A New Ad Adage: Same Sex Sells

Little wonder, then, that advertising in gay-oriented outlets is flourishing. Beverage companies like Anheuser-Busch, holiday firms including Travelocity and automakers such as Ford helped nudge advertising spend in the U.S. gay and lesbian press to $212 million last year, up more than a quarter since 2003, according to research carried out by Rivendell Media and Prime Access. Europe's markets might be more modest, but the gap is closing. Ad revenues at Diva, Britain's top-selling lesbian magazine, have ballooned 73% in the last five years, a period which saw overall British magazine advertising spend dip.

About half of all branded advertising in gay media in the U.S. is tailored for that market, and that, says Ian Johnson, managing director of Out Now Consulting, is "what European companies are not yet getting right." Some brands hit the right note: ads for the German National Tourist Office appearing in Britain earlier this year had a separate message for gays and lesbians. Others simply strike out heterosexual references for a gay audience. Ads in mainstream media in Britain last year suggested that without L'Oréal's moisturizer for men, "she thinks you look overworked"; for similar ads in gay publications, "she" became a "he." Others are less careful. One recent advertiser in Britain's gay press tried to pass off a cropped wedding snap of the groom and best man as two grooms.

Of course, targeting the same-sex market can still risk alienating some other consumers. The American Family Association (afa) this year reinstated a boycott on Ford autos, protesting the firm's product-focused ads in U.S. gay media. Randy Sharp, a director at afa, condemns Ford's ads for "giving credit to [homosexuality] as being a normal lifestyle." Ford says its decision last year to scrap publicity for its Jaguar brand was commercial, unrelated to pressure from afa.

The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (asa) in recent months received 19 complaints that the gay kiss featured in Dolce & Gabbana's TV spot was "unacceptable" (asa dismissed the complaints upon investigation). Brewer Guinness didn't even get that far. In the mid-'90s, the company created a TV commercial featuring a man dashing to get ready for work; when he kisses his partner on the way out — to the tune of Tammy Wynette's Stand by Your Man — it becomes clear that his partner too is male. A veteran clean-up-TV activist panned the clip, and the ad was never aired.

While tolerance for gays and lesbians seems to have increased since then, Britain's asa received dozens of complaints — deemed not worthy of an official probe by the watchdog — about a female-on-female kiss in a recent British TV ad for fashion label French Connection. The company denies it set out to make a "gay-themed" commercial and says it was intended "as a visualization of the debate between fashion and style." Still, the watchdog upheld complaints involving the retailer's long-running (though now-pared-back) FCUK campaign. Getting consumers' attention — gay or straight — is an imprecise science, and what makes a brand cutting-edge will likely make it hands-off to others.