IKEA Dining room table US 1994

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In 1994 IKEA ran a commercial widely thought to be the first TV commercial featuring a homosexual couple. It was not the very first, however. One year earlier, a remarkable Danish commercial for Politiken newspaper was the first to depict a male couple together, with a passionate kiss. And one year before that (1992), Dutch insurer Amev featured one lesbian and two gay couples in a commercial. • Howevewr, this groundbreaking spot made news around the world: it features a male couple shopping for a dining room table together. The two middle-aged guys, who finish each other's sentences, say a leaf means commitment. At the end, one says, We've got another leaf waiting for when we REALLY start getting along -- perhaps implying marriage or having children. • • It was one of the first times an advertiser dealt with a gay relationship frankly in the US. It was not “gay vague” as many ads before or after this one were: the two men verbally declared to be each other’s partner. • Although IKEA accepted the ad from the agency, the retailer still had some reservations. The spot ran only once in New York City and Washington, D.C. after 21:30 in deference to children. Many wrongly assumed the commercial was meant to target gay buyers, but it was part of a larger campaign about non-traditional families, including a mixed race couple and a single mom with an adopted child. • The commercial's director told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that it was not important to be the first company to show a gay couple together and Actually I was surprised when we first started looking at this, that no one had done it before . The IKEA ad disappeared soon after it began when the retailer got a bomb threat at a store from conservatives, along with calls for a boycott. Nonetheless, the commercial was well-liked by the gay community. The gay stereotype of being fashion-oriented and tastemaker was leveraged in the ads, giving a sort of Gay Housekeeping Seal of Approval for IKEA. One of the two actors also is openly gay, though he said that was not known when he was cast for the part. • Check my PhD website for the case study of IKEA: http://marketingtherainbow.info/case%... • Amev can be seen here: • AMEV - Understands people (1992) • Politiken can be seen here: • Politiken - Timian ( Thyme , Denmark,...

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