast food brand. With a new cobranded book promotion set to launch from Chick-fil-A and the Bears, the copyright owners posted this notice on their web site:

Interesting that the owners of such titles as "The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers," "The Berenstain Bears Show God's Love," and "The Berenstain Bears Discover God's Creation" should distance themselves so definitively from the "Christian" rhetoric of Dan Cathy.

It just goes to show how much things are changing in the USA in 2012.