This being the case, it is no surprise that in today’s America, where stories centered around the fight for personal freedoms and acceptance spill into the news on a nightly basis, that companies would use advertisements as a way to mirror and celebrate the strides we have made as a nation. The ad pictured below, featuring real-life couple Todd Koch and Cooper …show more content…
In the eyes of these ‘Moms’, the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back was the hiring of famed LGBT comedian and talk-show host Ellen Degeneres as the department chain’s spokesperson.. (Zimmerman)
By not only publishing this advertisement, showing two gay, caucasian men lying on the floor of their living room, lovingly playing with their seemingly multiracial kids, but doing so in time for Father’s Day weekend, you are getting a look at the America JCPenney sees, where not only are gay couples afforded equality and respect, but that their place as a parent is beyond question or admonishment. They can be every bit the swim coach, bike mechanic, and tender and loving a parent as the next straight parent. While this was once a narrowly supported perspective, again America as a country has matured in their views, and this shift towards acceptance has given way to the meteoric rise in same-sex couples raising children, from 63,000 couples in 2000 to 110,000 couples as of 2012. …show more content…
As we already know, advertisements reflect the culture they exist within, however, this is also, and to a much greater extent, the case with movies and televisions. In the last decade or so, LGBT-themed television shows and films have carved out a fairly sizable corner of the industry. When looking at the popularity and success of programs like “Orange is the New Black”, or “Transparent”, we are seeing the results of our growth as a nation towards being a more accepting, free-thinking country. Individuals like LGBT personality RuPaul, (recently nominated for an Emmy for her show “RuPaul’s Drag Race) who were once widely and harshly marginalized, are now be publicly praised and celebrated.
The fact that the fight for same-sex marriage was once a movement supported only by a fraction of our population, has gained such a strong foothold that companies like JCPenney, a middle-America driven retail powerhouse dating back to 1902, are now putting members of the LGBT community front and center in their ad’s speaks volumes about the newly adopted, accepting nature of the American value