Ad overview: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).
Ad overview: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."
The page text reads in German, "
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.
Social engineering from corporate America. Vote them out of power with your spending/investment dollars.