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While the month of pride early this year, Kai Cameron put various wigs and outfits to recreate a advertising he remembers very well in the late 2000s.
The social media director has published a Video on Teltok Imitating an advertisement in which actress Hilary Duff told buyers not to use the word gay as an insult. Looking at another actress in advertising, DUFF assimilated using the term in the pejorative to say “it is so girl wearing a skirt as high”. She ends the announcement by asking if people want to be hurtful and “drop it”.
“He saw a rent for free in my head,” Cameron told CNBC in an interview.
Cameron received almost half a million likes and hundreds of comments on the video at the time of the press. Cameron restart viewers said in the comments that Duff “ended homophobia” and “deserved a Nobel Peace Prize”. The original advertising, she said, “changed lives” and was “a moment in history”.
If these comments are an indication, Duff’s video has become a classic cult for a generation that has seen advertising on its favorite television channels. He is so clearly engraved in their minds, and with a list of constantly increased references of the media, he has won a long -term place in cultural zeitgeist. For this reason, the announcement can act as a success to advance social problems through media messaging. At a difficult time, almost two decades later, supporters of the LGBTQ community for young people wonder what can be done to reaffirm the original message of the campaign.
For LGBTQ viewers in particular, the 17 -year segment has a particular meaning for its success in the fight against hatred and its unique representation on the screen. It is considered humorous and exaggerated, while highlighting an omnipresent problem in a memorable way.
“We caught lightning in a bottle,” said Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay LGBTQ Youth Defense Group, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), who directed the campaign. “There is no other way to say it.”
‘We can make history’
When the campaign was released in 2008, social media was still emerging and linear television reigned supreme. In this environment, Glsen saw the opportunity to shape public discourse against the use of expression “it’s so gay”.
The group launched what is called the “Think B4 You Speak” campaign. Beyond the 30-second announcement with Duff, a similar place featured the actress Wanda Sykes comparing using the word “gay” negatively to a “cheesy” mustache. A printed advertising blitz and a special website have also helped push The message.
The objective: to push the anti-LGBTQ language “ambient”, according to Jennings. While many people at the time knew that some insults were hurtful, using words like “gay” as insult had not yet received the same treatment, he said.
Jennings remembers having thought that Glsen had a success equation. DUFF was at the top of the organization’s dream faces of the organization for the message given its roles in well -known young media like the television program “Lizzie McGuire” and the film “A Cinderella Story”.
Glsen also had the support of the Advertising Council, the group behind the emblematic campaigns of social awareness such as Smokey Bear and Friends does not let friends make himself drunk. The campaign marked the first advertisements of the Council focused on social issues related to the LGBTQ community.
“If we realize this, we can make the story,” recalls Jennings. “And we did it.”
A viral moment was born
Given that the Advertising Council is based on the space given for its work, Jennings feared that the broadcasters will come off the campaign because of its emphasis on the LGBTQ community. But he said that Duff’s place in particular quickly received positive comments, which encouraged businesses to move it unpopular hours during great listening hours.
DUFF’s announcement also obtained a boost on social media platforms like Facebook And YouTubewhich at the time was only there for a few years. Now he considers it one of the first media to “become viral” via social platforms.
“If you had asked me that day:” Kevin, do you think we are still talking about these advertisements 20 years later? “, I would have said:” Well, in my wildest dreams “, said Jennings. “It turns out that my wildest dream came true.”
The data show that the announcements have made percaee to reduce the use of the term. The Glsen School Climate Survey in 2021 found 68% Surveyers have heard “it’s so gay” frequently or often, more than 90% Two decades earlier.
The campaign has also led to a slide in intimidation rate and an increase in the participation of the Gay-Street Alliance, according to Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, the current executive director of Glsen.
In addition, there are signs of anecdotal success. Even before he identifies himself publicly as LGBTQ, Derrick Winrow II remembers trying to imitate Duff by calling classmates who used the word gay as an insult for about a week.
“I think I was too impatient to continue doing it, but the message has remained with me since,” said the 31 -year -old artist. “It was much more impactful than I thought.”
‘Burned in your mind’
During nearly two decades since its first broadcast, Duff’s announcement has raised several heads in the media and culture.
Sabrina Carpenter, singer and colleague Disney Channel Alun, joking Duff during her Netflix Christmas special which was broadcast at the end of last year. Ziwe comedian too asked a guest On his homonymous program on the announcement in an episode of 2022.
Bratz last year recreated The place using its dolls to the resemblance of Duff and other actresses. Etsy sellers falcon clothes Quoting Duff and the announcement.
Podcast Nogorge hosts discussed Use the word “gay” in an episode last month. They wondered if it could be recovered in the same way that the marginalized groups took up similar words which were once used offensively.
Video leisure like Cameron appear on popular platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram. DUFF herself even took the trend, dropping a video from her Synchronization of lips the original AD three years ago.
“He is burned in your mind,” said City of City, a sexual sex based in Austin, Texas, who discussed the announcement in a Tiktok video. “Having activism mixed with the camp, I think is what made it so emblematic.”
DUFF’s announcement affected a sensitive string with more than LGBTQ identification viewers who felt validated by its statement. Yasmine Sahid, a creator of social media content, said in a legend of her own clip iteration that the original video “gave me an ally” to the LGBTQ +community.
“If Hilary Duff says it is bad to use the word gay in a derogatory way, then who am I to use the word this way?” said Sahid, who recently made his television debut Amazon “Overcominates” of Prime.
Representation then and now
Viewers and experts agree that it would be difficult to make an announcement with the same level of visibility today given the fragmented media landscape. More than a decade and a half since the campaign, defenders of the LGBTQ representation in the media see both the reason for the celebration and the need for new efforts.
“Right now, there is a very good representation in the LGBTQ community,” said Joanna Schwartz, professor of Georgia College & State University who teaches a class on LGBTQ marketing. “But in 2007, it was not really there.”
For example, a positive representation in the film followed by the Glaad plea group has soared Over the past decade. However, Schwartz said that sub-groups like transgender people had not seen the same gains as the wider community.
The LGBTQ community is also not represented in advertising, according to GLAAD data from 2023, which is the most recent information available publicly. On the more than 400 ads on the national linear television of the 10 largest agencies, Glaad find LGBTQ people did not appear in only 3% and represented less than 2% of the screen time.
For defenders of young LGBTQs, they are concerned with an resurgence of intimidation and the ability of support suppliers formed to fight it. Glsen licensed 60% of staff Earlier this year, with Willingham-Jaggers citing funding pressures after companies have reduced donations for LGBTQ groups in the middle right pressure.
Jennings, who has worked on anti-intimidation initiatives in the Obama administration and now directs Lambda Lambda Legal, stressed that “Don’t say gay” Bills Adopt the legislatures of states as proof of smuggling progress. This type of legislation, he said, contradicts the initial objective of the campaign to raise awareness and encourage inclusiveness among young people.
“What we have learned through this campaign and through the Obama years is that if we put time and resources there, we can make a difference,” said Jennings. “What we learn at the moment is that this difference can be reversed – and it breaks my heart.”
