Society/Culture Why aren't same sex couples represented more in Australian commercials?

[Proud SJW]

What was the SSM survey result in the end? 62% yes, 38% no - thanks Wikipedia.

That's why same sex couples don't feature prominently in Australian commercials, it's a commercial decision. Advertising appeals to the lowest common denominator.

If you don't feature a same sex couple in a commercial, then you don't upset the 62% or the 38%. At worst you might upset that 1% who are outraged by anything that doesn't include every race, gender, religion etc. under the sun.

If you do feature a same sex couple in a commercial, you potentially appeal more to the 62% but risk upsetting the 38%.

(Side note, $40m of the $120m budget for the survey wasn't used. Where did it go?)

It won't be about "appealing" to anyone, other than a small demographic. Unless your aim is to sell to gay folks of one stripe or another, and I can't think of too many products in that category. What products are relevant strictly to gay folks? A particular holiday destination, perhaps.

With regard to that kind of advertising, it'll come when those who'll sit through it without flinching are an overwhelming majority, even if for no better reason than to prove how progressive they are - when they're in company. I'd imagine most will go and make a coffee, if they were alone.
If you were to reverse the question, for example, how do gay folks react to commercials specifically aimed at straight couples? Are they likely to rush out and buy whatever is being sold?

Advertising isn't designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It has a target market, which may or may not include that demographic.

I've got no idea how many people are gay. Or whatever letters of the alphabet the non-straight self-identify with now.
Unless you have a product which is aimed specifically entirely at the gay market, there'd be little point.
Or it might conceivably be aimed at the virtue-signalling SJW market who'll go out and specifically shop at your store because you advertised using gay folks. I wonder if they're a large enough demographic yet? Probably not. Getting there, though.

Still, though, reading through this thread... it's interesting that there are so many who think television is, or should be, a social engineering tool. It's a business.

 

[Scotland]

Not sure I buy that reasoning. Yes some Helen Lovejoy types wouldn't buy the product/service simply because they are bigots but the exposure that such ads receive would make more of the 62% (and some of the less bigoted members of the 38%) more likely to purchase the product/service as a consequence.

That's an unintended consequence, though. Chick-Fil-A in the US got a heap of publicity for their anti-SSM stance and as the saying goes 'any publicity is good publicity'. I'm not convinced that many people in Australia have their purchasing decisions influenced by a company using same sex couples in their advertising. The fundy Christians will hate on Campbell's Soup but if Heinz never use same sex couples in their ads I doubt anyone will care.

There's a distinction between being actively progressive/regressive in your advertising and just focusing on the product you are selling. Some people prefer companies just don't push any messages at all.

 

[Scotland]

It won't be about "appealing" to anyone, other than a small demographic. Unless your aim is to sell to gay folks of one stripe or another, and I can't think of too many products in that category. What products are relevant strictly to gay folks? A particular holiday destination, perhaps.

I think it's more about expanding your market than targeting a new, smaller one. A product like Bundy rum for example has a blokey 'not for NTTAWWTs' kind of reputation, so they might want to sell the product as not just for redneck Queenslanders.

There's also the PR/feel good angle. If you have two competing products and one is from a company that supports social cause, charity, sustainability etc. then how much does that influence your decision?

With regard to that kind of advertising, it'll come when those who'll sit through it without flinching are an overwhelming majority, even if for no better reason than to prove how progressive they are - when they're in company. I'd imagine most will go and make a coffee, if they were alone.
If you were to reverse the question, for example, how do gay folks react to commercials specifically aimed at straight couples? Are they likely to rush out and buy whatever is being sold?

That's a pretty extreme reaction. I assume we're just talking about people talking or holding hands or whatever, rather than gay pr0n ads. You'd have to be pretty insecure to walk away from the TV at the mere mention of homosexuality.

Advertising isn't designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It has a target market, which may or may not include that demographic.

The target market in Australia generally is the lowest common denominator.

I've got no idea how many people are gay. Or whatever letters of the alphabet the non-straight self-identify with now.
Unless you have a product which is aimed specifically entirely at the gay market, there'd be little point.
Or it might conceivably be aimed at the virtue-signalling SJW market who'll go out and specifically shop at your store because you advertised using gay folks. I wonder if they're a large enough demographic yet? Probably not. Getting there, though.

Advertisers are pretty good at keeping up with trends. What surprises me is Foxtel's new ad with the van driving mum (Mrs T) doing a bunch of school drop offs for famous athletes and Fox presenters. White, middle class stay at home mum is not very 2018. It's wayyyy more common to see mixed race couples, diverse groups of kids etc. in TV these days than it was even in the 1990s. Australia is something like 70-80% white yet there are plenty of people who complain about 'whitewashing'. I see no reason why including same sex couples won't continue to increase.

Still, though, reading through this thread... it's interesting that there are so many who think television is, or should be, a social engineering tool. It's a business.

Agree. My favourite ads were the old Carlton Draught and Jim Beam ones that didn't take themselves seriously.

 

[Gough]

How is having a pair of NTTAWWTs on an ad social engineering?

 

[Proud SJW]

Might come back to this later, but just quickly:

That's a pretty extreme reaction. I assume we're just talking about people talking or holding hands or whatever, rather than gay pr0n ads. You'd have to be pretty insecure to walk away from the TV at the mere mention of homosexuality.

I was thinking more due to a lack of interest than an adverse reaction to it. Same way I'll get up and wander off to make a coffee if it's a Big W ad. Advertisers need to capture their audiences attention in order to be effective.
Although, having said that, I'd imagine there are plenty who would have an adverse reaction to it.
Or, to make a slightly different point, I think it would be extremely optimistic assuming there'd be 62% of the population who would be completely comfortable watching Oz because they voted Yes.

I can admit to being slightly uncomfortable in the presence of overt displays of sexuality without any particular problem. Hetero or otherwise.
(On this forum, that means in having made that admission, I'll have to clarify that "slightly uncomfortable" means looking away and reading my book. Because we all know there are those lurking out there who'll engage in hyperbole under the slightest pretext.)

But I'd also have voted "yes" in the SSM referendum (if I'd bothered to vote), because I believe in freedom of the individual, and it appears a lot higher on the hierarchy of my own particular code of values than any discomfort I might have at seeing people expressing that individuality.

However, what I really dislike, and what I'll actively campaign against, is this "The homophobes will have to get used to it, or **** off." attitude which unfortunately seems to be becoming the prevailing paradigm. Not just with reference to this thread, but in general.

For a start, the term "homophobia" arose primarily because the pop-psyche advocates assume all dislike is based upon fear. It's a simplistic and childish assumption usually made by those who think they know more than they actually do.
I can dislike the practise of genital mutilation and not be afraid of it. I can dislike the act of wearing a hijab because I'm intellectually against what its represents, but that doesn't mean I'm afraid of people wearing hijabs.
I am extremely concerned about the co-opting of language in order to influence how people think.

But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it's a culture of bullying which appears to have snuck under the radar. The all-powerful "we". You can see it in operation on this forum. They don't go around wearing brown shirts and beating up people they don't like anymore, but they will marginalise and ostracize using other means. Same s**t, no visible bruises.

Gay folks can get married all they like, as far as I'm concerned. But the kind of people who'll tell me get used to it or * off are the kind of folks I'd prefer to throw out of a helicopter over a deep ocean somewhere a hundred miles offshore.

Wasn't quite as quick as I thought.

 

[Proud SJW]

How is having a pair of NTTAWWTs on an ad social engineering?

One of the most effective ways to get people to accept something they wouldn't have thought to otherwise is to inure them to it through repeated exposure.

 

[Gough]

One of the most effective ways to get people to accept something they wouldn't have thought to otherwise is to inure them to it through repeated exposure.

Most people accept homosexuality already, and why the hell shouldn't people be accepting of gay people?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it's a culture of bullying which appears to have snuck under the radar. The all-powerful "we". You can see it in operation on this forum. They don't go around wearing brown shirts and beating up people they don't like anymore, but they will marginalise and ostracize using other means. Same s**t, no visible bruises.

Oh, chin up tiger.

If you are prepared to contemplate someone you calling you a homophobe is akin to a fascist, you are as soft as warm butter.

Gay folks can get married all they like, as far as I'm concerned. But the kind of people who'll tell me get used to it or **** off are the kind of folks I'd prefer to throw out of a helicopter over a deep ocean somewhere a hundred miles offshore.

Telling people you'd throw them out of a helicopter is interesting considering your cry session the previous paragraph about you being bullied.

Im telling you to get over it or * off; whether that is to another country or a deep ocean, it's not a great loss.

 

[The Passenger]

- Complains about a culture of "bullying" regarding homophobia
- Would prefer to throw people out of a helicopter who stand up to homophobes

Makes sense.

If someone has s**t views they'll get ostracized from a community. This has been happening since the dawn of time.

It's just what the community deems as a "s**t view" has shifted over generations.

 

[Proud SJW]

Most people accept homosexuality already, and why the hell shouldn't people be accepting of gay people?

What people will accept externally is often different to their internal feelings on the subject - or any subject, I'm not speaking specifically about homosexuality on that. I'm not sure I said anywhere society shouldn't be accepting of gay folks, and in fact I think I said pretty much the opposite... so I'm not sure why you're asking me that, unless you're making assumptions without reading anything first.

Society functions on acceptance; it doesn't do one any favours to demonstrate anti-social sentiment without a specific purpose.
How many people on this forum do you think present their views in the outside world exactly as they do here? And further, of those, which ones do you think they might be?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

- Complains about a culture of "bullying" regarding homophobia
- Would prefer to throw people out of a helicopter who stand up to homophobes

His nonsensical style of writing doesnt cover for his textbook conservative prejudices.

 

[Proud SJW]

Oh, chin up tiger.

If you are prepared to contemplate someone you calling you a homophobe is akin to a fascist, you are as soft as warm butter.



Telling people you'd throw them out of a helicopter is interesting considering your cry session the previous paragraph about you being bullied.

Im telling you to get over it or **** off; whether that is to another country or a deep ocean, it's not a great loss.

You know, most of the reason I've prodded you in the past was to see if there was any depth to you.
Unfortunately, that's turned out not to be the case. There's so much wrong and anti-intellectual about the way you argue that even the thought of trying to unravel the mess is far too wearisome to bother with any more.

You can keep trying if you like. Or if you like likes, which is probably a bit more accurate.

I actually considered that black flag comment you made somewhere for a while, and I thought that, if so, it probably makes you even worse than I first realised - if that were the case.

An unwitting black flag operation, though, was a far more interesting thought. That's one of the reasons I still come here.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

You know, most of the reason I've prodded you in the past was to see if there was any depth to you.
Unfortunately, that's turned out not to be the case. There's so much wrong and anti-intellectual about the way you argue that even the thought of trying to unravel the mess is far too wearisome to bother with any more.

You can keep trying if you like. Or if you like likes, which is probably a bit more accurate.

I actually considered that black flag comment you made somewhere for a while, and I thought that, if so, it probably makes you even worse than I first realised - if that were the case.

An unwitting black flag operation, though, was a far more interesting thought. That's one of the reasons I still come here.

You want to throw people out of helicopters. To combat online bullying.

What black flag comment.

 

[Proud SJW]

Only if they're brown-skinned. Or communists, or gay.
I don't mind white, gun-toting capitalist bullies though.

That girl you posted in the virtue signalling thread was as sexy as all hell.

 

[TimmeT]

Although a drawing Amazon's done the same as Campbell's in their billboard advertisement for their talking diary thing by having it get asked to put Kate and Alexa or whatever the names lesbian wedding in.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Although a drawing Amazon's done the same as Campbell's in their billboard advertisement for their talking diary thing by having it get asked to put Kate and Alexa or whatever the names lesbian wedding in.

Do you have to post every time you have to see a gay person?

 

[TimmeT]

Do you have to post every time you have to see a gay person?

Are drawings people now?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Are drawings people now?

What's pissed you off today Timme?

 

[TimmeT]

What's pissed you off today Timme?

Nothing. I'm just answering your question and showing why it was incorrect.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Nothing. I'm just answering your question and showing why it was incorrect.

But you vomited up something about amazon and lesbians, or something.

 

[TimmeT]

But you vomited up something about amazon and lesbians, or something.

So you didn't actually read what I wrote. All I said was amazon did the same thing as Campbell's. So as usual you were just posting crap which is irrelevant and for the sole reason of attacking posters you disagree with.

 

[Gough]

We're a highly desirable demographic, it's the old invisible hand at work. Gays on the tele and Tony Abbott advocating for socialism. The world's gone mad I tells ya.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

So you didn't actually read what I wrote. All I said was amazon did the same thing as Campbell's. So as usual you were just posting crap which is irrelevant and for the sole reason of attacking posters you disagree with.

You going to pull through?

 

[Procrastinator35]

We're a highly desirable demographic, it's the old invisible hand at work. Gays on the tele and Tony Abbott advocating for socialism. The world's gone mad I tells ya.

Those red budgie-smugglers should have been a give-away.

 

[Frank Bunn]

You know, most of the reason I've prodded you in the past was to see if there was any depth to you.
Unfortunately, that's turned out not to be the case. There's so much wrong and anti-intellectual about the way you argue that even the thought of trying to unravel the mess is far too wearisome to bother with any more.

You can keep trying if you like. Or if you like likes, which is probably a bit more accurate.

I actually considered that black flag comment you made somewhere for a while, and I thought that, if so, it probably makes you even worse than I first realised - if that were the case.

An unwitting black flag operation, though, was a far more interesting thought. That's one of the reasons I still come here.

He's not thick but from 29,000 posts I've only read one that was a constructive argument. The rest is cherry picking negative responses, straw men arguments and accusations of fascism.

There is no depth to find. He's a troll.