In recent years, marketers have drastically increased representations of LGBT characters in ads. From Cheerios in Canada to Tiffany & Co., Nikon and Hallmark, there are more gay characters in ads than ever before. But some brands are still getting it wrong and using misguided, or worse, offensive gay tropes in their ads.
On Tuesday at South by Southwest AdRespect founder Mike Wilke and Whitney Pillsbury, executive creative director at Publicis Kaplan Thaler, will share best practices for using LGBT characters and themes in ads. Before the talk, Marketing tasked Wilke and Pillsbury with choosing three ads with positive LGBT representations and three with poor ones.
Here are their picks.
Who got it right? Lynx and Honey Maid
Honey Maid
For its 2014 “This Is Wholesome” campaign, Honey Maid expanded the definition of family beyond the traditional nuclear, heterosexual unit usually seen in ads. Among the families: a single dad, a blended family and a gay couple, “Dad and Papa.”
Pillsbury, who is gay and has three children, said the “Dad and Papa” spot spoke to him personally and he found it validating to see a brand like Honey Maid show such a positive representation of a gay family. “Just as a consumer, what wonderful marketing,” he said. “It’s very moving for me, to say that [being gay] is wholesome. I’m so impressed with that work.”
After the campaign launched, Honey Maid addressed the feedback it received in another video. It tasked two artists with turning the messaged into a piece of art that spelled out “Love” and showed the positive messages greatly outnumbered the negative ones.
Lynx
Last year the Australian hair brand Lynx released an ad that featured a gay male kiss. Exactly half way into the ad the voiceover says, “Kiss the hottest girl,” and shows a Casablanca-style airport kiss. Then, as the voiceover says, “Or the hottest boy,” the actor turns away from the woman he’s kissed and plants another kiss on a man who moves into the frame.
The reason Wilke and Pillsbury picked the ad is because it’s both modern and inclusive. The kiss is included in a number of scenarios the ad brands as “amazing.” Too many brands use gay characters or scenes as the reveal in a joke. Lynx provides a more modern approach: the kiss is one of many light-hearted moments. It’s silly and fun, but not a joke – and the scene doesn’t play out at the gay character’s expense.
Neutral: Las Vegas
Las Vegas
In this ad for Visit Las Vegas, a straight woman leaves her husband as he checks into a hotel. A suave man in a suit appears as soon as she leaves and the concierge mistakes the two for a couple.
“Instead of being disgusted, he smirks,” Pillsbury said. While the viewer never finds out if the man in the suit is gay, it’s clear the straight character isn’t a homophobe – he’s, at the very least, amused by the concierge’s assumption. Wilke and Pillsbury see this as a “safe” approach. “They chose a gay positive twist and it worked,” Pillsbury said.
Who got it wrong? Milwaukee’s Best, Snickers and Chevy
Snickers
Back in 2007, Snickers debuted this ad during the Super Bowl. The ad takes places in a super macho environment – an auto shop – and features a Lady and the Tramp style kiss between two men with a Snickers subbing in for the spaghetti. Soon after the Super Bowl, Snickers pulled the ad due to backlash from consumers and gay rights groups. The problem? The humour came from the assumption that a gay kiss was disgusting.
While some have painted the ad as a joke about homophobia, Wilke doesn’t buy that line of defense. “It can be argued that they are trying to have it both ways. In other words, to appeal to those who ARE homophobic, and to appeal to those who laugh at homophobic people,” he said.
Milwaukee’s Best
The beer brand Milwaukee’s Best ran a series of ads based on the concept that “Men should act like men.” In this spot, a man is killed by a giant can of beer when he expresses interest in a little dog. While he’s not alluded to as gay per say, the coded messaging is a clear condemnation of any behaviour the brand rules as a effeminate.
“It’s perpetuating the myth of a certain way that men should act, which is so unfair to the spectrum of male sexuality,” Pillsbury said.
Wilke added that this binary approach to gender norms creates a line of messaging that leaves many types of men – and gay ones especially – out. “While no one in these ads is specifically depicted as ‘gay,’ over and over again we have found a negative reaction from many gay men to this type of advertising,” he said.
Chevy
It’s easy to see the original brief in this final ad for Chevy Colorado. The brand wanted to show how spacious the car was, so it created a scenario where a passenger wanted more room. In the ad, a car full of men drives through a rocky terrain as one rider sings along to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.” One of the other men is visibly uncomfortable and the camera pans to a close up of his knee moving away to avoid touching the singer.
Again, male closeness and coded effeminate behaviour is the butt of a joke. Pillsbury offers a simple fix: if all of the men had been singing along and just one had been uncomfortable, Chevy could have shown off its spacious vehicle without any harm. “I think that would have been modern and funny,” he said.
