http://www2.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html?record=841&searchwords=FORD
This remarkable diversity-oriented print ad features Rob, a Global Product Development & Quality Diversity and Worklife Coordinator for Ford, who is also a co-founder of its gay employee group, Ford GLOBE.
While other corporate diversity ads coyly use generic references to diversity through images of people of color, this one uniquely celebrates a gay employee leader.
Positioned in front of a Mustang, the headline text reads, "Rob has changed our policies, our culture, and our future. And he's just getting started."
The ad's body text says, "It started in 1994. Rob and a coworker formed GLOBE (Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees), one of several company-sanctioned employee resource groups. His goal was truly ambitious. Rob wanted to change the culture of one of the world's largest corporations.
"We welcomed his ideas from day one. Today thanks to Rob's efforts and those of numerous other Ford employees, we're creating a truly diverse and harmonious workplace for every member of the Ford family -- whatever their sexual orientation. That's why we now offer health care benefits for same sex domestic partners. Is our work finished? Not at all.
The world of Ford Motor Company is changing. Rob is making sure that it's changing for the better. How will your ideas impact the future of Ford? Visit us online and see for yourself."
The ad ran on the inside back cover of Dec. 2000/Jan. 2001 issue of Diversity Careers in Engineering & Information Technology, a magazine in which Ford Recruiting regularly places ads. The issue included a story called GLBT Engineers are Out, and Doing a Better Job because of It, which quoted two lesbian Ford employees and photo of the Ford Recruiting booth at the national 2000 Lesbian & Gay MBA Conference (Ford was a corporate sponsor).
http://www2.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html?record=1082&searchwords=FORD
A print ad with a winding road carries the text, "Life is full of twists and turns. Care for a partner?" A smiling man is featured, along with a close-up of a grill from a silver Jaguar X-Type. The ad ran in OUT, The Advocate and Metrosource magazines.
In the months after the ad debuted, the brand says it has sold over 20 cars as a direct result of the ad, earning more than the cost of the campaign.
Saab was the first car to ever seek the gay dollar, in 1994, but ad spending in the auto category for the gay market is most dominated by Subaru, which in 1996 initiated a gay-specific campaign and has had a consistent presence in gay media and events ever since. General Motors' Saturn began a campaign for the gay dollar in 1999 using general market ads with no specially created gay message, as did Volkswagen in 2002.
Before embarking on its campaign, Ford hired Witeck-Combs Communications, Washington DC, to create substantial proprietary market research about how the company's brands perform with lesbians and gays. With Harris Interactive, Witeck-Combs surveyed 1,000 in the gay community and 1,000 heterosexuals to compare tastes.
The information was shared with all Ford brand executives, including Jaguar, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo, Mazda and Land Rover. Acquired by Ford in 1989, Jaguar is its first brand with gay-specific advertising in the U.S. but others may follow. "It enables all the brands to learn from each other," notes Jaguar spokesman Simon Sproule.
Susan Pepper, marketing manager of Global Marketing at Ford, the No.2 automaker, says, "It is highly likely to see at least one or two brands enter the (American) market or increase its activity in 2003." Because Ford brands Volvo and Land Rover already advertise in gay media, it is unclear if they will expand their presence or if domestic brands like Ford, Lincoln or Mercury would seek gay buyers. "It is yet to be determined," Pepper says.
Although the gay community's spending power and interest in luxury goods attracted Jaguar, brand executives decided to begin with the entry-level X-Type, which runs $30,000 and up. "We're democratizing luxury -- this car is about making Jaguar accessible, not just the reward at the end of a successful life," says Sproule.
A number of examples were tested -- some overtly gay, others more subtle -- to determine how "GLBT-specific to make an ad," explains Wes Combs of Witeck-Combs. "There's no need to just use guesswork" -- something companies often do in the gay market.
"The ad chosen was one that scored very high," explains Howard Buford, president of New York agency Prime Access, which created the campaign. "For people who are not gay, life can be very linear: you go to school, graduate, get married, have a baby -- the twists in the road analogy, and the idea of having a partner to go through them with, was very meaningful to our target audience. They tend to be at a life stage that finding a partner is very meaningful to them."
While it is the first gay Jaguar advertising, it is not the brand's first marketing effort. In 1999, Jaguar sponsored the GLAAD Media Awards. "We got to know the consumer through events first, which allowed us to hear from them what turns them on and off," says Sproule. "We're still dipping our toe in the water to see what the best way (to reach the market) is. We need to do more, and we're on a long committed road with this very important market."
Overseas, several Ford brands have already sought gay buyers. Since 2000, Mazda pursued the "pink pound" -- gay buyers in England, while Volvo began appearing in Genre in 2001 and with gay-specific ads in Australia's Blue magazine in 2002, including the declaration that "Volvos are no longer straight." Ford Motor became a sponsor of European Gay Pride in Cologne, Germany, featuring a print ad of a close-up of two men holding hands.
http://www2.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html?record=979&searchwords=FORD
Though Ford hasn't yet begun gay marketing in the U.S., it has had presence in European gay media for a few years. In this Cologne Europride parade guide that recalls a 1999 U.S. ad from Bud Light, Ford's ad features two men holding hands (one with a leather strap), and a headline that reads, "As if we only think about cars."
Next to the hands, it says, "Anhangerkupplung?" which has a double meaning as it refers to the tow bar in the back of a car as well as meaning "hook up" or "hitched."
The English translation: "If we do not always think of cars, then we gladly celebrate in the name of love -- all love. And what better place to do that than Cologne? A city that is above all about diversity, tolerance and a party groove. As a small proof of our love to Cologne, we of course again take part in the Christopher Street Day (Gay Pride). Because in the meantime the event, like the Cologne cathedral, will not disappear. Neither will we."
Ford Motor Co. arrived in Germany in 1925, well before BMW or VW started to think about industrial production.
