Last year, GLAAD debuted their first annual Media Awards in Advertising. Among the winning ads were the Kenneth Cole ads, featuring lesbian partners and parents.
GLAAD has just announced the nominees for the 2010 Awards and, while there are more gay male-related campaigns, gay women are a part of every category, which indicates that advertisers and marketers are becoming more aware of our lesbian spending power.
Sadly, there were no LGBT ads in the mainstream TV category this year. In the LGBT TV ads, Levis and Logo offered up a few lesbian moments within their “Gay History Month/Logo Leaders Campaign.”
In the Outstanding Print/Outdoor Mainstream Market, Givenchy’s Fall 2010 ad campaign featured female models kissing.
Women made a strong showing in Outstanding Print Campaign for LGBT press, with ads from Tylenol PM and Progressive.
While men still make up most of the nominees in print, lesbians were a large part of the Interactive and Social Marketing Campagins, with commercial ads from Wells Fargo and Garden State Equality:
It’s interesting to me that advertisements for RuPaul’s Drag Race are eligible for the gay-themed awards, but none featuring out lesbians such as Ellen DeGeneres for her own show or any of her ad campaigns for CoverGirl or Vitamin Water were chosen or possibly even considered.
The winners will be announced live on Sept. 29 at the Grand Hyatt New York. The event will be hosted by actor Bryan Batt and will feature reality star Bethenny Frankel. As an out actor who starred on Mad Men, Batt is perfect to play host. As far as Bethenny goes, apparently all the lesbians related to media, entertainment and advertising were unavailable that night.
