{"id":3563,"date":"2025-06-05T15:26:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/?p=3563"},"modified":"2025-06-05T15:53:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:53:24","slug":"how-subaru-seduced-lesbians-nope-not-kidding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capertongillett.com\/blog\/how-subaru-seduced-lesbians-nope-not-kidding\/","title":{"rendered":"How Subaru seduced lesbians (nope, not kidding)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s the mid-\u201890s. Subaru is struggling to boost declining revenue after their previous attempt (a luxury car and a stupidly ironic ad campaign \u2014 don\u2019t ask) failed dramatically<\/a>. They\u2019ve just ditched their agency and are back to answering the big question: How do you compete with bigger, flashier, sexier car brands like Toyota and Nissan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, you start with a market that already thinks you\u2019re sexy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subaru\u2019s marketing team threw their focus into figuring out who did<\/em> like the brand. Through market research, they identified four core audiences to target, and then\u2026 a fifth? Their data indicated areas like Northampton, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon were particular hotspots where the head of household would often be a single person \u2014 and often a woman. And now they had some suspicions to explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They brought in Mulryan\/Nash<\/a> \u2014 an agency that specializes in LGBTQ audiences \u2014 to confirm they were headed in the right direction. And when the agency went out to Northampton for their first focus group with Subaru owners? Only women showed up \u2014 women who liked, say, camping, and wanted room for their dog. All evidence indicated that the women loved the outdoors, their Subaru, and probably other women. The agency made the pitch, the president liked it, and now Subaru was advertising to lesbians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mid-90s: \u201cGay Vague\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The trick to running lesbian-focused ads in the era of Don\u2019t Ask Don\u2019t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act? Ads that \u201caren\u2019t about lesbians.\u201d Mulryan\/Nash created the Magic Eye painting of the ad world: a campaign for, like, \u201coutdoorsy people\u201d (wink) full of such nuance the lesbian community instantly knew it was for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while the agency did test ads showing actual women, their market liked the winks and nudges. (It was called \u201cgay vague.\u201d) The decoding of the ads was part of the fun. And who wouldn\u2019t like that, when it results in ads like this one?<\/p>\n\n\n

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The average viewer might see the print ad and think ooh, check out the versatility of this car here. Queer audiences are going to check out the license plates: CAMP OUT, as in camping and, y\u2019know, out<\/em>; XENA LVR, in honor of the arguably lesbian warrior princess who launched a thousand sexual awakenings; and P TOWNIE, in honor of LGBTQ enclave Provincetown, Massachusetts, which I personally didn\u2019t know but outdoorsy lesbians arguably might. Subaru was talking to people who didn\u2019t get talked to, and getting it right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early \u201800s: Out and Proud<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By the early 2000s, Subaru was essentially out of the closet, and the subtext was growing into text. In 2001, the brand brought in tennis legend Martina Navratilova as its spokesperson. Navratilova was (and still is) openly lesbian and a proponent of LGBTQ rights, but in this campaign, she was \u201cjust a girl\u201d talking about performance and control and grip along with golfers Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon and skier Diann Roffe-Steinrotter \u2014 all pro athletes who happen to also be strongly admired by lesbians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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