https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skPnJOZYdA
By now you’ve surely seen the Google Chrome ad that played last night during Glee, which tells the story of how Dan Savage made it OK for LGBT grownups to talk to LGBT kids. If you haven’t seen it, sit back and get ready to cry.
Beautiful, right? So moving. It’s basically a commercial for feeling good about who you are. (Whether or not Dan actually used Chrome to upload his videos — eh, who cares.)
And it gives some perspective to the asinine right-wing claim that Glee itself is product-placement for homosexuality. Uh, no, not any more than Married With Children is product-placement for heterosexuality. When a TV show puts Diet Coke in everyone’s hand with every logo facing front, that’s weird and awkward, because life is not really like that. But putting gays on TV is not at all weird because, despite the right wing’s best efforts, gay people exist and live and thrive.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Mike in Asheville
Well “new” Queerty sure is trying to be “old” Queerty.
So, Matt Baume, what does your article have to do with your headline? Google makes better ads than gay groups? Um, okay Google makes a great pro-gay ad; but you then hype about Glee, Married with Children, Diet Pepsi and right-wing crazies, and that gay people “exist, live and thrive.” But, per the headline, where is anything about gay-org videos.
Did you fail to notice the Google ad is mostly clips of amateur homemade videos solicited by Dan Savage and the It Gets Better Campaign.
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Perhaps the headline should have been: Google + Dan Savage = good job!
matt baume
@Mike in Asheville: Well, find me an ad from a gay organization that’s better than this one.
Cam
I loved that ad last night, and just as much watching it now.
Thanks Google, Dan Savage and everybody who uploaded a clip!
Mike in Asheville
@matt baume: Sorry Matt, but that’s your job, you’re the “journalist” and you are the one who painted ALL gay made pro-gay ads as less than.
Gay and lesbian organizations, from coast-to-coast, have been self promoting their various causes for decades, from the first gay pride parades to AIDS and Breast Cancer fundraisers. When the first gay pride parade in NYC, only 1 state, Illinois, had repealed its sodomy laws.
It has only been through the hard work, sweat and tears, of thousands of volunteers over decades, and their efforts of promoting equality, health care, and, obviously the current marriage equity efforts, that more and more, and now a majority of Americans, support equality.
By-the-way, Google has been around now 12 years, and has only added pro-gay themed ads in the last year. During those years, gay groups marched on promoting our cause. Yes, its GREAT that a giant like Google is jumping on our bandwagon; but its not necessary to tarnish others in order to brag on Google.
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Matt: you can be a journalist OR a snarker.
Right Wingers Are Socioptahs (John From England)
I agree that this is the kind of stuff that gay organizations should make.
Mike, you can whine all you like but what’s the point of working for YEARS on something and STILL not getting what strategy or marketing is about?
It reminds of all these lefty groups I joined a few years back who canvassed and called up etc but never won ANYTHING.
That’s the thing that gay groups have, it’s all about making themselves feel better because they are such activists but bugger the consequences. The very people they hate are still suffering but heck, as long as you can pat yourself on the back for being such a great human being, who cares you dont make any change?
The comments on the it gets better site are very eye opening and you should post them here Matt. A ton of people saying how they have never heard of this and it has ma them take notice about gays.
We desperately need to learn from creative companies like Google.
Lol, Matt, keep Queerty, get the same bitchy, negative commenters!
SteveC
@Matt Baume: “Well, find me an ad from a gay organization that’s better than this one.”
Have you seen the clip from BeLonG To – Ireland’s LGBT Youth Organisation. It’s on Youtube and it’s called ‘Stand Up! – Don’t Stand for Homophobic Bullying’
I thought that was a better advert. And it’s from a gay organisation.
OK – it’s clearly lower budget, and not going to be shown on primetime US TV, but it made me cry buckets.
Check it out on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJxqvalFxM
Joe Johnson
And think of the ads Google could make if they only had the 170 billion dollar valuation that the gay orgs each have. Oh wait.
matt baume
@SteveC: Boy I just do not get the “Stand Up” commercial. I thought it was mortifying, and really had to grit my teeth to watch the whole embarrassing thing. Am I missing something amazing? Lots of people really seem to love it. But to me, it just feels so totally out of touch with reality — nothing like this would ever happen, it’s wildly implausible, and even if it makes people feel good it’s so impossibly wishful I just find it sad. Sort of like people who get so much plastic surgery they don’t even look human anymore. Sorry to be so depressing!
IAbuseGays
The strange part is how some gay people defend the absurdly bad ads (from a marketing stand point) that gay activist groups put out. I defend some gay groups because I think they do good work. Others I don’t. But for the most part, their marketing strategies are straight out of the amateur league. It is not a surprise that a marketing giant would do better than the average gay groups. Marketing is what they are good at. The same issue is true of Hollywood. I have always said if they spent less time trying to be political and more doing what they are good at- they could do more to help us as far as knowing how to push people’s emotional buttons.
Cam
@IAbuseGays:
Thats because many of the gay groups are not staffed by people skilled in a particular area. They have gay activists, and then they say “Hey, we need some outreach, does anybody here have marketing experience? No? Well does anybody here think they could do a good job at it?…
It isn’t that bad, but look for example at HRC. They don’t seek out experienced lobbyists with serious connections to staff their lobbying arm, they have their staffers go out and do the work, competing against lobbyists who have spent decades and hundreds of thousands to get Congress in their pockets.
jason
Just because you’re gay, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are the best person for marketing gay issues. What’s needed is a savvy business person first. Yes, many gay people do have a lot of passion for the cause. But passion doesn’t automatically translate to proficiency, for instance.
I think that, all too often, gay people fall into this trap of thinking that being gay automatically means that you are skilled, proficient, knowledgeable, intelligent, intellectual and cluey. It’s not the case at all.
Adriana
Honestly. It shouldn’t have to take highly experienced millionaires such as Google to make a campaign successful. There’s It Gets Better, The Trevor Project, Give A Damn, etc. etc. etc. There’s SO many activists out there now, supported by celebrities everyone knows and loves. MANY straight allies included. That nowadays it’s so much easier for someone to grasp onto some sort of hope to keep them afloat.
AxelDC
Google has gobs of money, so of course they do better ads. Unlike HRC et al., they don’t seem to be ashamed of gays being gay.