It’s been a whirlwind year, and we’ll understand if you haven’t noticed the increasing number of LGBTQ references popping up in TV commercials.
Just this month, a remarkable, first-of-its-kind Amazon recruitment ad appealed to potential workers with a current worker noting: “It’s a really trans-friendly company. My manager has been a really big advocate for me.”
This is a great message. By making a workplace safe for trans workers, it is making it safe for everyone. And it’s the second LGBTQ inclusive spot this year from the retailer.
Here are some other LGBT inclusive spots you may have missed recently:
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.
1. IKEA
Remember the IKEA commercial where two guys bought a dining table together and it caused bomb threats to stores in 1994? We’ve come a long way, baby.
This year, IKEA teamed with National Geographic in a mock nature show that captures a gay male couple first spooning but struggling for space in a small bed. As the two bump each others’ backs, a British narrator intones melodramatically, “Here, an epic struggle for dominance occurs nightly and sleep itself is on the brink of extinction. The mustachioed male defends his territory. The stubble-faced male is stunned.” Later, the two men shop at IKEA and bring home a bigger bed to jump into.
2. Levi’s-Google
In an unlikely Levi’s-Google mashup, a series of people wearing the Google-connected Levi’s denim jacket demonstrates how to get info while on the go, by tapping and swiping the sleeve. Two men arrive on a hilltop overlooking the city, share an embrace and dance together as they take in the view and listen to music.
3. Smirnoff & Pride
Smirnoff was on a roll this year. The vodka brand rolled out a series of LGBTQ ads for Pride, this one featuring “Orange Is the New Black” actress Laverne Cox. With Disney-like music and a candy-colored palette, Cox in a red leather cocktail dress, gloves and hat asks, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a place that accepted everyone?” A place that said, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning…to vogue free! Well girl, that place is here!”
She continues: “This month Pride isn’t a party, it’s a home. And the doors are always open. NO borders here.” The camera pulls out to reveal a tiny house in front of the New York City skyline and several backup dancers. In the final pullout shot, Cox shouts, “We’re waiting for you with open arms! And vodka!”
A rainbow arches over Manhattan.
4. Smirnoff & Jonathan Van Ness
Also this year, Cheers’ Ted Danson walks through the lawn of a party and says to the camera, “Smirnoff knows you don’t need a lot to have a good time.” Walking up to the bar, he touches Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness’ back and orders two from the bartender. She serves up two martinis the size of a mouse. Offering the second to Jonathan, he replies, “Oh, I’m still nursing this one, bubby.” (A Yiddish term of endearment.) “Bubby?! My mom used to call me that!” says Danson with surprise. They laugh together.
5. Tiffany & Co.
In its How Do You #LoveYourWay campaign, Tiffany interviews various couples on their relationship. A remake of the Turtles’ song “Happy Together” plays while influencer couple Max and Andres talk about their favorite things about each other, then share a sweet kiss in an elevator.
6. Allstate
Tough guy Dennis Quaid stars as the spokesperson in this self-aware spot of fake commercials within a commercial. In one mock cologne ad, he’s sitting on a couch being lavished by both a woman and man, who caresses his cheek. Quaid grins at the camera, unaffected by either.
7. Snapchat
Snapchat created a charming series of videos focused on relationships, several with sassy gay men in them. This one features a young woman and her gay brother. “She was actually the first person to find out I wasn’t straight,” says Josh about his sister Rebecca. “We’re comfortable talking about boys.” She observes with a laugh, “Josh tends to like guys with kind of weird hairlines.”
8. CarMax
“If there’s gonna be a sticker on your car, it has to mean something,” the narrator says. “That you got into college, or crossed the finish line.That you went someplace worth going. Or maybe that you have opinions.” A bunch of mostly generic, unreal issues show up, but then a “Love is Love” sticker appears with a rainbow on the back of a convertible from Arkansas with two mature, queer women driving.
Advertising just keeps getting queerer, and we love it.
Michael Wilke has covered LGBT issues in advertising since 1992, is the founder of AdRespect.org, and Senior US Consultant for LGBT marketing and diversity firm Out Now.
Brian
Yay equality! Now gay people can be treated like they’re one step above slave labor, the way Amazon does to to many of their straight employees. And, of course, pays them horrible wages for the privilege.
RyanMBecker
Er, you do realize that no one is forced to work for Amazon, right? Especially in the present economy. If people don’t like their wages and benefits, then don’t apply. And consumers that agree with you shouldn’t buy from them. It’s that simple.
RyanMBecker
The Amazon ad is airing a lot in New York City. And that makes us even more upset at vocal minority whose protests scared Amazon away from building their warehouse here. Lots of potential jobs and millions of dollars lost. It’s one of several reasons we hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose mouth is often miles ahead of her brain. And her brain rarely catches up. I’m a liberal Democrat, but she is nothing but a simplistic publicity whore.
Kangol2
Actually, Amazon wanted to locate its East Coast headquarters in NYC; it already has tons of warehouses in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. You might have missed the recent rally by Amazon workers in the Staten Island fulfillment center, but they were protesting the high rate of injuries caused by Amazon’s work practices, the lack of government oversight over the monopolistic company, and the need for enforcement of labor laws, among other things. It’s clear that you dislike Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, but you should at least tell the truth; she didn’t stop Amazon’s cloak-and-dagger deal–and if it was legit, why not be fully transparent with New Yorkers?–with Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo and Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio, she just amplified the concerns of a sizable number of residents of Queens, part of her district, where gentrification and displacement of residents is through the roof. Her mouth and brain are in sync, and she regularly reads conservatives and even moderate Democrats the riot act, so listen less to Fox and perhaps a bit more to her. You might even get a bit more enlightened.
DarkZephyr
Dennis Quaid getting stroked on the cheek by a man and calling it “sexy” is waaaaaaay hotter than I thought humanly possible.
queerty02
Thank you Amazon for exploiting trans people. We are so hopeful that once day, the LGBT community will also be crushed under a forklift in one of your warehouses. And maybe, just maybe, they will go homeless not because their families have disowned them, but because of your starvation wages, and gentifying corporate headquarters.