New Jersey LGBT group broadcasts a winning campaign
By Jen Colletta
PGN Staff Writer
© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

Although Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s largest LGBT organization, hasn’t yet won its fight for marriage equality in the state, it did score a different kind of win last week.

Commercial Closet Association, an international organization that advocates for positive images of the LGBT community in mainstream media, honored Garden State Equality with one of its 2008 Images in Advertising Awards at its fourth annual ceremony in New York City on July 28.

Garden State Equality received the Outstanding Nonprofit Campaign award for its television advertising efforts to raise awareness about same-sex marriage in New Jersey.

Nine other awards were given out to such companies as Levi’s, BMW and Washington Mutual.

Garden State Equality’s campaign, launched in December 2006, consisted of two commercials, produced by separate agencies.

Garden State Equality funded the campaign through member donations and a grant from the national organization Freedom to Marry.

The campaign ran for about a month on New Jersey cable television channels.

The first commercial, “Think Equal,” was produced by Blue Jersey, a progressive political Web site.

“That commercial was originally produced for their Web site, and we saw it and just said, ‘We love this. We want to put this on TV,’” said Steven Goldstein, chair of Garden State Equality.

“Think Equal” shows two female friends — one married and one in a same-sex civil union — comparing and contrasting the rights their legal relationships afford them, demonstrating the lack of protections that the state’s civil unions offer same-sex couples.

At the end of the women’s conversation, the heterosexual woman tells her friend, “You should upgrade to a marriage,” to which the lesbian woman replies, “I think so.” The words “Think Equal” are shown on the screen at the commercial’s end.

“‘Think Equal’ is a very direct ad that hits people over the head in very clear terms without any subtlety or metaphors and tells New Jerseyans that civil unions don’t equal marriage,” Goldstein said. “It’s a very direct, hard-hitting ad.”

The other commercial, “Busy Family,” depicts two men taking care of their three children as a nearby television broadcasts President Bush’s State of the Union address, in which he proclaims his view that marriage should be between one man and one woman.

Text appears on the screen that reads: “Mike and Jeff missed the president’s speech on protecting the American family. They were too busy being one. Support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.”

“Busy Family” was produced by Kaplan Thaler, a New York City advertising agency. “Mike” and “Jeff” are portrayed by Whitney Pillsbury, a Kaplan employee who conceived of the commercial, and his real-life partner John Clarke. The couple’s three kids represent the children in the commercial.

“Whitney came to us and said, ‘Listen, I’ve produced this ad and would you be willing to air it?’ We viewed it and it was just incredible,” Goldstein said. “It’s a subtler ad than the other one, but it’s very effective.”

Goldstein said that although the ads take different approaches to getting across the message about the importance of same-sex marriage in New Jersey, both successfully accomplished their goals.

“These two ads had completely different feels to them, but people loved both ads and had very strong reactions to both of them,” he said. “We’re absolutely thrilled that the commercials got the award.”

Jen Colletta can be reached at jen@epgn.com.