Coors Brewing Co., Domestic Partners
This simple ad first ran in the 2002 GLAAD Media Awards program book, but is remarkably similar to a 1996 print ad from competitor Bud Light entitled "Significant Other." That campaign was a series of work plays.
Coors has been working hard since 1997 to repair years of damage from a gay boycott with ads like this one to point out that the company is among the most progressive for its employee policies toward gays.
Coors has been advertising in gay publications since the 1980's, but the year 2000 marked its largest-ever outlay for gay-specific ads, said Mary Cheney, then corporate relations manager for gays and lesbians at Coors. She did not give specific figures, but said ad spending to gays alone increased 20% by the end of 2000.
Beer marketers in 1999 spent about $1.5 million advertising in national and local gay publications, according to Rivendell Marketing in New Jersey.
Beer companies are well represented in The Commercial Closet, largely due to an effort in the mid-1990s to pull away from the industry's longterm sexist advertising themes that objectified women. Such commercials were summed up by the Swedish Bikini Team ads from Stroh Brewing Co. for Old Milwaukee. Looking for new material to mine, brewers began extensively playing with gay and transgender themes in their advertising. However, because beer drinkers are stereotypically macho, the tone of many of the ads were more negative.
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