Ad Spotlight: American Airlines

American Airlines is out with a nicely executed new print campaign featuring Neil Patrick Harris. Read more about the campaign here.

GLAAD Names New President

GLAAD has named Sarah Kate Ellis its new CEO and President. Sarah Kate is an established media executive known for growing magazines like Real Simple, Vogue, and InStyle. She most recently was a VP of global marketing at Martini Media. In 2011, Ellis co-authored a memoir with her wife, Kristen Ellis-Henderson, titled “Times Two, Two Women in Love and the Happy Family They Made," released by Simon & Schuster. The autobiography chronicled their simultaneous pregnancies and road to motherhood.

"While our community has made great strides in recent years, our movement has an important and critical journey ahead," said Sarah Kate Ellis. "Together with our dedicated staff, I will push for a culture where everyone in the LGBT community is fully welcomed and respected by our neighbors. I look forward to leading GLAAD and creating a world where LGBT people and our families have the freedom to joyously-- and openly-- live a life they love."

Introducing FourTwoNine: A New Kind of LGBT Print Magazine

Love this.

Ad Spotlight: Log Cabin Republicans

From yesterday's Politico. From Executive Director Gregory T. Angelo: 

"Make no mistake: as Log Cabin Republicans, we want to win elections, and if the Republican Party wants to do the same it needs to take a stand against anti-gay rhetoric in its ranks and welcome the increasing numbers of Republicans who support the freedom to marry. Our ad today in Politico should be a wake-up call to Republicans and a reminder of the words of President Reagan, who, in describing his ‘big tent’ conservative philosophy, declared, ‘It is not your duty, responsibility or privilege to tear down, or attempt to destroy, others in the tent.’ Let’s make the tent bigger. Let’s get the Republican Party back on a path to victory."

Ad Spotlight: Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau

Love the insight and concept, but the execution feels a bit too photoshopped to me. Read more here.

Ad Spotlight: Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban was a 2012 GLAAD Amplifier Award Nominee.

Ad Spotlight: Log Cabin Republicans & Freedom to Marry

This is actually really nice - ran last Wednesday in the Tampa Tribune during the RNC. 

Ad Spotlight: Target

Target recently unveiled this ad promoting their wedding registry to same-sex couples. Read more here.

Ad Spotlight: Chevy Volt

This Pride ad from Chevrolet is going viral. Really nice work. 

OUT Magazine lays off entire editorial staff

Things weren't getting any easier on their own for the struggling gay magazine. In a shocking move, the entire editorial staff has just been laid off. This comes just two years after The Advocate, once the country's leading LGBT news publication, ceased being available on newsstands and is now only available as a subscription in combination with OUT. Is this the beginning of the end of all LGBT print publications?

Nebraska Churches Take out Full Page Ad to Oppose LGBT Nondiscrimination Protections

Get this: 214 churches in Nebraska recently pitched in to take out a full page ad in Omaha's World-Herald newspaper to oppose an LGBT nondiscrimination bill. If passed, the bill would provide basic protections to LGBT people in Nebraska. Currently, LGBT people in Nebraska have no protections on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and thus can be fired from their jobs or denied housing just because they are gay. And 214 churches across the state came together to make sure that keeps happening. Apparently it's just the Christian thing to do. 

Ad Spotlight: Absolut Vodka

Absolut is celebrating 20 years of LGBT advertising. In 1981 it ran its first gay-targeted ads in The Advocate and After Dark. To celebrate, Absolut is launching a national $4 million outdoor, digital, and print campaign. Click here to read the full New York Times article.

J. Crew Just Got Even Gayer

After last month's uproar caused by a J. Crew catalog photo of a mom painting her son's toenails, the retailer seems to be just thrilled with the buzz and earned media it has generated. Why? they just issued their May catalog, which features, you guessed it, a man and his boyfriend. 

Ad Spotlight: Ikea

This print ad is currently running across Italy. The headline translates to, "We are open to all families."

Anti-Gay Direct Mailers Flood Maryland Households

If you live in Maryland or know somebody who does, please send them here to easily voice support to their delegates for marriage equality. The "National Organization for Marriage," which should just be called the national organization for Heterosexual-Only Marriage, has launched a vicious scare tactic direct mail campaign. The mailers include lies such as "Imposing Same Sex Marriage Has Consequences." I've said it 1,000 times and I'll say it again- legalizing same sex marriage never has and never will impose a church to marry anybody. It simply legalizes CIVIL marriage licenses which are government issued and currently only available to opposite-sex couples. Tell your friends. 

My Article in Echelon Magazine

An article I wrote has been published in Echelon Magazine's October/November 2010 issue and is even featured on the cover. The magazine can be downloaded and read online here. A short bio on me also appears in the contributing writers section on page five.

Ad Spotlight: Progressive

Progressive Insurance has gone all out with their "Works in Progress" campaign. It seamlessly bridges online and offline media with events and content-driven calls to action. On their dedicated Facebook page, over 3,000 people have generated content to be submitted to the site. You can actually upload a photo of yourself and turn it into a work of art for others to see. Progressive scores a perfect 100 on HRC's Corporate Equality Index.

Avis Launches LGBT Discount

Avis recently became the first car rental company to join the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. But they're going one step further to show just how much they love us: They've launched a special LGBT discount good for up 25% off rentals. Just use code B450300 whenever you book! In a country where the law rarely gives us "special rights," isn't it nice to get some special perks now and then? By the way, Avis scores 80 on HRC's corporate equality index (solid B-). But the company does have a long history of supporting the LGBT community including donating to GLAAD. (This story via Openly Gay Marketing.)

Controversial Karate Ads Surface

These print ads that leaked on the Internet this week have really sparked an uproar. The ads are from a Hispanic agency I never heard of called called Zubi and apparently never actually ran. They were supposedly leaked from an employee who was just playing around. While I certainly can't bash the creativity here, I can add some dimension to this issue which has largely been framed as anti-gay. While that underlying connotation is of course present, we must not forget that there's a difference between sexual orientation and gender expression. Gender expression can sometimes indicate sexual orientation, and other times it cannot. So who knows, this kid could grow up to be the next Tiger Woods. But whether it's reinforcing the idea that being either a sissy or a queer is undesirable, it probably speaks to most parents out there who just want the best for their kids in a difficult and cruel world. But you can't always get what you want, especially when it comes to forces such as these that have such innate roots. Selling the idea that a child can change either of these through any easy mechanism is dangerous territory, as anyone who has ever worked with troubled LGBT youth knows first hand (sometimes the hardest way). But the reality for most parents with a boy like the one in these ads is that they are still going to end up with a little sissy, even after Karate lessons. Only then, he'll have more belts to add to his fabulous wardrobe.

New York Sports Clubs To Run Ad Based On JetBlue Flight Attendant

In a society where corporate bureaucracy too often prevents brands from injecting themselves anywhere near the realms of cultural relevance and social media (the way it works best), enter New York Sports Clubs. The brand not only has the balls to tie itself to a current events phenomenon, but the brains to do it strategically and the speed to do it in time. How fitting.