Queer advertising
Queer advertising
‘Commodity lesbianism’ (Danae Clark, 1991)
Dual market strategy – packaging gender ambiguity but also erasing gay/ straight differences.
Personal/political identities reduced to consumer choices (like ‘commodity feminism’).
Lesbians are thus caught between the need to establish an identity and the need to be free of limits on identity
Development of queer advertising:
1980s: advertisers recognize value of the ‘pink dollar’
Advertising gradually becomes more direct/ explicit
‘Gay window advertising’
Dual-market strategy, with a coded address to gay consumers
Eg. Mark Wahlberg’s Calvin Klein ad, 1983 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ITcCaTTM3E (Levi’s) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIG0kB9lOxo (Pepsi)
Since the early 1990s, national marketers and advertisers have recognized a new specialized market segment: gay consumers.3 Prior to this, advertising targeted to gay men was primarily in local gay-oriented newsletters and newspapers and national circulation gay erotica. Personal classifieds and advertisements placed by local gay-owned businesses were the primary sources of advertising income for the newsletters and newspapers.4 By contrast, advertising in the erotica was quite limited and did not include national advertisers of recognized brands of consumer goods and services. In just a couple of decades, all this has changed to the point where media directed to gay men have expanded considerably and are supported in large part by the paid advertising of well known brands like Budweiser, United Airlines, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and the like.
Gay consumers now constitute what marketers refer to as a niche market, that is, a special market segment with its own characteristic profile that is large enough in size and affluent enough to warrant special consideration. In addition to gay consumers, other important niche markets include African Americans and Latinos—both of which also constitute sizeable and affluent sets of
‘Commodity lesbianism’ (Danae Clark, 1991)
Dual market strategy – packaging gender ambiguity but also erasing gay/ straight differences.
Personal/political identities reduced to consumer choices (like ‘commodity feminism’).
Lesbians are thus caught between the need to establish an identity and the need to be free of limits on identity
Development of queer advertising:
1980s: advertisers recognize value of the ‘pink dollar’
Advertising gradually becomes more direct/ explicit
‘Gay window advertising’
Dual-market strategy, with a coded address to gay consumers
Eg. Mark Wahlberg’s Calvin Klein ad, 1983 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ITcCaTTM3E (Levi’s) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIG0kB9lOxo (Pepsi)
Since the early 1990s, national marketers and advertisers have recognized a new specialized market segment: gay consumers.3 Prior to this, advertising targeted to gay men was primarily in local gay-oriented newsletters and newspapers and national circulation gay erotica. Personal classifieds and advertisements placed by local gay-owned businesses were the primary sources of advertising income for the newsletters and newspapers.4 By contrast, advertising in the erotica was quite limited and did not include national advertisers of recognized brands of consumer goods and services. In just a couple of decades, all this has changed to the point where media directed to gay men have expanded considerably and are supported in large part by the paid advertising of well known brands like Budweiser, United Airlines, Nike, Ralph Lauren, and the like.
Gay consumers now constitute what marketers refer to as a niche market, that is, a special market segment with its own characteristic profile that is large enough in size and affluent enough to warrant special consideration. In addition to gay consumers, other important niche markets include African Americans and Latinos—both of which also constitute sizeable and affluent sets of