WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Abercrombie & Fitch, Whitney & Beth Marriage

Members:

The most overtly gay-specific that Abercrombie has ever done, these images from the Winter 2000 issue of A&F Quarterly, the company's own megalogue, depict a double wedding of the Emerson family. Ironically, the reply card responses include "No... I'm liberal, but not that liberal" with "Yes... I'd love to see two women get married."

Predictably, the issue caused some controversy, something that A&F Quarterly has experienced before over depictions of nudity and the use of alcohol, due to the brand's popularity with youth. The publication is now sold with a plastic covering only to those over 18 years old.

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User Comments
Duy Nguyen
I found this ad to be very sweet. A beautiful wedding between two couples, both looking very natural. I don't quite understand the duck, though.

Celia
Aww...that looks really sweet - not to mention tasteful.

Monica
This is a very stylish and forward-thinking ad. The only thing that bothers me slightly is that, while the heterosexual couple has a Rabbi and a gleeful older woman (my assumption is she's a parent) watching their kiss, the onlookers of the lesbian couple are all men. It's only a minor thing, and it probably wasn't really intended to mean anything by the ad designers, but it ever-so-slightly feeds into the myth that the sight of Lipstick Lesbians kissing is for the pleasure of men. Other than that, I really like the look of the ad. It's a nice concept.

Mira Johnson
in response to Stephanie Smith's comment...Why are you even on this site if you don't like the contents? I think the ad is very well done and I also hope to have such a beautiful wedding some day.

Carrie
This ad is absolutely beautiful... *smiles... The world, always ever changing, needs to see more acts of love such as this depicted in mainstream advertising.

Louise Harris
This ad is classy, elegant and very sexy without the typical bimbo-type exploitation of lipstick lesbians. I hope my feminine wedding will look like that when I marry the right girl.

Stephanie Smith
This ad disturbs me. This is not the way God designed it. I would hate for my kids to see this ad.

Tiara S.
That is a very interesting ad - I wonder if that wedding ever happened in real life. Good on them for having the courage to publish it. And for those who argue that "God didn't design this"...how are we to know for sure what God designed? We're not God.

Alicia
I love this! It's so wonderful! And, to miss Stephanie..what are you doing on this site?

Audrey Gilles
I do not applaud the wedding invitation's lack of integrity, that is, that it implies that this marriage is simply political and not about the integrity and honor or rights for these women to marry. It's such a hot topic, I'm really missing a punchline or sensibility of smart advertising here. Where is the straight couple's invitation to play off of? If that was played upon as well, maybe it could work for me.

Secondly, I find it belittling that the lesbian bride is tugging at her garter. Again, the subtle cues are playing on the lesbians in a way that is less serious or expressive of inner sexiness. I think a lot of brilliant work could be done around this issue, I do not see it in this ad.

The quality of the casting, styling and photography is the asset to this ad. I applaud the topic, but would rate it a C.

Carrie Ward
Nothing courageous about the ad--just shock value for the almighty dollar!!

Anthony Reuter
While I would love to think that for once Abercrombie was being positive, te fact that the only gay-specific ad they have is of two women is very much focused on reaching a straight male population that finds two women sexually appealing.

Karen Hewlett
Yes its a classy ad, it is an ad of fashion, right?

Katie
Beautiful ad...Although i agree with the idea that it panders to male lesbian fantasies. Still gorgeous and tasteful though.

Jill
I love that the photo shows a minister/priest (not to mention one gal's garter!). Bravo A&F!!

Jessicka Pearson
It is a really hot ad. I love the way it looks. I love the way it reaches people's opinions. Finally marriage celebrates love before celebrating tradition. And I see animals; is that a way to indicate that both kinds of marriage are sharing and affectionate, taking care of pets or babies…? If that was an inline idea, that's great! Making kids is possible outside marriage, so why should we restrain making them inside of the marriage? That ad celebrates my own diversity values. Love before exclusion!

Nina
I think that ad is so very, very classy and beautiful. I hope that I could marry my partner in that fashion one day. It is so very sweet. :)

Kirsten S.
Excellent and positive representation of a same-sex wedding. The women aren't cast into the stereotypical butch/femme roles and neither are they primped up, over-the-top femmes that play into the straight male fantasy thing. It also conveys a very natural and supportive family and friends environment. I hope the kids growing up the Abercrombie generation will be a lot more educated and open-minded about the necessity of same-sex marriage as the power of the ignorant 'moral majority' wanes. And, in ten years, most teens will be saying, "Gay marriage? So what, that's no big deal."

Natalie
I think this is beautiful and very tasteful. The two women could be mistaken for my friends who are also planning to marry.

Sarah
A beautiful, sweet ad which shows what a wedding should be about: marrying the person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with wether that person is the same sex as you or not. Don't know whether or not I'd be swayed to buy the company's products, but thumbs up, anyhow.

Debbie
The focal point of the females getting married is the A&F typical young male, and as far as I can tell he is getting a hard-on watching two women kiss. On closer inspection, the sexual nature becomes even clearer as we see one of the women's garters?! All this juxtaposed with the mother swooning over the chaste kiss of her son's new wife. I do not see how this fits into the positive category!

Cat Hall
Classy, tasteful ad! Too bad A&F did not do more lesbian themed layouts. Kids could learn tolerance from this ad!

Fredrick Bertz
To those who take issue with same-sex marriage for religious reasons: God did not create marriage. Human beings created marriage. Marriage is not a religious institution. It was created to secure property, most specifically the property of wives and children for their fathers and husbands. Yes, it has developed religious and romantic connotations, but it is still primarily an economic union.

Lindsey Young
I LOVE the wedding images in this ad. The only aspect that bothers me is the invitation response card, in which the guest can reply "No...I'm liberal but not that liberal." Why would the same-sex couple invite people with that close-minded thought process? And wouldn't it be painful to send and recieve such a message? That statement is simply unrealistic and, if deleted, would make the ad PERFECT.

Annulla
I'm puzzled by the rabbi in the photo on the right. Has he presumably wed Charles P. Emerson III and Faith Coffin, the ultra-WASP-y couple in the photo?

Elizabeth
I think the ad is visually beautiful. However, it would have been nice to include some of the women's bi or lesbian friends in the photo. That way the ad would not be accused of pandering to a male's lesbian fantasy (although my guess is that the men in the photo are gay).

Timothy Smith
This is a fabulous ad that is (hopefully) a hint of better things to come for gay and lesbian America!

Mike
I am a heterosexual male who finds this ad to be beautiful as well as extremely tasteful. But why must we male bash the men looking on? What we are seeing here is simply beautiful. Any person showing love for any other person is as God intended. Period. All of the rules about who can love whom is totally a human construct to keep people's insecurities from surfacing and making them learn something about themselves they do not wish to know.

Steph O.
This ad is not classy. It explicitly portrays lesbians as they are in porn: oversexualized, arm and leg bearing (the straight female is more clothed), and more than willing to let a group of guys enjoy the "eye candy." The invitation card is equally problematic: "I'm a liberal, but not that liberal?" What does that even mean? Please, let's not accept this image as an eye pleaser but really break down the message of this advertisement.