Love and Money: No Losses for ‘Ellen’

Seven years ago, ABC lost $1 million in advertising revenue when the drama “thirtysomething” showed two men in bed together. Next week, the network will charge sponsors a premium for the sitcom “Ellen,” when the lead character acknowledges that she’s a lesbian.

Although the two situations are by no means directly analogous, reaction from advertisers to the coming-out episode, at least on a surface level, seems to underscore progress for gays in television.

Sources say ABC is charging more than $330,000 for some 30-second commercials during Wednesday’s one-hour telecast, nearly double what the show had been getting. That increase stems from an assumption the episode--the subject of an enormous media blitz--will attract a much more sizable audience than the program’s average 13.7 million viewers per week.

Although some major sponsors opted not to buy time during the episode, ABC has indicated that “Ellen” will air fully sponsored.

Earlier this season, a kiss between two lesbian characters on the ABC drama “Relativity” produced barely a ripple of controversy. Two years ago, NBC said it didn’t suffer a loss on “Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story.” Some advertisers did pull out of sponsorship of the movie--the true story of a lesbian military officer--but others replaced them at competitive rates. The same scenario unfolded in 1994, when the lead character kissed another woman on ABC’s “Roseanne.”

The current atmosphere would seem to represent a departure from the early 1990s, when advertiser skittishness about being associated with gay-themed programs--sparked by fears of consumer boycotts and other pressure tactics--played what TV executives said was a significant role in censoring content and limiting depictions of gay characters.

Although “Ellen” becomes the first gay lead in a TV series, today there are roughly two dozen gay or lesbian characters in supporting roles on prime-time series, including “Friends,” “Mad About You,” “Spin City,” “Melrose Place” and “Party of Five.” With rare exceptions, those programs air without controversy.

Industry sources attribute that shift to various factors, among them changing public attitudes and the failure of past boycotts to yield appreciable results.

Despite an apparent relaxation of standards, however, ad agency representatives question turning the “Ellen” situation into a referendum on TV’s tolerance toward gays.

“You can’t make a generalization for all advertisers, but I’d like to think that advertisers are making decisions on a case-by-case basis,” said Betsy Frank, director of strategic media resources at Zenith Media.

“There are no blanket statements you can make that advertisers don’t care about boycotts, because some do, or that advertisers don’t care about gay characters, because some do.”

Indeed, just last week the trade paper Advertising Age reported that a top agency, Leo Burnett Co., said in an internal memo that gay characters are “becoming more difficult to avoid” and expressed concern about how the agency could ensure finding a “suitable environment” for its clients, which include McDonald’s. (Burnett subsequently wrote the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which issued a harsh rebuke, saying the agency would be more sensitive in the future.)

“There are still some advertisers who feel that it is not an appropriate environment for their commercials,” said Paul Schulman, who heads his own media-buying agency. “There are others who have no problem with it whatsoever, and others who never cared about environment at all.”

Other factors have influenced the “Ellen” response, such as the widespread publicity and presence of high-profile guest stars like Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore and singer k.d. lang. The show, in fact, has become a centerpiece of ABC’s efforts to grab viewers during sweeps, including Friday’s “20/20” interview with star Ellen DeGeneres.

“They’ve turned it into an event,” Frank said. “There can’t be anyone, unless they’ve been living in a cave, who’s going to turn on ‘Ellen’ Wednesday and be shocked [by the content].”

“Ellen” is also a sitcom and thus doesn’t figure to deal with sexuality in a graphic manner. Those behind the show say that the goal was simply to be “emotionally honest” and that they expect the program to have broad appeal.

“The people who are afraid they’re going to be offended by this aren’t. [The approach] makes it very palatable for people who may have a problem with it,” said Gil Junger, who directed most of this season’s “Ellen” episodes (including the final three) and once worked on “Soap,” considered a breakthrough two decades ago because of the gay character played by Billy Crystal.

“I really think we have the opportunity to change people’s perceptions,” Junger added. “That’s huge. You don’t get a chance to do that as a television director very often.”

Gay activists generally laud television for increasing their visibility, although some lament what they see as sanitizing those images for public consumption.

“Most of the gay characters on prime time are one-dimensional and completely de-sexualized,” said Robert Bray, a former media director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Even so, broadcasters and advertisers remain sensitive about possible backlash. ABC won’t disclose names of sponsors for the “Ellen” episode, fearing that might expose them to protests. One critic, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, encouraged people opposed to homosexuality to watch in order to note who the advertisers are and to register their displeasure.

Several major advertisers, including Chrysler, did stay away without ruling out buying time on “Ellen” once the media spotlight fades. Volkswagen is the only auto maker--one of television’s largest advertising categories--that will be represented on Wednesday.

Executives note that the continuing influence of advertisers has had a profound effect on the TV movie business, causing projects that explore controversial themes to move from over-the-air networks to pay TV channels.

HBO and Showtime, each of which has televised movies dealing with homosexuality and abortion in recent months, don’t have to fret about alarming sponsors and can even benefit from the press attention such projects generate in their efforts to attract new subscribers.