by Michael Wilke
Commercial
Closet
Gay families, previously
hidden away in the suburbs, are now starting to make their way into
advertising. Volvo Cars of North America takes its heritage of
safety and family appeal a step further by introducing its new SUV
with the first national car ad picturing a happy gay couple posed
with a child or dog.
Volvo's print campaign for the XC90 includes two ads -- one with
two men and a baby, another with a woman embracing her pregnant
partner -- each with the headline, "Whether you're starting a family
or creating one as you go." Another image shows two men warmly
embracing their Yorkie, pictured with the C70 sedan.
The text of each ad reads, "Some families are carefully planned.
Others, you just meet along the way. Whoever makes up your family,
think about making Volvo a part of it." The ad also says Volvo will
donate $500 to the Human Rights Campaign every time a vehicle is
purchased or leased.
The print effort targets men and women ages 40-50 and runs from
May to August in OUT and The Advocate (tying in to a gay family
essay contest on www.advocate.com). It is the second phase of a
campaign for the XC90 that began in February -- the first time a new
car was introduced in gay media and mainstream media simultaneously.
"Much more than the traditional family"
"For us, it was
very natural to address gay families," says Thomas Andersson,
executive vice president of Volvo Cars North America. "We're
targeting people with modern family values. It's a value set, and
the Volvo-minded consumer is very diverse. 'Family' is much more
than the traditional family."
Indeed, other corporations are also starting to take a look at
gay families. In 1999, Fleet Bank ran an ad in alternative weekly
papers of two women sitting together, one pregnant. Also that
year, furniture maker Mitchell Gold ran an ad in home decor
magazines with two men and a young girl on a couch carrying the
headline, "A kid deserves to feel at home." Last year, Bank One
addressed the issue with an ad that appeared in gay newspapers
showing a man with an earring, posed with a young boy and
girl. The text reads, "It may be a son or daughter, niece or nephew,
even a partner, but someone you love may want to go to college."
Dennis Giglio, director of emerging market acquisition programs
for Bank One, says, "It is a myth that gay and lesbian households
don't have children in their lives."
One-fifth to one-third of gay households has kids
New
census data for 2000 backs this up. It found nearly 600,000
same-sex couple households -- the first year such information was
collected, and considered
underrepresentative -- appearing in nearly every county
nationally. Of those, 33 percent of female households and 22 percent
of male couples reported having children.
The new families campaign from Volvo, owned by Ford Motor Co., is
the latest result of Ford's proprietary research in the gay market,
led by its gay agency of record, Witeck-Combs Communications in
Washington, D.C. The research, conducted last fall, has already
brought Jaguar (also under Ford) into the market with gay-tailored ads launched late last year. Jaguar's
headline reads, "Life is full of twists and turns. Care for a
partner?"
Ford discovered that the gay community is more inclined to SUVs
than the general population -- with up to 30 percent interested,
according to Jan Valentic, vice president of global marketing at
Ford Motor -- which is why the XC90 co-stars in Volvo's gay-families
ad.
"The notion of the chosen family is very strong in the gay and
lesbian community," notes Howard Buford, president of Prime Access,
which created the Jaguar and Volvo ads. "Gay focus groups indicate a
strong preference for direct messages that show who they are. When
advertisers usually talk about families, the gay mindset is, 'They
don't really mean our families.' It's a message of exclusion
unless it is direct."
Volvo began testing the gay market in June 2001, both with a
one-time mainstream ad for the S60 in Genre magazine, and as a
sponsor of the GLAAD Media Awards. It also follows Ford's continued
dabbling in gay marketing, which began in 1999 with ads on Gay.com
for the compact Focus.
Racy Australian ads for Volvo
The new campaign makes
Volvo one of very few car companies to create tailored gay market
advertising, following Subaru. Still, it is a very different tone
than the racy ads carried for Volvo in Australia.
The 2003 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras program book carries
an image of a phallic-looking parking brake handle in the "erect" position with the
headline, "We're just as excited as you." In 2001, in Blue magazine,
another Volvo ad simply announced, "Volvos are no longer straight."
Volvo and Ford aren't worried about any conservative backlash to
their domestic gay-families effort. "It wouldn't scare us from doing
something that's right for our company," says Valentic.
Are gay families here to stay? They may continue to just trickle
in. "We've talked with a lot of clients in other product categories
who have shied away from representation of gay families," says
Buford. "Some just really don't believe in the broad definition of
family like Volvo does."
Though America's Ford has a more conservative heritage than Volvo
of Sweden, more gay marketing news is expected from Ford later this
year.
Entertainment
Money & Careers
Families
