What Was The First Gay Ad?

[left-of-center2012]

Today it is estimated that the buying power of the LGBTQ+ community is almost $1 trillion ($917 billion per a study by Witeck Communications in 2016), which is why this month you see corporate America flooding every imaginable product and brand logo with rainbows, trying to get our attention and our hard earned gay dollars.

But back in the 1960s, and before, we were largely invisible and so was any representation of us in advertising. Arguably most ads featuring homo-erotic depictions of the male physique were created and geared towards this closeted gay consumer. The male camaraderie found within the armed services during World War Two became a common element in these early depictions of corporate ads that began appearing in mainstream magazines.

By the late 1950s and into the 1960s more “tongue in cheek” ad copy began appearing, where the line between suggestive and explicit was stretched so that only the most naive would not be aware of the connotations.

Today’s ads don’t have to feature rainbows or campy winks to the consumer about male “bonding,” instead they can show the wide range of same-sex attraction in a favorable manner that accentuates both their product and our community.

https://instinctmagazine.com/what-was-the-first-gay-ad/