Because 2020 has been so relentlessly 2020, many families have already begun celebrating the holiday season in order to bring some needed extra joy in their lives.
Naturally, that means advertisers are ready to capitalize on this trend, unveiling their holiday campaigns well before Thanksgiving. Ralph Lauren’s new rollout tugs at the heartstrings by focusing on family holiday photos and videos.
According to Out Magazine, front and center in the middle of their campaign is retired soccer player Robbie Rogers, his filmmaker husband Greg Berlanti, and their children Caleb and Mia.
Rogers and Berlanti are repeatedly featured in Ralph Lauren’s minute-long Instagram montage along with a caption emphasizing, “This holiday season, we celebrate love and family in all its forms.”
In addition, the power couple turns up touching foreheads in an adorable photo shoot that looks like a wholesome Saturday Evening Post cover rebooted for a 21st century family.
The Ralph Lauren ad is just the latest in a series of prominent LGBTQ athletes and their families being featured in commercial endorsements.
Back in December 2018, for example, proud new fathers Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black took part in a British campaign for Pampers along with their son Robbie. This photo shoot also centered around Christmastime and offered evidence that although their son was just a few months old, Daley and Black were already bringing their Dad Sweater A-Games.
Then this past spring, Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird took a break from dishing on Instagram Live to film a commercial for Symetra Insurance in their living room. While hearing them opine about “how to plan for the future” wasn’t as buzzworthy as “you can’t drink with UConn players,” it was still great to see the two running soccer and basketball drills without leaving the house.
These couples were part of campaigns for clothing lines, baby products, and insurance. But you knew LGBTQ athlete couples were truly ready for mainstream when one of them appeared in that most American of art forms: the beer commercial.
Such was the case with Budweiser’s 2020 Super Bowl ad entitled “Typical American.” After a violin-laden montage featuring firefighters and soldiers and just before the final close-up of the label, the commercial cut to footage of Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris toasting one another in the World Cup winning locker room.
As the commercial was being rolled out, Harris enthused to Yahoo Sports, “We’re super proud of what we stand for and that companies and brands are getting behind that and are willing to be part of that cultural change. For such a long time, we didn’t have a place, but now we do and we’re being celebrated and it’s really rewarding.”
Any of these LGBTQ athletes could probably say the same thing.
