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Ceebee-eebee

@ceebee-eebee / ceebee-eebee.tumblr.com

The Ultraviolet Catastrophe
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ceebee-eebee
cwnerd12
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aurumacadicus

In before I start seeing people bitching about rainbow capitalism MY favorite rainbow capitalism story is about Subaru. Yes the Japanese car company.

In the nineties, they were struggling. They were competing with a dozen other companies targeting the main demographic at the time: white men ages 18-35, especially after a failed luxury car launch with a new ad agency. “What we need is to focus on niche demographics,” they decided, and then focused on people who enjoyed the outdoors. The Subaru was excellent at driving on dirt roads that many other vehicles couldn’t at the time, so it was perfect for all those off-road campers; they started making all-wheel drive standard in all their cars to help with that. And the people who wanted cars to go do outdoor stuff? Lesbians.

Okay. Of course it wasn’t only lesbians buying Subarus. They’re on the list with educators, health-care professionals, and IT people. But the point is, this Japanese car company interviewed this strange demographic (single, female head of household) and realized one important factor: They were lesbians. They liked to be able to use the cars to go do outdoorsy stuff, and they liked that they could use the cars to haul stuff rather than a big truck or van. Subaru had a choice to make then. They had four other demographics they could market to, after all–the educators, the health-care professionals, IT professionals, and straight outdoorsy couples. Their company didn’t hinge on this one “problematic” demographic.

And they decided “fuck it,” and marketed to lesbians anyway. This included offering benefits to American gay and lesbian employees for their domestic partners, so it didn’t look like a cash grab. (This was not a problem. They already offered those in Canada.)

Yes, there was some backlash. They got letters from a grassroots group accusing them of promoting homosexuality, and every letter said they’d no longer be buying from Subaru. “You didn’t buy from us before, either,” Subaru realized, and ignored them. It helped that the team really cared about the plan, and that they had many straight allies to back them up. There was also some initial backlash when Subaru hired women to play a lesbian couple in the commercial, but they quickly found that lesbians preferred more subtlety; “XENA LVR” on a license plate, or bumper stickers with the names of popular LGBTQ+ destinations, or taglines of “Get out. Stay out.” that could be used for the outdoors–or the closet.

Subaru said “We see you. We support you.” They sponsored Pride parades and partnered with Rainbow Card and hired Martina Navratilova as spokeswoman. They put their money where their mouth is and went into it whole hog. In a time where companies did not want to take our money, Subaru said, “Why not? They’re people who drive.” And that was groundbreaking.

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ralfmaximus

Some sample Subaru ads, late 90s to early 2000s.

They really really leaned into it. But cleverly.

ceebee-eebee
cosmicanamnesis
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ohfallingdisco

I’m sorry but Lucas “Friends don't lie. Never ever. No matter what” “I’m going to find Will” gets close enough to spy on Hawkins lab “You’re not a traitor, I'm sorry” “It’s a wrist rocket” “You’re nothing like your brother, okay?” “You’re, like, totally tubular” bikes across town in the rain at night with Mike “What if El can’t do it alone?” helps Dustin give D&D stuff to Erica “I just wanted to give you a ticket to the game” “I was biking for eight miles” knows Max’s favorite song even though she’s been avoiding them “I thought we lost you” “Normal’s just a raging psychopath” Sinclair has never done a single thing wrong in his life, ever

#stranger things#lucas is a darling human