This past holiday season, the Gap launched a new ad campaign called "Love Comes in Every Shade". The campaign was created to advertise the bright, fun colors of the holiday collection at the Gap stores. However, it also created a buzz about one of today's most widely discussed issues: equal rights.
The Huffington Post Article
In the above link, the Huffington post describes the ad campaign in full. It also shows the different photos the campaign used and what they represent. There were eight kinds of "love" depicted in Gap's ads: true love, married love, puppy love, fatherly love, sibling love, modern love, best friend love, and in love. These advertisements showed different celebrities, for example Michael J. Fox and his wife for "true love". What was interesting is that the ad for married love captured musician Rufus Wainwright and his husband Jorn Weisbrodt. In addition to that, they ran an ad for "modern love", starring the cast of NBC's hit show
The New Normal, a show about a gay couple and the modern sort of family they create with the surrogate mother and her daughter.
According to the article above, Gap's Global Cheif Marketing Officer, Seth Farbman, told PR Newswire that "Their [the celebrities in the ads] personal relationships help remind us that every family is unique and often goes beyond just those we're related to--it also includes the people we share our lives and deepest passions with. This campaign celebrates these diverse, optimistic views on family and the many forms love can take."
Personal political opinions aside, do you think it was a smart move for the Gap to run an ad campaign that showed their advocacy for gay marriage, or do you think it is something that will hurt them in the long run. Why?
