Subaru going for more gay advertising
It seemed a whole PR storm blew around the Ford/AFA/gay groups
fiasco, inundating the media and Autoblog with related
topics. Case in point: Subaru.
The automaker is creating a series of commercials for the gay channel, LOGO.
(A gay channel?) And, unlike other companies who advertise with the gay submarket (e.g., GM), these are not mainstream
commercials, either: one shows two men getting out of the vehicle to share a vista together. Apparently that's risqué.
Excuse me while I watch some commercials from Europe.
So far the company plans three commercials for the channel this year.
In some circles Subaru is known for being the unofficial vehicle of upwardly mobile lesbians, especially after the brand's appearance last year as a sponsor of a character who is a gay professional women's tennis player in the Showtime drama The L Word.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Getbacktowork 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Soon you folks are going to have to rename this to SexualPreferenceBlog. This whole "fiasco" is a puff of smoke. I don't care who they advertise to, or what people are doing during the commercials on Tuesday night. Just get back to the cars, will ya?
Reply
cowboy bob 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Promos for homos. I'm 'gonna get a bumper sticker that has an arrow pointing to my tailpipe and says "EXIT ONLY".
Reply
Mal Fuller 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
This blog does explain Subaru's choice of "Outback" for a model name!
Reply
klatu 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Yes, I'm fed up with reading about it.
Any Christians out there, as well as anyone else interested, can read some select verses of what God says (below), then let's all get back to the enjoyment of car info. That's what the blog is about. Not people's sex-habits.
2Timothy 3:1-4
James 5:1-11
2Peter 3:3
Jude 14-25
Reply
Elliott 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
I'm begging you, BEGGING YOU, please write about something else. The comments left on the AFA posts are starting to make the hybrid debates look intelligent.
Reply
JustJase 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Hmmm...I typed in gay.com and it redirected me to this site. Apparently this site is gayer than "Brokeback Mountain". =)
Just kidding. Thanks for all the news and I do think it's pertinent to the auto industry. There just seems to be a lot of it all at once.
By the way, LOGO sucks (and not in a good way). They have gay soap operas on there. Like regular soaps aren't gay enough???
Reply
djSyndrome 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Um, where have you people been? There have been 'gay' Subaru ads on Logo now almost since it's launch earlier this year. This isn't news.
Reply
emulous 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Subaru has had these in the works and have been airing them for a while now. If you take a look at www.commericialcloset.org you can find all the ads.
The interesting thing about this, is the will also be aired on bravo, hgtv and A&E so the homosexual commercials will also appear on what some would consider mainstream channels. Now heterosexuals don't have to feel left out.
Reply
poulsbo 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
please, autoblog! be more intolerant!
only post stereotypical straight male articles about vehicles. who cares about queers and women and what they think about cars? more news on trucks & sports cars!
Reply
pixelate 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
this is a completely relevant article. autoblog doesn't only show you pretty pictures of concept cars, there is a great focus here on the business side of things.
you're talking about a company being threatened with a boycott due to a small percentage of its advertising... you're also talking about a company's decision to do targeted marketing for a specific segment of society that has thus far been ignored. this is news-worthy, maybe it's not timely, but it's absolutely relevant information for this blog. if you have a problem with this subject material, feel free to use that 'down' scroll button and/or ignore the reality of the evolving world around you.
i really couldn't care less about what manufacturer is showing up in this or that Formula 1 series, but i realize that it's a part of the industry. so i just use that handy scroll button.
Reply
Neal M 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
These commercials indeed have been on the channel almost since its launch... Logo isn't quite yet a very good television channel, but it is getting better.
This is a completely relevant issue facing the auto industry, and it should be posted on. The reason, I think, that we are seeing redundant-seeming posts is that there are multiple people posting on the news. Perhaps one Autoblog writer should be made in charge of Gay auto news...Not all of them by choice.
Ford is now going to start advertising all of its brands in gay publications, after the NGTLF and other gay groups protested the AFA group's affect on Ford Motor Company... All of the American car brands should solidify their marketing to the gay market, they could tap into a resource that would help them stop their sales struggle.
Did you know that the Chevy Cobalt is Gay.com's #10 gayest vehicle? It's named "Best Cheap Date of a Car"
Reply
Nathan Jones 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Its apparently shocking to some of you bois that us homos dig cars too...will wonders never cease?
While y'all sit there contemplating this revelation....think about this one...
That PC you're using?
Invented by a HOMO.
http://nathanjones.blogspot.com/2005/05/did-ya-know-one-of-us-faggots.html
NJ
Reply
Matt 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Neal M. they have a list of the gayest cars? Thats really funny. How do you come up with such a list? A lot of cars are considered masculine or feminine becuase of the exterior stying but what makes a car homosexual? I'd imagine hatchbacks would be considered pretty gay because of the rear accessibility. Kidding.
Reply
Oolon Coluphid 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Oh look, imagine that. Homophobes posting comments on a car website. Thanks for living up to the "car nut as knuckle-dragging troglodyte" stereotype guys.
Reply
Droo 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
"Posted Dec 15, 2005, 1:52 PM ET by poulsbo
please, autoblog! be more intolerant!
only post stereotypical straight male articles about vehicles. who cares about queers and women and what they think about cars? more news on trucks & sports cars!"
I'm gay, I love cars, get almost every domestically published auto magazine, quite a few european ones too, yet some close minded idiots out there think that gay men & women don't know anything about cras, or could care less about them? Must be because we're far too busy making your world a more beautiful place, (thru design, ie. interiors, flowers, makeup,& fashion. Then lets get to movies, art, music, broadway, & television. We listen to , mollify, & assist your bored housewives because all of you straight men are far too concerned with watching NASCAR, belching, farting, and generally not pleasing your women folk in the sack bcause you're selfish, ignorant asses...How's that for a broad stereotype?
LOGO is kind of boring but it's a new network who will eventually get it all right. Kudos to Subaru for having the balls that Ford seems to have lost. Along with 10% of the populations disposable income. We're a huge economic demographic thats lucrative to any manufacturer thats smart enough to court us.
Anyway, Happy Chriskwanzamakuh everyone...
Reply
JustJase 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Matt- you know, I actually just bought a Mazda3 and I went with the 5-door. I wasn't quite sure why until now! hehe
Reply
x23 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Turing hardly invented the PC.
thats like saying whoever invented the wheel invented hybrid cars.
if Turing didn't do it someone else would have shortly thereafter.
the attitude in your entry reminds me of this :
http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/blackinv.asp
i knew Turing was gay for some time now. honestly it never really affected my life one way or another. just like Subaru having gay advertising doesn't affect me. or Ford having or not having gay advertising. i think a lot of people don't really care one way or another until we are told ad nauseum that we MUST care being that its very very very important that we care when in fact... it isn't. at all.
Reply
Jeffrey 12:28AM (12/19/2005)
Um, Droo, you kind of embarassed yourself there with a kneejerk reaction. Deep breath. I'm quite certain poulsbo was being... wait for it... wait for it... sarcastic!
Here's the key - asking for more "stereotypical" and "intolerant" coverage isn't the kind of phrasing someone who who really IS intolerant would use, since those words have negative connotations, and most folks wouldn't consider themselves in a negative light. It'd be like a jerk asking for "more stories for jerks, please!" Would a jerk really think of him or herself as a jerk? Generally, no.
Reply