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Most memorably, in 2000 Martina Navratilova was featured along with other female athletes in a Subaru commercial, where she delivers the final line, “What do we know? We're just girls.” Subaru even pulled off an endorsement-within-an-endorsement when it agreed to a product placement on The L Word in 2004 and was depicted as the corporate sponsor of a tennis player.
The reference was significant in that Navratilova was the first female tennis star to come out, and she lost her sponsorship as a result. The Subaru endorsement was one of her first endorsements in many years. Another tennis legend, Billie Jean King, appears in one of the earliest commercials featuring a lesbian celebrity, but the 1974 Colgate ad aired many years before she came out.
Famous lesbians have are increasingly prevalent in ads. Navratilova endorsed the Rainbow Card in 1995, but more recently lesbian celebrities can be seen advertising products or services in ads with no lesbian content other than that implied by their presence, such as Ellen DeGeneres' American Express ads. These ads tend to feature the celebrity alone, reaching many audience members who have no idea that the subject is a lesbian.
In 2003, however, Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels appeared in a Cartier ad holding hands and smiling at each other. There's no escaping the lesbian theme; they wear locking bracelets that “symbolize everlasting love and attachment” according to the ad text.
Seriousness in subject matter and approach seem to be on the rise in lesbian-specific advertising. More ads focus on commitment, hawking financial security via insurance, and investments and home ownership. There has been a dramatic increase in ads for real estate and wedding-related services in gay and lesbian publications according to the 2005 Gay Press Report put out by Prime Access Inc. and Rivendell Media.
Lesbians are increasingly visible in advertising but the ads are increasingly humorless. For all its faults, the FCUK commercial has a playfulness we don't often see in lesbian-themed American ads these days. Of course, the prospect of a Constitutional amendment and regional measures that deny gay and lesbian rights makes for a grave tenor. But perhaps the country's conservative backlash is reflected in ads that are more frequently in protest than celebration compared to the recent past.
The oldest ad in Commercial Closet's archive tagged as “lesbian-themed” is from 1933. In the print ad for Karpen Pil-o-rest Mattresses, two gleeful women in swimsuits hold hands and appear to be skipping along a beach. According to the text, “that buoyant energy means they enjoyed a good night's sleep.” It proclaims: “They must have slept on a Karpen Pil-o-rest mattress!”--presumably one and the same Pil-o-rest mattress.
The ad also poses a subtle appeal to the bi-curious, saying “perhaps you have never really known restful, rehabilitative sleep if you've never had a Pil-o-rest Mattress on your bed.” It continues: “The special ‘pillow' on the top and bottom cradles the contours of your body…and comes in a variety of beautiful colors.”
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