LGTB in TV advertising

SlowMotion321 · 09-08-2020 8:26pm #1

Feel free to point out if I am wrong

I was watching TV today and there were about 3 or 4 ads in which the happy couple were lesbians! Very progressive you might think, and rightly so, fair play to the AD men realizing a potential target market, but I honestly cannot think of one single advert (on TV) where the happy couple were two men!

Is this a form of sexism/bias whatever?

Again happy to be proven wrong as I don't really watch a great deal of TV!

bb1234567 · 09-08-2020 8:52pm

While most people in Ireland are fine with people being gay obviously I'd say a reasonably significant number of the population would still be uncomfortable with seeing men actually seeing these men being intimate with one another in a romantic way.

Lesbians less so. So the advertisers can appear progressive without alienating much of the audience.

But anecdotally I would actually say that gay male couples are reasonably common on television, especially shows geared towards younger viewers ,very often has a gay male couple or character who has relations with other guys.

DopeTech · 09-08-2020 8:54pm

Lesbian Gay tuberculosis?

brevity · 09-08-2020 8:56pm

I think a recent an post ad had a male gay couple.

eviltwin · 09-08-2020 8:57pm

An Post has a male couple in their Christmas ad two years back

c montgomery · 09-08-2020 9:03pm

eviltwin wrote: »

An Post has a male couple in their Christmas ad two years back

Gay

eviltwin · 09-08-2020 9:04pm

c montgomery wrote: »

Gay

Well duh.

SlowMotion321 · 09-08-2020 9:04pm

bb1234567 wrote: »

While most people in Ireland are fine with people being gay obviously I'd say a reasonably significant number of the population would still be uncomfortable with seeing men actually seeing these men being intimate with one another in a romantic way.

Lesbians less so. So the advertisers can appear progressive without alienating much of the audience.

But anecdotally I would actually say that gay male couples are reasonably common on television, especially shows geared towards younger viewers ,very often has a gay male couple or character who has relations with other guys.

I get that, but I am talking about advertising specifically, I can't stand double standards, it's like "look at us aren't we progressive!" "OK have two men kissing or even linking arms!" and you get the "lets not go too far" attitude.

One eyed Jack · 09-08-2020 9:28pm

SlowMotion321 wrote: »

I get that, but I am talking about advertising specifically, I can't stand double standards, it's like "look at us aren't we progressive!" "OK have two men kissing or even linking arms!" and you get the "lets not go too far" attitude.

What you’re suggesting just sounds like tokenism as opposed to representation. Tokenism and stereotyping don’t do representation of anyone any favours. They might be progressive, but their advertising is still shìt and doesn’t encourage anyone to buy their product. Because at the end of the day that’s what advertising campaigns are about - generating sales. They really don’t give a fcuk who’s actually buying the product.

Stevieluvsye · 09-08-2020 9:28pm

SlowMotion321 wrote: »

Feel free to point out if I am wrong

I was watching TV today and there were about 3 or 4 ads in which the happy couple were lesbians! Very progressive you might think, and rightly so, fair play to the AD men realizing a potential target market, but I honestly cannot think of one single advert (on TV) where the happy couple were two men!

Is this a form of sexism/bias whatever?

Again happy to be proven wrong as I don't really watch a great deal of TV!

Ye i get the same ads on XNXX, what i want to know is why i haven't seen that beautiful looking brazilian bird who lives within 1 mile of me around the area that's looking to meet up

SlowMotion321 · 09-08-2020 9:35pm

One eyed Jack wrote: »

What you’re suggesting just sounds like tokenism as opposed to representation. Tokenism and stereotyping don’t do representation of anyone any favours. They might be progressive, but their advertising is still shìt and doesn’t encourage anyone to buy their product. Because at the end of the day that’s what advertising campaigns are about - generating sales. They really don’t give a fcuk who’s actually buying the product.

Thank you for putting the words into my mouth! That's exactly what I was getting at! I used to work in marketing many years ago and the objective was to make sales however you could with the advertising! On a side note, half the team were women and were far more conservative than the men which always surprised me for some reason!

Rodney Bathgate · 09-08-2020 9:37pm

c montgomery wrote: »

Gay

Gay homosexuals?

Tig98 · 09-08-2020 9:40pm

Shur they gotta get the pink pound somehow.

I think generally lesbians are more palatable. Most men aren't open about their feelings (gay or straight) so it's harder to work with, and an ad would feel stupid.

Bord na mona did a gay Christmas ad years and years ago where it more or less passed as comical, but progress all the same
https://youtu.be/DlCjddB1pe8

DareGod · 09-08-2020 9:44pm

I stopped watching tv when I realised that it's virtually all political propaganda pushed by groups of people that actually don't give a s**t about any of us.

Not for nothing- I highly recommend doing the same.

MrsBean · 09-08-2020 9:47pm

LGTV

Rodney Bathgate · 09-08-2020 9:53pm

MrsBean wrote: »

LGTV

Prefer Samsung

thomas 123 · 09-08-2020 10:18pm

DareGod wrote: »

I stopped watching tv when I realised that it's virtually all political propaganda pushed by groups of people that actually don't give a s**t about any of us.

Not for nothing- I highly recommend doing the same.

Yeah what gets me is the constant tv license adverts nestled between the gambling adverts.

thomas 123 · 09-08-2020 10:19pm

DareGod wrote: »

I stopped watching tv when I realised that it's virtually all political propaganda pushed by groups of people that actually don't give a s**t about any of us.

Not for nothing- I highly recommend doing the same.

Yeah what gets me is the constant tv license adverts nestled between the gambling adverts.

AllForIt · 10-08-2020 12:49am

SlowMotion321 wrote: »

Thank you for putting the words into my mouth! That's exactly what I was getting at! I used to work in marketing many years ago and the objective was to make sales however you could with the advertising! On a side note, half the team were women and were far more conservative than the men which always surprised me for some reason!

Well then, is it now a thing in marketing, to advertise to a political demographic, Left, Woke, or otherwise, as a marketing strategy?

No matter what the product or service is, is what I'm getting at.

eyerer · 10-08-2020 12:57am

AllForIt wrote: »

Well then, is it now a thing in marketing, to advertise to a political demographic, Left, Woke, or otherwise, as a marketing strategy?

No matter what the product or service is, is what I'm getting at.

Take a look at the Gillette adverts from the last 2 or so years.
Selling to men by criticising them, if that's not woke marketing strategy what would it take..

AllForIt · 10-08-2020 1:05am

eyerer wrote: »

Take a look at the Gillette adverts from the last 2 or so years.
Selling to men by criticising them, if that's not woke marketing strategy what would it take..

Given up on TV years ago but yeah, I did hear of that Gillette controversy via here. Thanks for pointing out an example of what I was alluding to.

We do live in times where a very loud odd bunch of people, think they can change everything. Just for the sake of it, imo. Weirdos, basically.

SlowMotion321 · 10-08-2020 4:56am

AllForIt wrote: »

Well then, is it now a thing in marketing, to advertise to a political demographic, Left, Woke, or otherwise, as a marketing strategy?

No matter what the product or service is, is what I'm getting at.

Any and all of the above. The purpose of marketing is to figure out what you want and sell it to you, or decide what to sell you and figure out a way of making you want it! I once heard someone refer to customers as 'revenue generating units'! If that's not the definition of soulless I don't know what is! It's why I got out of it!

padd b1975 · 10-08-2020 6:22am

Just another futile attempt to keep the liberal wolf from the door.

You can't turn coverage of a sporting event these days without having to endure some woman tut-tutting about a man's ability or technique.

It all rings hollow unfortunately when you watch the women's version of whatever the sport they're pontificating about.

Chalk and cheese.

Jayesdiem · 10-08-2020 7:26am

The trend is, of course, a positive one but the fact you’ve seen four such ads signals to me that they are not necessarily promoting diversity, they are merely falling all over each other to be seen to be doing so. Strictly speaking, you would have thought that the appearance of gay couples in marketing material would be roughly equal to their prevalence in society as a whole? Seeing four ads in quick succession seems to suggest otherwise. As for that Gillette ad, it was a pathetic excuse to pander not to its mostly male target market, but to those who subscribe to all of the woke cliches that make it ok to denigrate men. With no other societal group would this be acceptable - could you imagine the uproar if women or black people or gay people were the centrepiece of such cynical marketing?

Gentlemanne · 10-08-2020 2:24pm

DareGod wrote: »

I stopped watching tv when I realised that it's virtually all political propaganda pushed by groups of people that actually don't give a s**t about any of us.

Not for nothing- I highly recommend doing the same.

Good thing that you gave up what you consider a dangerous source of political propaganda pushed by people with a particular agenda or slant and then ended up on boards.ie

Gretas Gonna Get Ya! · 10-08-2020 2:38pm

There are lots of other stigmas we could help break with the use of TV ads...

For example, older gentlemen who like to (pray on) date younger women...

We should have ads, where 45 year old guys chat up 17 year old girls on their way home from school... they could make it really socially acceptable and cool, breaking down another societal taboo!

Just think how progressive we would all look! :P

Rodney Bathgate · 10-08-2020 2:41pm

padd b1975 wrote: »

Just another futile attempt to keep the liberal wolf from the door.

You can't turn coverage of a sporting event these days without having to endure some woman tut-tutting about a man's ability or technique.

It all rings hollow unfortunately when you watch the women's version of whatever the sport they're pontificating about.

Chalk and cheese.

So **** that even women don’t want to watch.

biko · 10-08-2020 2:45pm

Gentlemanne · 10-08-2020 3:04pm

biko wrote: »

This is literally a comic by a holocaust denier neo-nazi

LiquidZeb · 10-08-2020 3:06pm

Gentlemanne wrote: »

This is literally a comic by a holocaust denier neo-nazi

So your typical current affairs/AH poster then?

MrStuffins · 10-08-2020 3:11pm

Good bit of latent lust in this thread. Lads, if you're having thoughts about the same sex it's fine. Nothing wrong with it.

Don't be blaming advertising, wokeness and "the liberal agenda" on the fact that it makes you uncomfortable. Just go with it! You be you, no matter what your daddy tried to tell you or what you might try to drill into the minds of your kids because you're bitter.

seamus · 10-08-2020 3:17pm

Advertisers make ads to sell sh1t to you. It's nothing to do with pushing agendas or trying to be "woke" or whatever other paranoid nonsense you want to attach to it.

The purpose of an ad is to make you remember the product, the name of it, and induce you to buy it or suggest it to someone else. There is absolutely no other agenda to it.

If they appear to be following a formula or agenda, it's because they think that will work, to sell more sh1t.

Big brands using minorities in their ads are doing this to try and increase the reach of their products. Everyone know what Gillette is and who makes it. If they start including some gay lads in it, then it speaks directly to them, to try and increase sales to that market segment. It won't hurt the straight market segment, because they already know the brand, it's big enough that people won't think, "Oh maybe those razors are only for the gays."
But it will increase positive sentiment from gay men towards Gillette razors and make them more likely to purchase.

pgj2015 · 10-08-2020 3:24pm

that Gillette ad back fired, they lost a lot of customers over it and rightly so.

TheValeyard · 10-08-2020 3:54pm

MrsBean wrote: »

LGTV

Sounds like one of those really fast Italian trains

biko · 10-08-2020 4:26pm

Gentlemanne wrote: »

This is literally a comic by a holocaust denier neo-nazi

I didn't know that. Can you provide some proof please?

Capt'n Midnight · 10-08-2020 10:35pm

TheValeyard wrote: »

Sounds like one of those really fast Italian trains

Like Pendolino or Frecciarossa ?

Potential-Monke · 10-08-2020 10:53pm

People still watch tv?! Only ads I see are on YouTube and it's always Audible offering a free book. So much so, I will never subscribe!

MrStuffins · 10-08-2020 11:27pm

Potential-Monke wrote: »

People still watch tv?! Only ads I see are on YouTube and it's always Audible offering a free book. So much so, I will never subscribe!

You can get You Tube Premium for around €1.70 per month and never see another ad

Potential-Monke · 10-08-2020 11:29pm

MrStuffins wrote: »

You can get You Tube Premium for around €1.70 per month and never see another ad

I'll be honest, I don't use it that much, and when I do, it's mainly on the PC with the lovely ad removing add-ons for Chrome. It's only on the phone/PS4 that I get the ads, but I also mainly watch videos that don't contain ads, so not worth it right now. I've enough subs as it is!

Sonics2k · 10-08-2020 11:55pm

biko wrote: »

I didn't know that. Can you provide some proof please?

Super quick Google because it's late, and I didn't make the claim but here's a real quick breakdown.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/StoneToss#Holocaust_denial

The content of a lot of his comics over the years have been very much along the lines of the more right wing view, even a bit beyond yourself.

As a touch extra, here's a recent comic on his Twitter.

https://twitter.com/stone_toss/status/1291380956696391681/photo/1

You'll notice the numbers on the Jerseys of the two players is 13 and 50 which is a direct reference to this.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=13%2F50

Or you could just take like, 10 minutes to browse his Twitter feed and check out his comments and retweets.

Mr Meanor · 11-08-2020 12:52am

Representation in ads has never bothered me. The only thing I lament is there doesn't seem to be any ads apart from a very few, that are good or well produced anymore.
Seems like all the good creators and writers have left the building.

What we have left is very generic, 'tick the box' exercise by a third rate echo chamber of media companies and company marketing departments. You the consumer whatever your persuasion is totally ignored in this.

Wibbs · 11-08-2020 9:41am

seamus wrote: »

Advertisers make ads to sell sh1t to you. It's nothing to do with pushing agendas or trying to be "woke" or whatever other paranoid nonsense you want to attach to it.

The purpose of an ad is to make you remember the product, the name of it, and induce you to buy it or suggest it to someone else. There is absolutely no other agenda to it.

If they appear to be following a formula or agenda, it's because they think that will work, to sell more sh1t.

This +1000. In 99% of seeming "agendas" and "conspiracies" always follow the money, because that's all it is.

seamus · 11-08-2020 10:20am

Mr Meanor wrote: »

Representation in ads has never bothered me. The only thing I lament is there doesn't seem to be any ads apart from a very few, that are good or well produced anymore.
Seems like all the good creators and writers have left the building.

What we have left is very generic, 'tick the box' exercise by a third rate echo chamber of media companies and company marketing departments. You the consumer whatever your persuasion is totally ignored in this.

Expect this to to continue by the way. TV advertising is dying on its arse. Far fewer people watching broadcast TV, the numbers are dropping all the time. And people won't tolerate five minute-long ad breaks on their streaming services, even free ones.
When I saw that ad on RTE where TV advertising was advertising...itself, I knew the end was nigh.

The clever creators have moved onto different formats, ones that get bigger audiences and pay better money. Some companies with strong marketing departments (such as Diageo) will continue to knock it out of the park by produced cross-format ads. But by and large the money spent on TV advertising will continue dropping.

And as TV advertising gets cheaper and cheaper you will start to see cheaper and cheaper ads, more and more of them produced by some local businessman in his office with an iPhone.

Rawr · 11-08-2020 11:21am

seamus wrote: »

And as TV advertising gets cheaper and cheaper you will start to see cheaper and cheaper ads, more and more of them produced by some local businessman in his office with an iPhone.

That just gave me a flashback of cheap adverts in the 80's / early 90's.
Especially the cheap ads on UTV, which would comprise of a still image of a shop with some text and a poorly sampled voice-over (usually the same voice for all of them)

"(Silence for a few seconds).....Sale now on!.....(Silence)....Go to Walton's of Newry for excellent deals....(Silence)....First exit on the Belfast Road.....(Silence until end)"

Archeron · 11-08-2020 4:18pm

Rawr wrote: »

That just gave me a flashback of cheap adverts in the 80's / early 90's.
Especially the cheap ads on UTV, which would comprise of a still image of a shop with some text and a poorly sampled voice-over (usually the same voice for all of them)

"(Silence for a few seconds).....Sale now on!.....(Silence)....Go to Walton's of Newry for excellent deals....(Silence)....First exit on the Belfast Road.....(Silence until end)"

Bishops of Coleraine 😁 I'll never forget the still image of a single shoe while that was said in a heavy northern Irish accent. Most memorable ad of my childhood after Um Bongo.

JupiterKid · 11-08-2020 7:26pm

As others opined here, it’s all about the sales of the product and money is the bottom line. There really is no “agenda” at work here.

The very first time I saw a gay male couple in a TV advert was all of about 25 years ago in my college days, an advert for Impulse body spray for women, set in San Francisco. LGBT people have been represented in adverts for a long time now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iznhO18DKh0

Wibbs · 11-08-2020 10:02pm

JupiterKid wrote: »

As others opined here, it’s all about the sales of the product and money is the bottom line. There really is no “agenda” at work here.

Exactly JK. But let's for a moment imagine there actually was and a sekrit cabal of "Lefties" hellbent on gayness for the world decided to promote The Gay(tm) through advertising. So what? Are people afraid they'd start looking at bottoms of the same sex with a new vigour? Hardly. Or maybe?

I mean I don't know any Gay folks who've watched ads with Straight folks going at it hammer and tongs and decided "hmmm, now that I think about it, I'm convinced. I now look at lady's/gentleman's[delete as applicable] bottoms and think oh I definitely would". Nope.

A Gay lad watching those old Cadbury's Flake ads where various luscious ladies in various states of slow motion flowing dresses performed fellatio on same, which could inflame the Straight lads out there, would instead be thinking "Christ I could murder some choccy right about now".

LGTB in TV advertising

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