Blog post #7- LGBT

After class on Monday I became extremely interested in what Glaad advertising was all about. On Glaad’s website they commend themselves on being a “storyteller,” a “watchdog,” and an “advocate” for the LGBT community. “Gladd moves people: amplifies the voice of our community to keep equality at the forefront of Americas cultural conversation. Gladd creates change: we hold the media accountable for words and images they produce. Glaad unites the movement: we strengthen grassroots organizations so that they can leverage media, engage local communities, and advance social change.” For an entire organization using the entirety of its resources to push for LGBT acceptance and awareness is such a powerful thing. Glaad is pushing the media to cater towards the LGBT community with fair, accurate, and inclusive representation. American Airlines partnered with Glaad in efforts to make their advertising and production more LGBT friendly by using words such as “Flying Forward,” instead of “Flying Straight.” American Airlines also launched their first LGBT ad campaign with strives for inclusion within the community, using the motto “Acceptance Never Goes Out of Style.” Glaad awarded American Airlines with “Corporate Responsibility” and applauded them for their push against change within the media.

Here is an example of American Airlines ad campaign towards LGBT:

You can find more about American Airlines and their Glaad award here:

 

In class we also learned that Glaad has appropriate words to gage the value of an LGBT ad. While most companies and most people of our generation are slowly accepting the LGBT community there are some people who still stereotype the LGBT community and use words such as “faggot” and “homophobic.” All of which degrade the process that the LGBT community is making towards inclusion. These word values associated with ads include equal, caution/stereotype and negative. An equal ad would include LGBT characters without their sexuality being a point of interest. An equal ad is a successful attempt at portraying inclusion of the LGBT community. A caution or stereotype ad will use LGBT characters but will place them in stereotypical setting. Examples of this include the “male fantasy lesbian scenario” the “butch lesbian” and the “homo-phobic character.” The negative value of these campaigns is what keeps the LGBT community from full inclusion and acceptance in the media. These ads use derogatory terms such a faggot, dyke and fairy, they may even use violence towards the LGBT community. For example purposes I picked an ad from Glaad to gage the value of the ad and see what type of inclusion the ad is going for.

In this Orbitz ad the setting is in an airport. All the airline passengers are angry because their flight is delayed, Orbitz holds a game show to auction off a hotel room for the night. A straight couple and LGBT couple is picked on the game show, and to celebrate them winning the hotel room the LGBT couple kisses and the ad is over. The weary straight travelers have to sleep in the uncomfortable airport while the gay couple gets a cozy room in a hotel. This ad shows the LGBT community in a positive light by putting them on the game show with a straight couple. By showing the lesbian couple kissing after the game show they are not made fun of, it is simply a normal relationship, which gives inclusion to lesbian couples within media. Ads like this orbitz ad need to be viewed and accepted so that the LGBT community can have full inclusion and acceptance around the world.