For their Spring 2019 campaign, the clothing, fragrance and apparel line Polo Ralph Lauren has released its first-ever ad featuring a same-sex couple.
The theme and title of the ad is “Family is Who You Love,” and the ad itself reportedly features footage of real-life couples and families from racially diverse backgrounds lovingly touching one another, spending time together and playing with children (all while wearing Polo Ralph Lauren, of course).
One of the couples is a young lesbian couple who talk, repeatedly touch each other’s faces and necks, talk in bed and the hug while spinning around.
As they’re shown early into the commercial, a woman’s voiceover says, “It’s about laughing and crying and just totally loving each other, no matter what.”
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According to Ad Age, “Polo Ralph Lauren has been trying to attract younger consumers” and so their ad may be an attempt to do just that.
“We live in a world where the meaning of family is bigger, broader and more personal than it has ever been before,” said Jonathan Bottomley, chief marketing officer of Polo Ralph Lauren. “We believe that family is one of the most positive forces and powerful unifiers for all of us today, [and this campaign is a] fresh expression of that idea.”
The campaign is expected to run from April until June.
A 2017 Gallup poll concluded that 5.1 percent of adult American women identify as LGBT. The same poll found that younger people were more likely to self-identify as LGBT. An estimated 1.7 percent of LGBT people identify as gay or lesbian.
LGBT purchasing power in America is estimated to be close to $1 trillion. A 2009 Community Marketing, Inc. study estimates that the average household income of lesbians is around $80,000 a year.
Here’s a video of the ad:
