Go, Chevy!
A Chevy ad released last month to celebrate the Detroit Pride festival has gone viral beyond anyone’s prediction. The ad, originally a tiny $750 buy in the Motor City Pride edition of Between the Lines, has been viewed by well over 10 million people.
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Volt runs on an electric battery and a gas generator. So, whatever revs your engine, we support you 100%. Happy Motor City Pride from the entire Chevrolet family.
Advertisers are increasingly targeting advertisements to the LGBT community, seen as an affluent, trend-setting democraphic. This ad, however, shows that the market may be larger than anyone had previously thought.
Gay and lesbian consumers prefer fuel-efficient cars, account for 5% of new car purchases and have average household income in the six figures — more than that of heterosexual households, according to a recent marketing survey.So it’s little surprise that General Motors ran a gay-themed advertisement in Detroit last month for the Chevrolet Volt, a pricey extended-range electric, the type of car studies show gay and lesbian consumers tend to like.
GM didn’t count on the ad drawing national attention.
First published for $750 in the Motor City Pride edition of Between the Lines, a Michigan gay and lesbian newspaper, the ad ended up being viewed 11 million times through social media.
“This was a good omen,” said Jan Stevenson, co-publisher of the magazine. “They put their toe in the water, and it worked out really, really well. If anyone’s really paying attention to it, they would say, ‘Wow, this is an untapped market.’ “
Whether or not it’s a lucrative market to be tapped, I think it’s a brilliant and kick-ass ad. The day is soon coming when we’ll look back and shake our heads in amazement that Americans were once so ignorant that they wanted to dictate to others who they could love.
Things like this ad are a very good start.
[CC LGBT graphic: The Limpa-Vias Blog]
