We are approaching the end of Pride Month, which means that many companies will soon start removing rainbow-colored products and the symbol from their storefronts. O pinkwashing made throughout the month of June will be forgotten. But, what does this mean for the visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and more) in the media for the rest of the year? Regardless of the time, are we on the right path?
In most of the Marketing and Advertising industry, progress towards LGBTQIA+ representation with real people has been slow and often one-dimensional. One of the first LGBTQIA+ ads to appear in mainstream media appeared 29 years ago in the United States, in 1994, courtesy of the company Ikea.
The title of the ad was ‘Dining Room’ and it showed a couple of gay men shopping for furniture for their home. It was aired in only three US cities (Washington, Philadelphia and New York) after 10 pm to “avoid family time programming”, and even with this concession, it still received several protests. The creative director of Deutsch, the agency behind the campaign, believed that this was the beginning of a new era in advertising and that many brands would follow in its footsteps.
In Brazil, these controversies were still happening less than 10 years ago. In 2015, beauty company O Boticário was caught in the middle of public backlash for including gay couples in a campaign for Valentine’s Day. In addition, the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar) opened a process to assess the “morality” of the ad, after receiving formal complaints.
However, around the world, the story was different. In 2012, Ray-Ban’s ‘Never Hide’ campaign, in celebration of its 75 years, featured two “English gentlemen” holding hands. In the same year, GAP’s ‘Be One’ campaign featured two young men huddled together in a shirt. In 2013, Amazon Kindle showed a gay couple on vacation. In 2014, Cheerios released an ad in Canada featuring two gay fathers and their adopted daughter. Already in 2015, a couple of gay parents with their adopted son were present in an advertisement for the Campbell brand.
The following year, in 2016, Airbnb’s ‘Don’t Go There, Live There’ campaign showed two mothers and their children visiting Los Angeles. Did you notice a pattern? We realized. To this day, much LGBTQIA+ advertising revolves around a very romantic and heteronormative narrative: find your partner, get married, have two kids. Repeat the process.
Advertisements are often a reflection of the social, political, and cultural debate of the moment. From the slogans “love is love” and “love wins”, which became official in the modern movement for “gay rights”, a mobilization widely anchored for the equal right to same-sex marriage, followed by LGBTQIA+ ads with focus on highlighting gay and lesbian couples with their families. But this pattern, despite having good intentions and succeeding in bringing some of the community into the “social acceptance” space, also unintentionally perpetuates a simplified and reductionist representation of LGBTQIA+ identity.
Also, what happens with a lot of social discussions about community is that they often center on white and cisgender couples and exclude those who are trans and non-binary, as well as almost all QTPOC (black queer and trans people).
Some brands and advertisers are starting to catch on. Abercrombie & Fitch recently highlighted the long-term partnership with The Trevor Project to evolve the #FaceYourFierce campaign and continue to support LGBTQIA+ youth in crisis. The campaign was with an array of LGBTQIA+ public figures who shared their personal experiences, such as Phillip Picardi (Editor-in-Chief at Out Magazine), Crystal Anderson (Producer at Man Repeller), TJ (Model and Activist) and many others.
In the beauty sector, brand Sephora celebrated the transgender and non-binary community with the incredibly moving ‘We Belong to Something Beautiful’ campaign, featuring an inclusive cast of trans, non-binary, queer, gender fluid and gender non-conforming people such as Aaron Philip (model), Hunter Schafer (model, actress and activist) and Precious Ebony (actress, rapper and prom hostess). In Brazil, Amstel, Nivea and Quem disse, Berenice sponsored the Transbaile, the first transsexual award in Brazil, created by the influencers Giovanna Heliodoro and Bielo Pereira.
And finally, in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) sector, the J&B Whiskey brand shared a very moving Christmas video that shows the intimacy between a grandfather and his transgender daughter as they celebrate a Christmas dinner with the family, a rarely seen scenario, which often reflects the lack of safe spaces, even within your family, for LGBTQIA+ communities.
The fact is this: members of the LGBTQIA+ community live incredibly full and rich lives, both in and out of their romantic and sexual interests. People work, laugh, cry, have friends, go out for fun, go to school, drink, are sober, love their biological families, redefine family for themselves, marry, marry, choose non-monogamous relationships, have or choose childlessness, explore gender expression, align with their assigned gender at birth, forget gender constructs completely, find love, choose not to love, and much more.
The possibilities are endless, and as such, it should be fully reflected in Brazil’s media. We hope that with all the important dialogue done and more brands taking different approaches, this is truly the start of a new era.
Renata Simões is Creative Content Director at iStock/Getty Images for Latin America and Asia.
* This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Adnews.
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