Now let’s be clear: we love Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), we love Equality Maine, we love the ACLU, Freedom to Marry and Engage Maine (even though we’re not exactly sure what that last group is, but it sounds nice).
We think they’re all great folks, doing very important work.
But that having been said: how, exactly, is their new ad for marriage equality any different from the dozen or so ads that have come before in every previous losing campaign?
The coalition pushing Maine’s marriage equality vote this November sent out an email blast asking if the new “Garder Family” spot might be “the best marriage ad ever.” And while it’s not necessarily bad, we’re just not sure how it’s any different.
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.
Remember the Thorons talking about Prop 8 in 2008?
And the “All Families” ad in Maine in 2009?
And then there was Amendment One in NC just a few months ago:
http://youtu.be/pvLSpr6Qeu0
Okay, so we’re really good at taping interviews with lovely, friendly, rational people who make some very sensible arguments about why equality is so important.
How’s that working out for us?
Jonny
Amen! Lord, if the subtle human approach isn’t working, I say aim for the wall! Forget “we’re nice people” and go for the “Keep Big Guv’mint Out Ma Bed!” type ads or something that’ll get people talking about the civil rights issues.
Will G
Wow…Queerty loves GLAAD so much they post an article misspelling their acronym. *headdesk*
redcarpet
I want to see an ad that uses The Storm Is Coming as a template. Use their own weapon against them. They have nothing else so it would probably be effective.
Daez
@Jonny: Thing is, it IS working. It just is not working as fast as some of us would like for it. However, we are winning the public support battle, and every single pole shows us improving by at least 4-5%.
The moment we go on the attack it just makes us look bad. In the end, people are much more likely to side with victims than attackers. We are using the right method considering the fact that at its core this is still a religious battle.
peter
@Daez: I wouldn’t trust the Poles on this one. They’ve shown pretty poor judgment in the past.
Benji Douglas
GLAD with one A is part of the coalition in Maine.
Dave
This is actually a cogent post by a Queerty writer, and it is backed up with evidence. I am amazed. I thought the same thing as Benji when I saw this ad.
The key thing is not that we run ads that make us, gay Queerty readers, feel good. I am just as opposed to running some harsh attack ad because that would be emotionally satisfying as I am to running soft ads like this. (And I would remind everyone that No on 8 did run a harsh ad, with a Samuel Jackson narration, comparing Prop 8 to racial segregation. It is widely acknowledged to be a disastrous choice.)
The key is that these ads be subjected to professional research, including focus group feedback, before they run. The only relevant criterion for success is whether the spot helps us win 50% plus one vote. Right now, I am confident that our side is professionally run and is doing the proper public opinion research for these ads. Their filings indicate that they have made substantial payments for this research already. Let’s see what else they come up with and how it impacts the polls.
mike ramon
I sure hope Maine drops the title: “So goes Maine, so goes the nation.” Its been a pretty homophobic state lately and not a place I’d like to go to.
Lifer
Listen, the cops in Maine just arrested another I am the Joker fool. They stopped the guy for speeding & he said point blank that he was on his way to kill his boss (a logical reason for speeding really). So they arrest him & between his car & his home they seized a bounty of weapons not unlike other Jokers in the news recently. And, the first thing the cop says to the reporter is “It’s not unusual to find this amount of weapons in residences in rural Maine”.
So, maybe you do have to tread lightly in Maine.
Selrah
@peter: You don’t trust Polish people? 😉
Chris
@Will G: They were referring to Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, which is not the Gay and Lesbian Aliance against Defamation, they used the proper acronym GLAD.for the organization to which they were referring.
Chuck
“Okay, so we’re really good at taping interviews with lovely, friendly, rational people who make some very sensible arguments about why equality is so important.
How’s that working out for us?”
So we should be hateful, anti-social and irrational? I’m pretty sure that friendly rational ads are doing a lot more good than you think. In just the past decade the percentage of people who support gay marriage in the US has passed the half-way point.
I love the first commercial. My only qualm with it was the bad acting by the daughter. >_<