The mini-van is an easy example - Sales almost disappeared when it became viewed as "a housewife-mom's taxicab". Women who drove one suddenly felt old and trapped. They all moved to SUV's insstead.
Another example is Buick - I tried to buy my 70ish mom a Buick, but she rejected it as "an old peoples' car" - and she bought a Toyota Avalon intead. Now the Avalon is a copy of a Buick, but it doesn't carry the negative perception.
So - If a product becomes associated with the gay market - perhaps 6% of the population at best - can Ford's products survive on being a target vehicle for only 6% of the population? Remember, there's no promise that gay's will buy the product being advertised to them, but a really good prospect that others won't as they don't want people thinking that they're gay.
Final Example - How many pink sweaters do you own, guys?
I think that number is overstated.
There's a fellow around here who drives a green "asspor". He owns a BMW Passport and, for some bizzarre reason, decided one day to remove the painted name from the rear of the car. As a linear thinker, he started with the "P" but found it was a lot harder to remove the lettering without removing the paint underneath than he thought. After finally removing the "P", he decided it was too much work. But then he decided he'd never live it down if he drove around in an "assport" so he removed the "T" and now drives and "asspor". I asked him why he didn't just remove the "A" and drive around in a "ssport". He said he thought the "T" would take less time.