Speak Out: Are You Swayed By LGBTQ Advertising?
Image: Screenshot/Mercedes
About a week ago, German car manufacturer Mercedes Benz released an ad featuring out trans model Benjamin Melzer. It’s the first episode in a series of clips called A Guide to Growing Up.
Melzer talks about stopping going to the public pool as a child because of girls staring at him, the process of coming out as trans to friends and family, and what kept him going through it all. Overall, it’s a well-made ad that’s respectful of Melzer’s experience.
You can watch the ad here:
Mercedes is yet another company courting the pink dollar. Over the past few months, companies like Axe, Google, and Heineken have released ads that target the LGBTQ community either directly or tangentially.
This early influx of LGBT-focused ads builds on other inclusive ads of 2016, like the ones for the Kindle Paperwhite, Tylenol, and Campbell’s Soup.
While this show of inclusiveness generates good PR for the company, is it enough for you to buy what they’re selling? Of the companies mentioned here so far, none have made it to Diversity Inc.’s ranking of the top companies for LGBTQ employees. Diversity Inc comes up with their rankings by seeing if the companies check off the following best practices:
- having active LGBT employee resource groups
- percentage of philanthropic endeavors aimed at LGBT nonprofits
- whether the company attempts to track the number of LGBT employees
- whether the company certifies LGBT vendors with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
- the percentage of procurement spent with certified LGBT vendors.
That said, Google, Campbell’s Soup, and Johnson & Johnson, all got a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) 2017. Amazon lagged behind at just 90%.
In fact, if you dig deeper into Amazon’s track record at supporting LGBTQ causes, it’s got a bit of a spotty record. The Star Tribune reported back in 2014 that when Amazon launched its philanthropic arm, Amazon Smile, it allowed shoppers to give money to such anti-LGBTQ groups like the National Organization for Marriage and Focus on the Family. It certainly taints their LGBTQ-supportive advertising when you know that the money you spend on their site could be going to organizations that actively campaign against your rights.
Keeping all that in mind, we want to ask you Adam4Adam readers: How likely are you to be swayed by LGBTQ-focused advertising? Is it enough for you to check out a company’s product? Or do you still do additional research before showing your support? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
If you gay, there no friends in life, you are alone in life.
Nah, I don’t allow myself to be swayed by most ads. We’re just a product to most/all companies, all marketers do is try to twinge at certain aspects they think will boost sales. In regards to Amazon, you can’t necessarily fault them for allowing donations to organizations we don’t agree with. It’s not like they’re the only options, or that there aren’t any gay-oriented organization on that list. Again, we’re a product. If they put gay-oriented organizations on the list but not conservative-oriented ones, There’d be a stink from the other side.
I’d fuck him in that Benz as well as on the Benz in the pouring rain. Even the old man was kinda hot! But I’m still driving my Wrangler.
If a business originally did not try to market to a specific demographic and now hopping on the bandwagon it’s all about the dollars.
Pandering advertiser BS. I’ll pass.
Mercedes is a pretentious brand.
The primary reason for me to buy a product like a new car, an especially big expense, is value. What am I getting for my hard-earned dollar? I demand quality, style, design, from a company with a good reputation for leadership in their field.
After that, I do look and see if the company treats its workers properly. Do they respect their employees, do they refuse to allow discrimination and bigotry? The advertisement is nice but it seems like an unnecessary cost, would Mercedes’ money be better spent on the workers, or by improving the quality of the cars.
I don’t buy products because they stick rainbow flags on them, they have to be good first. Ads and human interest stories don’t tell you if the product is great or not, you have to research that for yourself.
In a word, no. Gay advertising has no influence on me aside from making me think about “Would I do him or not?”. It would be hard for me to give a damn what some gay or str8 guy, trans, what-the-fuck-ever thinks of a product unless the product that has something to do with sex. As far as my opinion towards companies that do or don’t use obviously gay people in their ads, it has no bearing on where I shop or not.
I agree with Coach and RealCosumer, it’s pandering for a buck…besides, I try to never buy retail……the big Ad firms have been toying with people’s minds forever–this is just the latest demographic to reach….I think it’s really cheesy and in poor taste….and I’m less inclined to buy if I feel I’m being worked that way–I just shut right down to it. I’ll never forget the Lexus commercials at Christmas–I don’t know about you all but I did not get a Lexus for Christmas. Guess I was bad, LOL…..
Most advertising is difficult to watch. For years, one bath tissue has used a family of cartoon bears to promote it’s products. The concept of bears wiping their asses is not cute. It’s not clever. It’s not intelligent. It’s not attractive in any way. Most advertising is similarly poor.
So if sometime soon, one of the family members comes home and says “I’m gay and this is my boyfriend Boo-boo”, don’t plan on me running to the store to buy products I have avoided buying for years.
What does being gay have to do with buying a car? I wonder if they would be so quick to put out an ad that targets black people, or muslim people?
My IQ is much higher than my shoe size so advertising has no effect on me.