Subaru gay commercial

Through its sponsorship of the Rainbow Card, Subaru, along with other companies like Visa and British Airways, contributed millions of dollars to HIV/AIDS research and LGBT causes that helped both their customers and gay and lesbian people who could never afford a Subaru. Subaru was one of the first car brands, if not major mainstream labels, to target the LGBT customer, more specifically: the "L".

more. Subaru sponsored events, programs, and even the first LGBTQ satellite radio station. It also contributed to AIDS research and LGBTQ advocacy groups, like the Human Rights Campaign. The discovery led to subtle advertising directed specifically at what we now refer to as the LGBT community, which in turn led to more sales to gay and lesbian consumers. As Subaru continued to target niche markets, including gay women, its bet paid off, transforming the company's flat sales into steady growth.

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Marketing the Rainbow. International tennis legend Navratilova was embraced by Subaru of America after the company began courting the lesbian market in Each asks, "What do I know" about performance, control, grip, etc. Martina gets the last word in, asking "What do we know? We're just girls. Tim Bennett wanted to dispel a few notions. But Martina doesn't want to be positioned as a lesbian.

She just wants automakers to speak to women in an intelligent way, something else few others do even today. Having said that, it is remarkable how Subaru moved to the lesbian drivers more and more, with puns and word play that could only be construed as "targeting the L. Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries, the twenty-second biggest automaker by production worldwide in Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster M45, or "The Seven Sisters" one of whom tradition says is invisible - hence only six stars in the Subaru logo , which in turn inspires the logo and alludes to the companies that merged to create FHI.

Subaru was one of the first car brands, if not major mainstream labels, to target the LGBT customer, more specifically: the "L". That was the question faced by Subaru of America executives in the s. Then they discovered a fifth: lesbians. When marketers talked to these customers, they realized these women buying Subarus were lesbian. Pop culture had also yet to embrace the LGBT cause. When Ellen Degeneres became a rare exception in , and her character in the show Ellen came out as gay in an episode of the sitcom, many companies pulled their ads.

Although it was easier to get senior management on board with making ads for hikers than for lesbians, the company went ahead with the campaign anyway. It was such an unusual decision -and such a success - that it helped push gay and lesbian advertising from the fringes to the mainstream. In Navratilova partnered with marketing firm Do Tell to launch the gay affinity charge card, Rainbow Card.

Subaru was the first sponsor, followed by British Airways. Subara is one of the few marketers to do its own research into the gay market, by which they found that lesbians love Subarus. So it entered the market in and remains one of the few major companies to target gay women, as well as one with gay-specific market ads.

Inside Subaru of America, though, not everyone was united on the effort. There was public backlash, and Bennett says the campaign survived only because their team really cared about the project and had the support of a cohort of straight allies in the company. For the first ads they hired women to portray lesbian couples. What worked were winks and nudges. The ads were also featured on billboards and bus shelters.

References were made to Diversity and "It's Not a Choice.

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It's the Way We're Built". One plays a joke on the way the driver would dress for a different occasion. There also was a commercial depicting both a gay male and a gay female couple, with the text "Beauty meets Power" and "Sophisticated meets Sensible".