The combined disposable income of LGBTQ Americans is $884 billion annually. And BVW Jewelers of Reno, Nev., wants a taste.
Its most recent ad shows two women kissing on the Crystal Peak Toll Bridge after one of them proposes. Breaking somewhat from more recent LGBTQ-targeted advertising (covering everything from marriage to travel), the ad is set to rock music. And one of the actresses, Gina Tarantino, has trendy art school hair.
Expect to see it during local airings of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and at the Sparks IMAX and Century Summit Theater—though in the latter's case, only for movies rated PG-13 or higher, because the beginning includes a flash of Tarantino's underwear.
The ad itself looks great, with clean visuals and spectacular wardrobe/makeup choices, but the music clashes with everything else in a way that's tough to reconcile. The tempo and volume work only at the start; once the proposal happens, it's jarring. We understand the choice, but that doesn't mean it works.
Otherwise, it's pretty classic in the sense that it wouldn't stick out at all if Tarantino were a man. That's kind of the point here, but it didn't escape University of Nevada, Reno professor Sheila Peuchaud, who observes that it still plays to stereotypes of gay relationships, and features two attractive white women.
Still, she also acknowledges that this is by design: "If you're going out on a limb, you're going out on one limb at a time."