Gay Pride Ads--and a Proud Gay Adman--Challenge a Broader Public

Howard Wallman had never been nervous about having lunch with his daughter. Until last week.

After more than 25 years in the advertising business, Wallman told his 18-year-old daughter that he was finally about to star in one of his own ads, and he knew she wasn’t likely to welcome his impending celebrity.

That’s because the ad campaign--which broke Monday in Western editions of Newsweek--promotes the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration scheduled for June 23 and 24 in West Hollywood. The ad was conceived by Christopher Street West, the Los Angeles gay-rights group that has sponsored the celebration for the past 20 years.

In one of the ads, a smiling Wallman, who is senior vice president at Vogel Communications Group, is leaning shoulder to shoulder with another man. Under the headline “Take Pride,” all the ads in the campaign feature similar portraits of gays and lesbians smiling--and occasionally hugging--for the camera. “With pride in yourself,” Wallman wrote for the ads, “you can appreciate the differences in others.”

The goal is not to promote homosexuality, said Joe Toy, president of Christopher Street West. “It’s not meant to be confrontational. I hope it will simply get people to ask themselves: ‘What is pride, and what does it mean to me?’ ” said Toy. “If you feel better about yourself, you’re not as likely to want to step on other people’s toes.”

In fact, the ads never say explicitly that they feature gays. Many of the photographs look as if they might just as easily be used to sell soft drinks or shampoo. All the adult models are unpaid gay and lesbian volunteers.

Until now, ads concerning sexual preference have generally been limited to gay-oriented publications. Is the larger public ready to accept ads sponsored by a gay-rights group that show men hugging men and women embracing women?

Wallman concedes that his daughter, who attends a local college, doesn’t think so. Wallman was divorced from his wife five years ago and told his daughter of his homosexuality then. He now lives with a male lover. “She’s very unhappy that people will suddenly judge her father as bad or good without knowing him,” said Wallman, who added, “She is afraid that people will now jump to a conclusion about me that is unjust--and maybe even dangerous.”

But a handful of national magazines and a major outdoor billboard company seem to think the public is ready for these advertisements. Notable among them is Newsweek, which several years ago was the first general-circulation news magazine in the United States to accept condom ads. For the “Take Pride” campaign, however, Newsweek asked that all models appearing in the ads sign releases.

“The ad went through our normal review process,” said Diana Pearson, director of communications at Newsweek. “We don’t discuss that process.” More ads from the “Take Pride” campaign will appear in June issues of Harper’s, Egg, L.A. Style and Interview. In addition, Gannett Outdoor Co. has donated 10 billboards in the Los Angeles area. “I imagine there will be people who object to the ad,” said Bonnie Kingry, a spokeswoman for Gannett Outdoor. “Gannett has a policy of donating public service advertising. We try to help as many people and groups as we can.”

Not a single publication contacted by the group turned down the ad, said David M. Smith, the public relations coordinator at Christopher Street West, who had the idea for the campaign. “There were no problems at all.”

It hasn’t always been such smooth sailing for gay advertising. Just five years ago, a number of major publications rejected a public service print ad from Christopher Street West. The ad featured actress Rita Moreno next to the headline, “Gay pride begins with me.”

Not surprisingly, some groups are unhappy with the latest ads. “Like anyone else, Christopher Street West enjoys the right to advocate and advertise their own political agenda,” said Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of Traditional Values Coalition, a fundamentalist lobby based in Anaheim. “However, what is really sad is that while Christopher Street West spends hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting homosexuality, thousands are tragically lying in hospital beds dying from the very same behavior.”

As for Sheldon’s contention that the ads promote homosexuality, well, Toy says it simply is not so. “What we’re trying to sell is a human virtue--respect for others.” He said the group is spending about $30,000 on the campaign, including $5,500 for the Newsweek ad, which the magazine sold to the nonprofit organization at a discount.

For Wallman, 43, his decision to appear in the ads as well as to create them was at once scary and uplifting. “No one strong-armed me or high-pressured me to do this,” he said. “Hopefully, we can begin to change the opinions of what many people think gays are. We don’t wear dresses and hate women. We have to change that stereotype. We just have to.”

Castellanos Makes a Big Point With Small Account

A piece of advertising business worth $3 million doesn’t sound like much. But when an account that size was handed to Castellanos Latina Advertising last week by the Board of Tourism of Mazatlan, Mexico, it ranked as one of the most intriguing wins by a Los Angeles agency this year.

Reason: Although the agency specializes in Spanish-language ads, it has now been hired to create general market advertisements written only in English. This is highly unusual in the ad business. “Many general market agencies get into Hispanic advertising,” said Julio J. Castellanos, president of the agency. “What we’re proving is that the opposite can also successfully happen.”

The new print and outdoor ads for Mazatlan will begin to appear early this summer, Castellanos said. TV ads will follow later. “I’m more thrilled for proving a point than for winning the $3-million campaign,” said Castellanos, whose 4-year-old agency employs 22 and posts annual billings of $14 million. “It’s the first, but it won’t be the last.”

Albright/Labhart Agency Makes a Play for Audiences

Advertising agencies have been the subject of plays. But a Los Angeles ad agency has turned the tables: It is about to produce a play.

When “Eastern Standard” opens at the Coast Playhouse in West Hollywood in May, it will be produced by the Albright/Labhart agency. The agency recently acquired rights to the play, which is a comedy about two high-powered couples evaluating their lives and loves. The play appeared on Broadway last year.

Why would an ad agency produce a play? “We felt it would enhance our abilities to understand and move an audience,” said Michael Albright, who co-founded the agency less than a year ago. “When you stop to think about it, that’s the very point of advertising.”

Feisty Admarketing Lands Midwestern Retail Account

Admarketing has done it again. The retail-oriented agency prides itself on creating ads that sell products rather than on creating award-winning ads. Now the feisty agency has landed another major retailer, one that could become one of its largest clients. The retailer is Fretter Inc., a Detroit-based retailer of home electronics and appliances that are primarily sold in the Midwest.

Initially, the size of the account will be less than $5 million because Admarketing will create ads only for the chain’s Chicago operations. But the agency hopes eventually to pick up Fretter’s ad business nationwide, which some estimate could exceed $25 million.

Jack Roth, president of Admarketing, said there is no conflict with another one of his firm’s clients, San Francisco-based home electronics company the Good Guys!, because the two companies serve different areas of the country. But why go all the way to Detroit to land a client? Roth says he’ll go just about anywhere for business. “But I wouldn’t get into it unless I thought it would be totally successful.”