CASE STUDY ENTIRELY COMFORTABLE WITH ITS ORIENTATION:
SUBARU’S SUCCESSFUL HISTORY OF GAY/LESBIAN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS 01/05/2010

ABSTRACT:
This case study examines an integrated marketing communications success story:
Subaru’s 14-year unwavering, authentic relationship with the gay and lesbian communities
during which sales have doubled. Subaru reached out to the gay and lesbian consumers in 1995,
beginning with corporate sponsorship of the Rainbow Card, followed by gay and lesbian-specific
advertising campaigns and numerous strategic sponsorships. Subaru’s corporate communication
efforts were and continue to be revolutionary considering U.S. public opinion of gays and
lesbians at the time, the potential for consumer backlash, and the media landscape. Subaru’s
activities are compared with outreach from the Ford Motor Co., including the latter’s
mishandling of a boycott by the American Family Association (AFA).
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Overview………………………………………………………………………………………… 4
The U.S. Automotive Industry…………………………………………………………………….5
Industry Marketing Expenditures…………………………………………………………6
Brief History of Gay and Lesbian Marketing………….………………………………………….7
Providing Context: Gay Marketing, Circa 1996………………………………………… 9

Appendix II………………………………………………………………………………………29
Appendix III………………………………………………………………………………….… 30
Appendix IV……………………………………….…………………………………………… 31
Appendix V………………………………………………………………………………………32
Appendix VI…………………………………………………………………………………… 34
References…………………………………………………………………………………… 35 4"
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ENTIRELY COMFORTABLE WITH ITS ORIENTATION
a
:
SUBARU’S SUCCESSFUL HISTORY OF GAY/LESBIAN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Companies can’t just throw one ad at gay consumers and think they’re done.
– Mike Wilke, Founder and former Executive Director of the Commercial Closet Association
1

should be considered: 1) sizes of the Japanese and American auto manufacturers; 2) sales; 3)
target markets; and 4) ad spending.
As competition increases and more automotive companies are developing relationships
with gay and lesbian stakeholders, Subaru will need to retain its competitive advantage using
corporate communication tactics. In the highly competitive automotive industry, it is necessary
for Subaru to prove that its IMC strategy is sustainable into the next decade as well. Furthermore,
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This phrase is a tagline used in a 1998 Subaru print advertisement. See Appendix I."
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Subaru needs to grow its consumer base by pursuing other niche markets without damaging the
relationships it has cultivated thus far.

THE U.S. AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
According to JD Power and Associates, there are over 40 automotive makers selling
vehicles in the United States today.
4
The United States, the largest market for light vehicles in
the world, saw sales of over 13.2 million vehicles in 2008. One year prior, sales exceeded 16.1
million vehicles.
5
See Table I for a breakdown of 2008 U.S. sales by company:

Source: Ward’s Automotive
6

The automotive industry, one of the largest manufacturing industries in the United States
today, has been in turmoil for the past few years due to factors such as the economic recession,
increased oil prices, and poor management decisions. By February 2009, U.S. automotive sales

Japanese manufacturers accounted for 7
of the top 10 models purchased under the stimulus program.
15INDUSTRY MARKETING EXPENDITURES
Automotive companies typically devote approximately 10% of their total sales revenues
to marketing efforts, of which advertising comprises just one portion. However, due to the
economic recession and rising fuel costs, both of which have significantly reduced new auto
sales in the latter part of the decade, automotive companies have spent an average of 14% of
their total sales revenues on marketing efforts.
16

The automotive industry is the leader in total ad spending,
17
allocating nearly $10.1
billion to advertising in 2008. Despite a decrease of 15.5% over 2007’s expenditures, the
industry continues to lead ad spending even in its current economic state.
18
Ad spending for the
top 10 product categories is shown in Chart I:

Chart I:
2007-08 Top 10 Advertiser’s, By Product Category
Product Category
2008
(millions)
2007
(millions)
Automotive (Factory & Dealer Assoc.)

$39,060.0
$42,808.1
Source: The Nielsen Company
19Five automotive companies made it onto Nielsen’s 2008 list of top advertisers, across all
industries – GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Chrysler. See Chart II for a complete breakdown of
top 10 companies’ 2007-08 ad spending, in millions: 7"
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Chart II:
2007-08 Top 10 Advertiser’s, By Parent Company
Parent Company
2008
(millions)
2007
(millions)
Proctor & Gamble Co.
$2,848.2
$3,531.1
General Motors Corp.
$2,117.7
$2,488.6
AT&T Inc.
$1,662.7
$1,792.1
Verizon Communications Inc.

and lesbians in the 1980s, they ran ads in gay print media and sponsored gay/lesbian pride
events.
21
Later, “gay marketing” expanded into mainstream media by including gay and/or
lesbian spokespersons in ads,
b
without necessarily targeting the niche markets.
22
As will be
discussed later in the study, while Subaru has largely tailored its efforts to gay and lesbian media,
Subaru has crossed over into mainstream media, most notably by using a lesbian spokeswoman:
tennis champion Martina Navratilova.
23

Financial data about ads featured in gay and lesbian media was first collected in 1994,
through the joint efforts of New York-based multicultural advertising agency Prime Access and
New Jersey-based media placement firm Rivendell Media, Inc. Titled The Gay Press Report, the
firms jointly publish an annual “state of the industry” report with breakdowns of ad spending in
gay media.
As illustrated in Table II, ad spending more than tripled between 1994 and 2007 from $53
million to $182 million, respectively. As with mainstream media, gay and lesbian media felt the
financial impact of September 11, 2001, as companies poured less money into advertising, and
again from 2007 to the present, as the U.S. battles an economic recession. Prior to the recession,
2006 saw record-breaking revenues of $223.3 million, no doubt impacted by MTV Networks’
introduction of Logo, a cable television channel that provided marketers with direct access to
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b
"An example of this type of mainstream advertising is the 2009 CoverGirl Simply Ageless campaign; Ellen, an out
lesbian, is featured in the campaign, but lesbians are not the primary market.
"


o Bud Light (1996)
29

o Sauza Tequila (1998)
30

o Beefeater Gin (1998)
31

o Johnnie Walker Red Label Scotch (1999)
32

• Financial:
o Wells Fargo (1980s)
33

o AMEX (1992)
34

o Aetna (1998)
35

o Chase Manhattan Corporation (1998)
36

o Citibank (1998)
37

o Merrill Lynch & Company (1998)

o R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (1996)
46

o Philip Morris (1999)
47

• Computer:
o IBM (1997)
48

• Pharmaceuticals:
o Merck (1997)
49

o SmithKline Beecham and Abbott Laboratories (1997)
50

o Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (1997)
51

• Insurance:
o The Hartford (1998)
52

o John Hancock (2000)
53
Despite the wide array of industries advertising in gay media, relatively few companies

Fearing a repeat of earlier events, Mazda – owned by the Ford Motor Company –
pulled advertising from Ellen DeGeneres’ 1997 “coming out” episode on the sitcom Ellen. Linda
Colleran, Senior VP/Media Director at Foote, Cone & Belding, Mazda’s agency of record at the
time, explained, “It’s not the Ellen character - I like to see TV reflect reality – it’s all the press
around it.”
59
Following Mazda’s precedent, GM and Chrysler also pulled ads scheduled to run
during the now famous Ellen episode. Before pulling out, Chrysler created a special toll-free
number in anticipation of intense viewer backlash.
60

In 2000, insurance company John Hancock featured two lesbian mothers in a TV ad and
referenced the couple’s newly adopted baby. After its initial run, John Hancock edited future
versions of the commercial to appease conservative protesters. Refuting the fact that the
company had given into protestors, Stephen Burgay, VP of Advertising and Corporate
Communications at John Hancock argued, “We don’t target a segment. We speak to a need, an
emotion, a financial uncertainty or opportunity.”
61GAY AND LESBIAN AUTOMOTIVE ADS
In November 1994, Saab, a Swedish luxury car manufacturer owned by GM, made
history as the first automotive company to run an ad in gay and lesbian media. The ad was
featured in Genre magazine
62
and then Out magazine the following month.
63

Six months later, Saturn – also owned by GM – broke into gay and lesbian media with an
advertisement in Out.

The commercial
was the first of what would later become known as “gay vague” advertising, a term coined by
Mike Wilke, a former writer for Advertising Age and founder of the non-profit Commercial
Closet Association. Gay vague refers to ads in which the actors/models’ sexuality can be
interpreted differently depending upon the viewer.
72

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German-owned BMW, despite awareness that gay men accounted for a portion of their
sales, declined to advertise to the community. As KarenVonder Meulen, former Sports and
Cultural Communications Manager for BMW, stated in 2001, “We don’t do any specific
targeting to the gay community. The community already purchases our cars without having to
target them individually.”
73

In 2004, GM’s Cadillac began advertising in The Advocate and Out.
74
Following
Cadillac’s lead, Audi created an ad in 2004 featuring lesbian songstress k.d. lang, under the
tagline “Never follow.”
75SUBARU
After providing an overview of the U.S. automotive industry and a brief history of gay
and lesbian marketing, the focus now shifts to Subaru.

COMPANY HISTORY
Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd. (FHI), is the parent company of Subaru. FHI’s roots extend

Motors.
82
GM owned 20.1% of Subaru’s parent company at the time, which is had purchased in
1999.
83
In 2005, GM sold its remaining shares back to FHI.
84
In 2007, Toyota started building
Camrys at the SIA plant.
85

Currently headquartered in Cherry Hill, NJ, the private subsidiary of FHI has over 600
dealerships nationwide and two distributors.
86
In addition to the NJ headquarters, Subaru has five
regional offices in Atlanta, GA, Denver, CO, Westhampton, NJ, Itasca, IL, and Portland, OR.
87

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Yoshio Hasunuma is the Chairman, President and CEO of Subaru of America, appointed on
April 16, 2009.
88SALES FIGURES
Based on annual report data, Subaru’s sales increased steadily between 1996 and 2002.
Between 2002 and 2009, sales have remained relatively constant, hovering around 200,000
units.
89

currently representing just 2.2% of U.S. automotive sales.
96
To further illustrate this point, in
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2007 Honda sold more CR-Vs alone (219,160 units) than all Subaru’s models combined
(190,276).
97MARKET RESEARCH REVEALS LESBIAN NICHE MARKET
By the early-1990s, Subaru had established four core consumer bases – healthcare
professionals, educators, IT professionals, and outdoor enthusiasts. Through market research
findings in 1994, Subaru discovered a fifth core base: lesbians.
98
As Tim Bennett, Subaru’s
Director of Marketing at the time stated, “Anecdotally, we found that there were women heads of
households that purchased our cars, and … in most cases they identified as lesbian.”
99
Market
research indicated that lesbian Subaru owners had a high socioeconomic status and an active
lifestyle, complimenting Subaru’s four existing consumer bases,
100
and were four times as likely
as their heterosexual counterparts to own a Subaru.
101
Subaru did not disclose how much it spent
on the proprietary research.
102


creative.
109
Although Subaru has typically used Moon City Productions to market its products to
the gay and lesbian communities, in 2007 the company used the agency for a 2008 Impreza
WRX general market campaign.
110

Most public relations efforts are handled in house, led by CMO Tim Mahoney and
Michael McHale, Director of Corporate Communications. In referencing Subaru’s relationship
with the automotive media, McHale stated in 2007 that Subaru was “well-known and liked.”
111

Subaru’s total ad spending has risen consistently over the past 17 years. Since Subaru is a
private company that does not publicly release its ad spending figures, a snapshot of ad spending
gathered from industry articles is shown in Table V:
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112PROFILE OF A SUBARU OWNER: BRAND LOYALTY
Mickey Kaus, automotive expert and author of automotive columns on Slate.com,
compared Subaru owners to Volvo owners in 2005, stating that Subaru represents what Volvo
used to be – a trusted, yet financially-obtainable vehicle for consumers who value performance
and longevity.
113
In 2008, John Colasanti, CEO of Carmichael Lynch, confirmed Kaus’ claims

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As a result of the market research findings, Subaru embarked on a new marketing path in
1995 to reach lesbians and gay men, beginning with corporate sponsorship of the Rainbow Card,
followed by gay and lesbian advertising and numerous strategic sponsorships.
120FOUNDING SPONSOR OF THE RAINBOW CARD
In 1995, Subaru partnered with British Airways to co-sponsor Martina Navratilova’s
Rainbow Card, a credit card that donates a portion of every purchase to gay and lesbian charities
and non-profits through The Rainbow Endowment. In its first year, the Rainbow Card raised
$50,000 for gay and lesbian causes. After five years, the card had raised over $1 million.
121
In
the past, Subaru gave discounts of up to $3,000 on automobile purchases to Rainbow Card
members.
122PROGRESSIVE ADVERTISING IN GAY MEDIA
Following the Rainbow Card sponsorship, Subaru became the first Japanese automaker to
advertise in gay media in March 1996 when it began running newspaper ads.
123
Shortly after,
Subaru placed ads in The Advocate, the leading gay and lesbian magazine, featuring both
imagery of gay men and lesbians
124
and language authentic to the communities; rather than
running the same ads previously placed in mainstream publications, Subaru developed unique

• License plate: CAMPOUT – a play on the words “camp” and “out,” where out
refers to living life openly as a gay/lesbian individual
2. Car #2 features a kayak on the roof rack but is relatively non-descript, except for the
license plate.
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• License plate: XENA LVR – a reference to the popularity of the television
program Xena: Warrior Princess within the lesbian community at the time
3. Car #3 has a blue Human Rights Campaign (HRC) equality sticker on the bumper.
• License plate: P TOWNIE – stands for Provincetown, a popular gay and lesbian
vacation destination in Massachusetts
The ad copy referenced Subaru’s support of the gay and lesbian communities, specifically the
HRC and Rainbow Endowment sponsorships. The campaign was featured in gay print media as
well as on buses and billboards in the gay neighborhoods of select U.S. cities,
131
such as
Washington DC’s Dupont Circle.
132
Echoing earlier sentiment of Subaru’s covert gay and
lesbian marketing efforts, in response to the coded imagery, Bennett articulated, “It’s sort of like
our little secret. It’s clever and not offensive, and if you’re in-the-know, you chuckle.”
133

During Subaru’s “Get out and stay out” campaign, assumingly heterosexual online
message board posters offered their opinions about being associated with an automotive
company that marketed to gays and lesbians: “They can call my car gay, but they will be looking
pretty dumb when my ‘gay’ car blows their doors off,” and “Got mad for a while after that show
aired. Made me very pissed for some dumb-ass to call my car gay.” Bennett responded by noting
the overall success of the campaign and the fact that feedback of this sort had had a minimal
impact, at best.

140SPONSORING GAY AND LESBIAN EVENTS
In conjunction with its advertising efforts, Subaru became an early sponsor of gay pride
events at both the dealership and corporate levels, beginning with the donation of a Subaru for
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the Denver Gay Pride Parade in 1996.
141
In 1999, Subaru sponsored a booth at Philadelphia’s
PrideFest,
142
and two years later, Subaru corporately-sponsored the Los Angeles Gay Pride
Festival.
143
Subaru sponsored Atlanta’s pride events in 2006
144
and Milwaukee’s events in
2009.
145

In 1999, Subaru sponsored Out Takes Dallas, the city’s annual gay and lesbian film
festival.
146
Likewise, Austin, TX, Provincetown, MA, Seattle, WA, and Washington DC’s film
festivals were sponsored by Subaru,
" 147
as was the 2003 Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film
Festival

To promote sales of the Season 1 DVD set, Subaru ran a sweepstakes offering a vehicle as the
grand prize.
155

Further extending their support of gay television, Subaru executives served on The Ad
Club’s November 2005 panel “The Queer Eye and What They Buy: Advertising to the Gay
Market.” Few companies could rival Subaru’s expertise, given the company’s 10 year history of
marketing to the communities by that point.
156PARTNERING FOR AIDS RESEARCH
Although the “Pink Ride” was a fictitious event created for The L Word, Subaru began
sponsoring the AIDS/LifeCycle in 2004. The 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los
Angeles brings attention to the disease and raises money for additional research.
157
Additionally,
Subaru hosts Dining Out for Life, an annual AIDS research fundraising event taking place in
over 70 U.S. cities.
15819"
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FOUNDING SPONSOR OF SIRIUS OUTQ AND LOGO
Keeping with the standard set by the Rainbow Card, Subaru signed on as a founding
sponsor of Sirius Satellite Radio’s OutQ in 2004, a channel devoted to gay and lesbian content.
The partnership included traditional advertising messages, event sponsorship, and on-air
endorsements by host John McMullen, who was given a 2005 Subaru Outback XT. Referencing
Howard Stern’s previous partnership with Snapple in stating that radio endorsements are not

flashed at the end only.
165
As Hank Close, President for MTV Networks’ Ad Sales explained,
“The whole goal here is to blur the line between content and advertising message.”
166

In October 2009, Subaru launched the Logo Legacy Campaign, a six-month branding
campaign extending interstitials to three minutes. The campaign is a play on words, referencing
Subaru’s launch of the 2010 Legacy model and the legacy of gay and lesbian entertainers. The
interstitials once again feature real-life gay men and lesbians discussing their lives, with Subaru
branding appearing at the beginning only. Viewers are guided to LogoOnline.com for more
information about Subaru’s products as well as a showcase of Subaru’s previous gay and lesbian
ads. Lisa Sherman, Senior VP and General Manager of Logo proclaimed, “We are proud to
partner with Subaru, a company that has truly raised the bar with the work they have done with
and for the community to offer this meaningful campaign to our viewers.”
167GAY ORGANIZATIONS RECOGNIZE SUBARU’S EFFORTS
Gay organizations began formally recognizing Subaru’s efforts in 2002, starting with the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC). HRC, the United States’ largest gay and lesbian advocacy
organization, ranks the employment policies of public and private companies nationwide in its
annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI). The HRC bases its rankings on the existence of non-
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discrimination policies that include lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees,
diversity training, LGBT health benefits, employee resource groups, and “respectful” marketing
efforts targeting the LGBT community.
168


marquees, which means they can keep their message on product and brand, not deals.”
174
In
addition to the MediaPost honor, Subaru ranked third in the automotive industry on Brand Keys’
annual 2009 Customer Loyalty Insights Report.
175CONSUMER FEEDBACK FOR GAY AND LESBIAN OUTREACH
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By 2000, Subaru was receiving feedback from gay and lesbian consumers about its
marketing efforts. 2000 MRI data showed that The Advocate and Out readers were one and a half
times more likely to purchase a Subaru vehicle than other brands. During the next year, Subaru
doubled its advertising efforts; through market research in 2002, the company learned that
readers were now nearly three times more likely to purchase a Subaru than other brands.
176

Further research showed that as Subaru expanded its marketing efforts and changed the design of
its vehicles over time, by 2002 gay men exceeded lesbians in number of Subarus purchased.
177

For its outreach, Subaru affectionately became known as “gaybaru”
178
and “lesbaru”
179

by those within the communities; while the media first reported these nicknames in 2002, it is
likely that members in the communities referred to the vehicles accordingly prior to that.
In 2009, NPR’s Car Talk created a top 10 list of gay and lesbian vehicles, based on e-

billion. Representing one-third of the Big Three U.S. automotive manufacturers, Ford Motor Co.
is the only American manufacturer to have not received money in the government bailout. An
abridged history of Ford’s relationship with the gay and lesbian communities is provided in the
following sections.

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FORD’S GAY-FRIENDLY HISTORY
In July 1994, Ford employees Alice McKeage and Rob Matras began a letter-writing
campaign to Ford’s CEO and VP of Employee Relations to broach the subject of forming a gay,
lesbian, and bisexual employee group. Granting their request, one year later McKeage and Matra
co-founded the Ford Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Employees (GLOBE) group. Later in 1995, Ford
expanded its corporate diversity definition to include sexual orientation and ran ads during
NBC’s viewing of Serving in Silence, a made-for-TV movie about the life of lesbian Army
Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, discharged under the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Policy in 1992. In 1996, Ford developed a GLOBE site on the company intranet, publicizing its
efforts to internal stakeholders (now available through ). Externally, members
marched in gay pride parades and collaborated with gay, lesbian, and bisexual groups at
neighboring GM and Chrysler.
184

GLOBE members added sexual orientation to Ford’s workplace diversity training in 1998
and delivered external speeches about Ford’s efforts to organizations in metro-Detroit. The
following year, GLOBE started recruiting at gay and lesbian conferences and sponsored both
Lambda Legal’s “Michigan in March” celebration and the 1999 Out and Equal Leadership
Summit. Moreover, Ford vehicles were featured in pride events in Australia and Europe.
In the early 2000s, Ford’s outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and newly-extended
transgender communities increased over time through corporate sponsorship of events like
Working Out: Lesbian and Gay MBA Conference, National Coming Out Day, Parents and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Michigan, Jaguar Gay Pride Month in New Jersey,

honoring Ford’s commitment to employee equality. In reference to the
Fairness Award, Jim Padilla, Ford’s COO, stated: “This rating acknowledges Ford’s deep
commitment to building and nurturing an inclusive and respectful culture in which all employees
feel encouraged and able to contribute to their fullest potential. Not only is this the right thing to
do, it is essential to the future of our business.”
188JAGUAR, VOLVO, AND LAND ROVER BEGIN ADVERTISING IN GAY MEDIA
Cindy Clardy of GLOBE cautioned Ford about reaching out to the gay and lesbian
communities: “We told Ford not to consider direct marketing to gay and lesbian consumers until
they had their internal policies in place.”
189
Presumably heeding Clardy’s advice, after
implementing gay-friendly policies in the mid-1990s, Ford hired Witeck-Combs (a Washington
DC-based PR firm that specializes in reaching the gay and lesbian communities) to execute a
survey of LGBT attitudes toward automotive companies.
190
Results were shared with all Ford
Motor Co. brands, including Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury,
and Volvo, but only three brands moved forward with ad creation and focus group testing.
191

In 1999, Jaguar sponsored GLAAD’s Annual Media Awards for the first time
192
and
Land Rover followed a couple years later.
193
In 2003, Jaguar followed Subaru’s lead and
developed gay- and lesbian-specific creative executions

Excellence Award on November 9, 2004.
202
Volvo became a platinum sponsor of the HRC and
offered donations of $500 for every vehicle sold or leased, announcing its partnership in the
campaign.
203
Thomas Andersson, EVP of Volvo Cars North America, remarked: “For us, it was
very natural to address gay families…the Volvo-minded consumer is very diverse. ‘Family’ is
much more than the traditional family.”
204

Although running ads in Europe and Australia during this time, Ford Motor Co. had yet
to consistently run ads for its flagship brand in U.S. gay media. Ford did advertise its Focus
model on gay.com in 1999
205
and its new Beverly Hills dealership in a local gay magazine in
2001, but that advertising presence was short-lived. When asked if the company was concerned
that advertising abroad might offend conservative U.S. consumers, Valentic responded, “It
wouldn’t scare us from doing something that’s right for our company.”
206AFA BOYCOTTS FORD FOR “HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA”
On May 31, 2005,
207
the Tupelo, MS-based American Family Association (AFA)
announced its intentions to boycott Ford Motor Co. in response to the latter’s pro-gay
ideology.
208
The Conservative Christian organization founded by Reverend Donald Wildmon in

Ford’s decision before the media announced the decision.
217

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c
The AFA has boycotted Disney World, Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble, Volkswagen, Clorox Company, SC Johnson
& Son, Kraft Foods, Walgreens, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Old Navy, Viacom, Abercrombie & Fitch, K-Mart, Burger
King, Carl’s Jr., Nutrisystem, and American Airlines."
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After the memo was distributed, Ford spokesperson Mike Moran denied that the
company had given into AFA pressure (see the Chicago Tribune article in Appendix V):
“That is not something that came about in the last week or month.
218
This was made as a
pure business decision, not as a social statement one way or another. This was not a
decision in response to the American Family Association. Jaguar and Land Rover are
streamlining their advertising in 2006.”
219

Moran denied the existence of a confidential agreement between Ford Motor Co. and AFA
220

and noted that Jaguar and Land Rover were reducing advertising expenditures elsewhere, but he
neglected to state where else the companies’ advertising expenditures would be trimmed.
221
A
Ford company statement corroborated Moran’s sentiment, declaring “Advertising decisions for
all our brands are driven strictly by a business case.”
222

HRC: “You don’t make deals with bullies, and you don’t cut your friends loose.”
228
Offering a
different opinion, Spencer Moore, Manager of Corporate Communications for PlanetOut, Inc.,
owner of gay.com, argued, “Based on what Ford has said, it’s a business decision and some of
their brands are still advertising.”
229

After meeting with AFA members twice and subsequently announcing the ad pulls, Ford
agreed to meet with 19 gay organization leaders on December 10, 2005.
230
Ford offered no
indication of plans to cut AFA ties or to reinstate Jaguar and/or Land Rover ads. Through a
company statement, Ford commented that the company was: “always willing to engage in
constructive conversation with those interested in our policies But only Ford Motor Company
speaks for Ford Motor Company. Any suggestion to the contrary is incorrect.”
231