Now, it seems thatevery brand of motor vehiclehas a stereotype attached.
Its a phenomenon automotive marketers have long relied on to sell cars, though.
But is that a sign of progress?
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Its the gift that keeps on giving, Bennett joked.
Its budgets paled in comparison to the American giants Ford, Cadillac, and GMC.
Subaru was unique in the US market, though.
Heres where the story really begins.
Subaru didnt go out and target lesbians off the bat, it was largely the other way round.
Then it became a case of finding a way to talk to them directly and treating them as people.
It was about a bigger philosophy about how the brand was going to talk to consumers, Bennett said.
After all, lesbians were supporting Subaru by buying its cars.
Bennett says this was key to the campaigns success.
Throughout our talk, Bennett said it wasnt just about running adverts to lesbians.
Subarus success was the result of cunning marketing that dared to speak to people rather than consumers.
Id rather reach 100 of the right people than a million of the wrong people, Bennett proclaimed.
From the outside, Subaru was doing something no one else in the automotive industry had dared to do.
Naturally, some mostly far-right religious groups took issue with the campaign and sent in mountains of hate mail.
Bennett thinks hes got thousands of letters and muses making a book out of them one day.
But Subaru never engaged with them.
We would just leave it with our customer service area.
Our standard statement was thank you for contacting us.
We sell our products to a very well-educated and diverse audience.
Thank you very much, and just left it at that, he said.
To Bennett and his team, they thought they had a mountain to climb.
This internal shift was crucial to Subarus popularity among the lesbian community.
Or my policies dont acknowledge that we have gay or lesbian employees, Bennett said.
Never be afraid of pushing the entire envelope on and leading the industry, he added.
In the years leading up to the campaign, Subarussales had been steadily declining.
In the years that followed, its sales made a remarkable U-turn.
It left no ambiguity about the fact that the highly targeted and human approach worked.
Subaru continued its lesbian campaign until the mid-2000s.
But the company continues to be associated with, and is popular among, the lesbian community today.
By the late 90s, there were around a dozen carmakers marketing to the gay consumer.
It became in vogue.
It was more a bandwagon thing than anything else, according to Bennett.
Subaru was always able to stay one step ahead, though.
Gay people buy cars!, Bennett exclaimed.
Indeed, over the 15 to 20 years since the Subaru campaign hit the press.
Because they treat their audience as consumers and not as people.
In 2019, the company scored highly again.
One of the most recent car adverts to target the LGBTQIA+ community came from French carmaker, Renault.
Over their lives they stay in touch, growing to become more than just friends.
All the while, the humble Renault Clio helps them maintain their contact.
Its the vehicle that punctuates their life together.
That is, until one of them marries a man.
Some lambasted the ad saying it was cliche and clearlymade through the eyes of straight people.
While that might be true, it seems to be missing the point.
We can be critical of individual adverts in an endless multitude of ways.
Automotive marketing to gay consumers has come a long way.
You cant just throw up a couple of ads or say were here for June and disappear.
People are going to call nonsense on that, he said.
You have to have some sort of consistency or at least a plan of continuity.
The Japanese carmaker has certainly laid out the blueprint.
However, it still seems more like a fashion trend than anything of substance.
Theres still this fear, Bennett said.
We regret this oversight and have amended the article accordingly.
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Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
