Wednesday, May 26, 2004

CORPORATIONS TARGET HOMOSEXUALS

As a desireable demographic, homosexuals' stock is rising in the estimation of corporations. Many are now aiming niche advertising their way:
Recognizing same-sex couples and families as an emerging market, large corporations have begun targeting the demographic in their ads.

Companies including International Business Machines (IBM), Volvo and JP Morgan (JPM) have featured gay couples or parents, mostly in print or online ads. And Subaru has been marketing to the gay population as a whole for years.

And the article points out the growing acceptance of this "lifestyle choice" much of which has been entertainment driven:
There has been a growing trend of gay tolerance, with more companies offering benefits to same-sex couples and families and more mainstream TV shows featuring gay personalities, like NBC’s popular “Will and Grace (search)” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show (search)” and Bravo’s successful “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (search).”

“We’ve seen this acceptance in corporate America and in pop culture,” said Mark Elderkin, founder and president of PlanetOut Partners, which runs the heavily trafficked Gay.com and PlanetOut.com Web sites. “That’s creating the foundation for corporate advertising to go out and market to this group.”

Get used to it folks.

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