Note: Today we're launching a new feature to highlight some of our favorite posts from the past. We're calling it Re:Post. Yes, it's a form of recycling, so we thought launching the feature today might be an appropriate way to celebrate Earth Day this year. Our first Re:Post is from one year ago: it's my post on Earth Day 2008 about the intersection of gay and lesbian communications with environmental issues. Although the world has changed considerably in the past year, it's interesting to consider what is still relevant from the post as well as what has changed. Here's the post:
Today is the 38th observance of Earth Day. As I’ve blogged before, environmental issues have not always been front and center for the gay and lesbian community. With so many more pressing, more personal matters before us, we haven’t often been seen (or considered ourselves) as ardent environmentalists.
That doesn’t mean we weren’t there, just that we didn’t often take center stage. Now, as consumer engagement in all things “green” has taken off in the past year, engagement and recognition of gay and lesbian audiences with environmental issues has also increased. I’ve talked in the past about the Greening of Gay Travel and other “green gay” topics. But with this Earth Day, I think the two communities – environmentalists and gay and lesbian people – have now intersected.
The Advocate’s current issue is their first ever “Green Issue” and features “tips for green living,” profiles of “eco heroes” whose professional careers are devoted to “green” issues and a cover story on singer Rufus Wainwright and his efforts to engage his fans on environmental issues. But that’s just one example, retailers such as Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams include “green” messages in their ads aimed at our community. Carbon offsetters focus on our community as a target audience for their “green” products (and Jen Christensen writes about that in the latest Advocate too).
For many gays and lesbians in 2008, green is the new pink. To my mind, that’s probably a good thing. It doesn’t mean that we’re any less interested in the critical issues facing our community. It does mean that we’re now seen as an important constituency on a “non-gay” issue that impacts our lives as much as those of other audiences. It means that marketers value us not just for our spending power, but for our influence on key cultural issues that affect everyone such as environmental programs.
To me, perhaps the most interesting question is this: will the savvy, skeptical gay and lesbian consumer look at “green” claims the same way he or she views “gay-friendly” claims? I think we will, and that our experience in looking beyond just the marketing slogans of “gay-friendly” companies will lead us to consider more than just what a company says about its environmental programs, but what it does and the impact of its actions.
The intersection of gays and lesbians and environmentalism is still a relatively new marketing phenomenon, so it’s probably too early to draw many conclusions. But as this issue brings together the two things I spend most of my professional working life on, it’s one I’ll be following with great interest.
What do you think? Is Earth Day relevant to gay and lesbian communications or just another off-target marketing ploy? Let us know in the comments below.
Photo Credit: My parnter Mark, via Flickr.
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Earth Gay….HUH? Let’s get beyond the homo/hetero debate and deal with the planet as something God created and we need to be good stewards of it.