“The love you take is equal to the love you make.”
On Valentine’s Day, Adidas ran a conspicuous ad featuring the Adidas-clad feet of what appeared to be two females in exercise gear. Sounds pretty standard, right? Upon closer inspection, however, one of the women is standing on her tippy toes, invoking a familiar gesture that leads us to conclude the two women are kissing.
Needless to say, even the implication of a same-sex couple was enough to make people angry.
Adidas proudly stood by their ad, responding to positive comments on the Instagram post with friendly emojis while letting the haters rave on to a largely uninterested audience.
Source: Instagram @adidas
Part of the reason why ads like this are still generally received with surprise or disgust is because, while gay people are all around us, it’s still fairly rare to see them equally represented in advertisements. Not that one’s homosexuality should be stereotypically and flamboyantly flaunted in a picture or commercial, but it does take brave companies to make strides where social progress is often most needed: all around us, selling our favorite brands and goods.
Here are a few of our favorite noteworthy, gay-friendly ad campaigns!
The Valentine’s Day post wasn’t Adidas’s first foray into the gay-friendly ad scene.
Source: Twitter @loqueva
This is from when Adidas released limited-edition gay pride-themed footwear in June, 2015.
In 2008, Absolut teamed up with Gilbert Baker, creator of the rainbow pride flag, to create Absolut Rainbow bottles.
Source: Twitter @viktorql
The vodka company proudly posted their ads in gay magazines and neighborhoods.