Gay Advertising - UK Conservative Party Gay Ads

TOPICS: Advertising. LGBT communications. Gay and lesbian community. Clover Moore. Australian gay politics. History of advertising to gays and lesbians. Australian Labor Party. Kevin Rudd. Paul Keating. Gay ads. Gay advertising. Lesbian communications. Gay communications. John Howard. Liberal Party. Australian elections. Advertising to gay market and marketing to gay community. Marketing to UK lesbians and gays. Non-targeted gay advertising. UK Conservative Party. David Cameron. UK gay politics. UK Conservative Party places non-targeted advertising on gay UK website.

Ian Johnson, Out Now
September 7, 2007

The UK Tory Party - led by David Cameron - in moving with the zeitgeist, recently changed their logo to a more green-friendly image.

In terms of the gay market though, the UK Conservative Party is also burdened politically by a poor history of negative interactions with the lesbian and gay community--stretching long back, to well before the infamous anti-gay Clause 28 laws of the Thatcher government.

As with much of post-colonial life, there is now a very different history of interactions between mainstream politics and the gay and lesbian communities that exists in places like Canada and Australia--with perhaps more than a few lessons for David Cameron and the UK Conservative Party.

A tradition has grown in Australia - now of at least ten years standing - of heavy election advertising in lesbian and gay media by major Australian political parties such as Kevin Rudd's Australian Labor Party, the Australian Democrats and the Greens.

Usually the advertising communications message used are very targeted, and are designed to address the real concerns of lesbian and gay voters.

In 1994, the Australian Labor Party even presented the country's first openly gay candidate for the inner city seat of Bligh in a NSW State election - out lesbian Susan Harben, whose bid for election was unsuccessful against a much more popular independent candidate - Ms. Clover Moore.

Given the amount of political trouble current conservative Australian leader John Howard of the Liberal Party is in, perhaps the Australian Tories might consider chasing votes wherever they can find them too in Australia's next election campaign - due to start in a matter of weeks.

Now comes news from AP that the UK Conservative Party led by David Cameron is placing advertising on gay websites in a bid to seek to appeal direct to lesbian and gay voters.

The fact that the advertising seems to be merely the standard non-gay targeted Tory communications messages is, we believe, a mistake.

The major parties in Australia have for years directed specifically tailored communications messages to gay and lesbian voters in their gay targeted advertising. The trend really took off down under during the time of Prime Minister Paul Keating.

This Australian political party approach to gay media communications is quite clear in its intent--to address very real current issues of concern to lesbian and gay voters, in an effort to win gay community votes. It's not that things like schools, hospitals and childcare don't matter to lesbian and gay voters. They do. It's just that there are other issues that can resonate more.

It may just be 'Marketing 101' - but the fact is that it works. Understand the consumer and their concerns, then set about communicating clearly how you will meet their specific needs. Using general mainstream advertising communications in a niche media environment is rarely the best strategy to achieve this.

But even more than the message and more than the medium, looking at the substance of the concerns of gay voters would likely prove far more enlightening to UK Conservatives--if they really want to win the roughly three million gay votes up for grabs at the next UK election. Mainstream advertising has little to say to a niche audience with very specific market concerns.

Perhaps the case of Ms. Clover Moore in NSW, Australia can prove to be a most enlightening Case Study in 'Gay Marketing 101' for the Conservative Party in the UK to consider in this area.

In 1994 Susan Harben was President of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras - Australia's most high profile lesbian and gay event.

Harben was an out lesbian and she enjoyed an existing high gay and lesbian community profile. In what was viewed by many in the gay and lesbian community at the time as a cynical political party exercise, Harben was pre-selected as the Australian Labor Party ALP candidate for the inner city seat of Bligh to try to oust sitting independent member Clover Moore.

The Labor Party has a massive campaign machine to call on, and outspent Clover Moore on advertising in the election campaign many times over.

The voters in the electorate of Bligh - more than a quarter of whom were lesbian or gay as revealed by research at the time by our Australian office Significant Others - did not vote for Harben but opted to stay with the proven Clover Moore.

Why would gay voters, and especially lesbian voters, in the gayest electorate in Australia not prefer one of their own to the independent candidate Clover Moore?

The answer is simple. Actions speak louder than words.

Clover Moore had a long history of recognition and support for lesbian and gay causes, issues, concerns and had a strong outreach program to address the individual concerns of her lesbian and gay voters.

Susan Harben on the other hand was known for organising a gay party and parade, and at a time when encroaching corporate sponsorship was causing gay and lesbian community dissent against the Mardi Gras organisation Harben had been head of.

According to the UK Conservative Party their current push to advertise on lesbian and gay media websites is part of their 'rebranding'.

However well intentioned their gay communications outreach might be, there could well be a significant risk of the current crop of non-targeted gay media advertising being seen by lesbians and gay men in the UK as tokenistic.

The fact that the ads have nothing tailored to say is one significant problem for this approach given the very difficult past history of Tory relations with gay voters in the UK.

If not backed up by real actions and policies designed to earn the votes of lesbian and gay voters, that respond to real issues and concerns of lesbians and gay men in the forthcoming UK general elections, then the current advertising approach could do little more than window dress the re-branding of the Tories.

Cameron is trying. Today he told an audience: "To those who think, even in 21st century Britain, that commitment and responsibility cannot be embraced by all, I say: you will not find a stronger supporter of marriage but why not also recognise the commitment that gay couples make to each other in civil partnerships? That's modern Conservatism."

That is definitely a strategic step in the right direction, so why not put that into an advertising message for gay consumption? Otherwise all the mainstream advertising in the world in gay media could be as unfruitful as the massive campaign energies of the Labor Harben 'tailored-product' campaign in NSW all those years ago.

Cameron also clearly has problems to manage in targeting gay marketing messages effectively when a senior Tory politician, Michael Ancram this week published an anti-Cameron booklet saying that treating civil unions in the UK as bestowing equality on gays and lesbians equivalent to marriage "insults the intelligence of the British people". That will frighten a lot of lesbian and gay voters who remember Margaret Thatcher's anti-gay Clause 28 laws, repealed only recently by the UK parliament.

In Australia all those years ago Susan Harben may have been a lesbian but voters did not believe she could more effectively represent the interests of lesbian and gay voters when trapped within the machinations of the Australian Labor Party operation of the time.

Clover Moore by the way is still the local MP--now in the electorate of Sydney--as well as having been recently elected as Lord Mayor of Sydney by voters who seem to place more importance on substance over message.

Next year Ms Moore celebrates 20 years of being elected by gay voters by concentrating on substance over style--and that is a gay communications message that has lessons for all.

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