Orbitz and Go...GAY!

Huge congrats to our peeps at Orbitz!

Orbitz Worldwide CEO Barney Harford was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign and accepted the 2011 HRC Corporate Equality Award for their DECADE of LGBT advertising! You can watch the video here on Facebook. (Mamma could not find a YouTube video, therefore I can't put it on here. Fail.) If you can't see it, below are some some written highlights from his speech:

"For over a decade, Orbitz has recognized the importance of being LGBT inclusive. As CEO, I recognize the importance of our inclusive advertising and our policy of non-discrimination, not only in helping the Orbiz brand resinate with travelers, but also in helping change public opinion on LGBT equality...I hope that doing the right thing and respecting the rights of all employees is just the way things are done and we won't need to call individual companies like Orbitz."

He also reads a letter he received from a woman that a) thanks Orbitz for their humorous and inclusive ads and b) talks about the similarities to this and racial issues in advertising in the 50s and 60s. Coincidentally, my wonderful mother also sent me an email pointing out the same thing a few days ago! (She's just so with it. Love ya Mom.) She said as she was watching a TV ad I posted, a commercial before it featured an interracial couple, which today most people don't even think twice about, but back then it would've been a huge deal. The civil rights movement and issues with race have always been compared to the current struggles the LGBT community is facing now, and I think advertising is defiantly a great example to show the similarities of the two.

I think this speech is fantastic and really sums up why I started this blog. If you remember, it was an Orbitz commercial that first sparked my interest in this subject, so it's great to see them get recognized for their work. Their approach of using humorous ads in order to put the subject out there without being "in-your-face" and with the goal for these ads to not be an issue in the future is, just, brilliant.

If you're unfamiliar with Orbitz LGBT advertising, check out a few TV commercials below. (Found on YouTube. Score!) First is a great summary of their previous ads in TV, print, and radio, and the rest are a few newer TV ads. Also be sure to head on over to their website and Facebook page to learn more.

What do you all think? Do you enjoy these advertisements? Do you think the fact that Orbitz has done this for ten years has made an impact on LGBT advertisements?

Ad So Gay! Yay!

Oh my God, HEY WORLD…and welcome to the Ad So Gay! My name is Sean and I will be your host for this journey. I’m really excited to be starting this and bringing you all the latest and greatest in LGBT advertising. Before we talk about the actual purpose of this blog, let me tell you a little story about how this came to be…

This all started with an Orbitz commercial and a delicious double cheeseburger meal at Wendy’s. I was having a classy meal at this fine establishment with one of my friends when I brought up a commercial I saw for Orbitz. It appeared on Logo during a thrilling episode of "RuPaul’s Drag Race," promoting their gay tourism website. Here’s the commercial in question:

For me, it was really the first time I noticed a major cooperation taking money out to advertise to the gay ol’ crowd on a large national scale. Men holding hands? A crazy party/rave/go-go boy convention? On an ORBITZ commercial?! Even though I don’t find this commercial super creative, something about it stuck with me. Being a gay man, the fact that this company took the time and money to spend on advertising towards me and “my people” really made an impact. If for some reason I want to book a trip an unknown island to meet my foreign boo for a mojito in the sun, Orbitz will be #1 in my mind cause of this one commercial that stuck with me.

Now back to the glorious meal of those delicately simmered square, never-frozen beef patties. I was sitting there with my friend telling him about this commercial as we were dipping our fries in our Frosties. We started to talk more about gay advertising and how we don’t really see it very much. That didn’t seem right to me. Why wouldn’t companies market and advertise to the LGBT community? In my opinion, we’re fun, easy going, accepting, hell the gay community sounds like my dream man.

After that, I went home and immediately went to my friend Google to see what I could dig up. What I found shocked me. I found a blog post or an article here and there, but really there was not much on the subject! The only big organization that I found to care and recognize LGBT advertising was Commercial Closet, which is now owned by GLAAD. I encourage everyone to look at the amazing collection that founder Michael Wilke put together though the years. The library consists of many LGBT ads (and will be a great source for this website) and loads of information up until about 2010. Ever since it was bought out by GLAAD (which since started the Media Awards in Advertising, now called the Amplifier Awards) there really isn’t a place anymore where this subject it talked about on a regular basis. And as wonderful GLAAD is and all they have done for the community, they have a lot more topics to discuss and share other than advertising. So, I figured why the hell not, and here I am. Hello! Nice to meet you.

So what do I hope to do with this blog? First, I just wanted a place to house any ad that has to deal with the LGBT community. Good, bad, creative, offensive, inspirational, bring it on. The more we talk about these issues, the more we can learn about what it takes to create a truly great LGBT ad.

Second (and this is where you come in, so get excited) there are a lot of different topics and issues that go with LGBT commercials, and with them come a lot of opinions and thoughts. I think all opinions matter and I hope that these posts will start up conversations, either with comments on here or your family dinner table, lets get talking people!

Also, SUBMIT SUBMIT SUBMIT any ads you see! Whether it’s a TV ad, something in a magazine, a window display, online banner, local ads, a logo painted on a guys abs during Pride, send it my way by emailing me at adsogay@gmail.com! I want to get as many ads on here as I can, and mama don’t have access to every ad known to man, so your help is greatly appreciated!

Okay, here we go. Let’s get started!!

PS: My grammar sucks…I know. I’m not apologizing for it, just stating the facts people.