Does gay-themed advertising haunt your brand? The impact of gay-themed advertising

This study is designed to investigate the effect of gay-themed advertising as well as consumers' gender, tolerance towards homosexuality (low vs high tolerance) and consumers' brand commitment (low vs high commitment) on attitude towards ad and attitude towards brand.

Does gay-themed advertising haunt your brand? The impact of gay-themed advertising

Nam-Hyun Um

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Introduction

As gay consumers are becoming an important target market, they represent an area where companies can expand their sales. However, companies must be willing to accept certain risks. How minority groups are portrayed has a long history (Taylor 2011). When marketers first targeted African Americans, certain organisations threatened to boycott. Fearing that their brands would become ‘black’ brands, many companies and agencies excluded African Americans from their marketing. Companies who brushed aside such anxiety and pioneered in African American markets were rewarded with...

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