We had a world first in 1992 when AMEV understood “that not everyone is the same”. In a TV commercial for life insurance (at the height of the AIDS epidemic, mind you!) they showed two gay couples and a lesbian couple. That was 32 years ago, but it is typical for the Netherlands. In that video, a whole series of people appear who want to take care of each other. And then – incidentally – those three rainbow couples also appear.
And that casual thing is typically Dutch, in advertising. Not: “look at how diverse we are” (for example by only showing two dykes), or “we have checked off the obligatory diversity list” (as I think happens in the McCain commercial “ Here’s To Love ” from 2018). But simply, as if nothing is wrong, showing a reflection of the diversity in society. That scores points with me.
Casualness also takes the wind out of the Woke Mafia’s
sails a bit (see my article ” Get woke, go broke “), so you risk less negative reactions or even calls for a boycott. The latter happens all the time in the US, usually driven by Fox et al. and the Christian conservatives of One Million Moms . The most recent incident was that with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney for AB Inbev .
Forbidden
But in the Netherlands it is not that bad, on email data the contrary. The Nashville Statement caused more commotion than any inclusive advertisement. The gay Adam in the “ forbidden advertisement ” of Centraal Beheer in 2008 was not “forbidden” at all, but that word does help him go viral. He was never broadcast. For more examples, see “ Forbidden fruits: the (gay) advertisements that did not go
unnoticed ”.
The Netherlands was is and will remain diverse
– there is some room for improvement in that regard given the political developments of recent years, but that is also relative. For ten years we were consistently in the top five of most LGBT+-friendly travel destinations, in ’23 we tumbled to 24th place (which we shared with French Polynesia and New Caledonia, I mean), and this year Was sind die Merkmale industrieller we are at a meager 21st. In my opinion, this is partly due to the fuss about the transgender law, the increasing incidents of violence, the shameful policy of the IND (“ not gay enough ”) and the rise of Geert cs, which has a flywheel effect in this area. In any case, our advertising by lists world is simply delightfully diverse, and we see that reflected in TV and online commercials. Three examples – and a bonus.
Also read: Super Bowl Ads: What Would Jesus Do?
1. Heineken – Crate Chronicles (2019)
The first example concerns the second largest beer brewer in the world, our own Heineken. Where frontrunner AB InBev really went down the drain with their influencer misstep (but even more so with everything that happened around it), Heineken is doing better.
