Advertising Is Good For You

Mostly hysterical commercial from Lithuania

The only thing I don't like about this commercial from Lithuania — and it's no small thing — is that it gets somewhat homophobic toward the end.

Click here to watch the TV spot for Vytautas mineral water.

Click here to see another funny commercial from overseas.

Absolut-ly gay

Absolut vodka is running this ad to celebrate the brand's 30 years of advertising to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Absolut was a pioneer in recognizing that the LGBT community are "trendsetters whose brand-buying habits would eventually be adopted by younger, hipper segments of the market."

Read more about it in this New York Times article.

Click here to see a Campbell's soup ad that features a same-sex couple and their son.

The Orangina commercial that was banned in France

This Orangina commercial, with its gay overtones, was banned from French TV for being too "polemic."

Click here to watch the Orangina TV spot that was banned in France.

A shout out to Campbell Soup

Campbell Soup is running this ad as part of a Swanson broth campaign aimed at gays and lesbians. This particular ad profiles the holiday traditions of chef Lea Forant and her partner Carolyn, provides a recipe for butternut squash bisque and features an adorable photo of the two women with their son Eli.

Complaints about this ad and the rest of the campaign are coming from predictable sources. Campbell makes no apologies. The company's rep Anthony Sanzio says:

Our position on this is pretty straightforward. Inclusion and diversity play an important role in our business, and that fact is reflected in our marketing plan. For more than a century, people from all walks for life have enjoyed Campbell's products, and we will continue to try to communicate in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them."

You can read more about the controversy at Advertising Age.

A (good, in my opinion) sign of the times

I got a promotional email from Kodak Gallery today advertising the online store's Valentine's Day specials. Clicking the link, I found my way to this screen.

As always, Kodak Gallery's graphic design is clean, simple and easy on the eyes. It's a great site and I spend a fair amount of money there.

What surprised me was the two men on the Valentine's card. Kodak Gallery is obviously courting the gay market.

As a strong supporter of gay rights, I was very pleased to see this.

As an advertising/marketing professional, I have to say I was stunned. Kodak strikes me as such a middle-of-the-road company that I wouldn't have expected them to risk offending a sizable portion of the population.

Go figure.

Celebrity Endorsement: fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is tapped to promote wrinkle cream

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi is the new celebrity spokesperson for StriVectin-SD. In case you're too young to know, StriVectin-SD is a rather expensive stretch mark cream that unexpectedly turned out to be a miraculous anti-wrinkle cream.

Word-of-mouth advertising made StriVectin-SD such a huge success that the major drug store chains all sell a less-expensive generic version of the stuff.

The folks at StriVectin-SD claim they've hired Isaac Mizrahi to sell the anti-wrinkle cream to men. That's 'men' with no qualifier such as, say, 'gay.' But come on. Straight men don't even know who Isaac Mizrahi is.

Isaac Mizrahi's boyish charm and affable manner make him a great celebrity choice to endorse wrinkle cream to at least 10% of the male population.

Mizrahi photo: Every Day with Rachel Ray

Source: Fashion Week Daily

Advertising to Gays

One of my clients, a relatively small regional bank, recently began advertising in one of the few publications targeting the gay and lesbian community of Massachusetts.

This is an incredibly progressive move on the part of my client because gays and lesbians are still a relatively untapped market. Yet, a generally accepted statistic (at least up here in the Northeast) is that gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals make up about 10% of the American population.

That's a huge market of consumers. Fairly sophisticated consumers, at that.

According to an article in the Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising (OMMA), 77% of gay Americans have conducted banking or related financial transactions online; 74% have brought a product or service online; and 69% have made airline or hotel reservations online.

As for those companies that pursue a policy of avoiding advertising to gays, I'm reminded of Petula Clark's 1968 NBC TV special.

While performing with Harry Belafonte, the white songstress innocently touched the black singer's arm. The show's sponsor, Chrysler, freaked.

A man and woman of different races had never before touched one another on American television and Chrysler was afraid of offending Southern viewers. A representative from Chrysler demanded the 'touch' footage be substituted with a different take. Ms. Clark and her producer famously refused and the show aired, nonetheless, to high ratings and much critical acclaim.

I see two lessons here. First, Americans aren't as hateful as some might think. And, two, tread very carefully if you're going to discriminate among consumers. The story of Ms. Clark's 1968 TV special is still now remembered by many -- it's even part of Petula Clark's Wikipedia bio. You don't want a similar footnote permanently attached to your brand advertising.