2017/04/04 by Ana-Isabel Nölke · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Gender, Feminism, and Media #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
paper · doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1314163
openalex publication_date 2017/04/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/04/29
This study introduces an intersectional analysis of explicit LGBT portrayals in mainstream advertising between 2009 and 2015. The analysis provides insights into the (in)visibility of the LGBT community over a period of significant social change. It finds that although the number of explicit representations of LGBT characters has risen dramatically, 230 out of 240 intersections of sexuality, class, age, and race remain invisible. In using a new ad format-human interest ads-advertisers move away from hypersexualization, toward real individuals' stories of love and families. Nonetheless, the analysis highlights how the erasure of multiply marginalized groups in mainstream advertising continues to perpetuate a heteronormative, domesticized version of "gayness" and discusses the adverse effects that lie herein. It is proposed that non-LGBT consumers are the underlying target group of LGBT-explicit advertising, causing non-target market effects that alienate large parts of the LGBT community despite their overt inclusion.