How Gay Is This Ad?: Learning to think critically about advertising

How Gay Is This Ad?: Learning to Think Critically About Advertising

E Dominguez, Raina Daniels, R.E.Szego, MS, Breath Free and SMYRC
SMYRC stands for Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center and is based out of Oregon.

E, Ari (R.E.), and Raina have done outstanding work on this presentation and have put together a ton of materials and resources. Their powerpoint and their examples were extremely well done.
We started the workshop by looking at several different print ads and voting which ones we thought "looked the most gay." I wish I could publish the examples with this blog, but they were very interesting and looking at advertisements in a group of LGBTQI people and allies puts a whole new level of scrutiny and different ways of looking at the advertisements and reading into subtexts.

We talked about what media made by gay people looks like and what media made by "not gay people" looks like.
"The L Word" and "Queer As Folk" , both made by gay people and both portray main characters smoking...BUT the advertisements made by "not gay people" included photographs of women holding hands on the beach, and are "not hot" as determined by the audience. Someone said "where are the real butches?"

LGBTQ YOUTH
are a high risk population in many areas
*Suicide and suicide attempts
*Victimization in school violence
*Substance abuse, including tobacco and other drugs
*School dropout rates, lower GPAs and lowered higher education expectations
*Homelessness
*Early onset of Sexual Behavior
*Eating Disorders

According to SMYRC, as well as other studies, 38-60% of LGBTQ youth smoke. One of their youth drew an amazing picture of someone smoking that shows the smoke and says "risky business" shows the smoke and then says "your rights" as in, you are smoking away your rights.
TOBACCO IS THE LEADING PREVENTABLE CAUSE OF DEATH IN THE UNITED STATES, FOR EVERYONE, LGBTQI or otherwise.

Ari has a great idea using popular LGBTQ movies and analyzing them for smoking content, of which there is many and people don't even think about it. Giving people a worksheet beforehand seems as though it has been helpful in analyzing the movies and sparking conversations. Movies Ari have used include "But I'm A Cheerleader," "Get Real,"
"The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls In Love" etc.
An easy incentive to get youth to participate is just showing the movie, and perhaps offering some food. Everyone loves to see a movie!

Why do LGBTQ people smoke at such higher rates? This question is asked and answered repeatedly but must be included.
*impact of heterosexism
*impact of homophobia and transphobia: high levels of DAILY life stress related to homphobia, possibly even greater for youth
*Social reasons: older bar culture, a useful conversation starter and a way to pickup other people, a social activity to feel included, limited LGBTQ friendly spaces and events that are smokefree.
****TARGETING BY THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY: advertising, event sponsorship, contributions to charities relevant to LGBTQ community
R.J. Reynolds' Project S.C.U.M. (Sub-Cultural Urban Marketing)-targeting gays and homeless people for Red Kamel cigarettes
*Philip Morris, 1992, first major tobacco company to target the gay community through magazine advertisements

Why do they target youth?
Every 8 seconds someone dies from smoking related illness or disease, equaling 1200 per day. MARKETING TO YOUTH ENSURES A REPLACEMENT...
How do they target youth? From NYAC FREE guide, which used information from RJ Reynolds...
Self-Image Enhancement-Sign of maturity and sophistication, identification with valued persons (actors, role models) who are daring, FREE-to-choose, adults
Experimentation-Trying something new, experimenting, associated with rebelliousness or living on the edge
Group Identification-Participating, sharing, conforming, a trait of an "alternative crowd"
Stress and Boredom relief-buys time, valid interruption, bridges awkward times and situations, something to do as a sign of individuality, standing out from the crowd, nicotine response
Sensory Effects-Flavor, visual pack, cigarette and smoke attributes
Manipulation Effects-Handling, lighting, puffing, holding, ashing, extinguishing


A good point that Ari made is that tobacco advertising and whether to use it is a choice. The popular show "Noah's Arc" does not have any characters who smoke, nor does it advertise tobacco products. The popular gay magazine "XY" does not accept tobacco advertisements. "Just Out" Oregon's free LGBTQ community paper does not accept advertising from tobacco companies either. IT CAN BE DONE. We need to get the messages away from everyone, especially the youth.

A lot of the work SMYRC does is prevention based. They have a myspace page, a facebook.com account (popular youth networking website) and something on youtube. They have absolutely fabulous ideas about reaching youth. I encourage you to contact them with questions or to have them come and do their presentation for your community org.

GLBT Youth and Tobacco: A Youth-Adult Partnership

GLBT Youth and Tobacco: A Youth-Adult Partnership Model of Service Delivery
Hope Wisneski, MSW, LCSW, Shana Fulkerson, Dominique Malik, Lu Brock, GLBT Center of Colorado

"The youth and tobacco challenge has been set." The younger a person is when they start smoking the higher a chance they have of becoming a regular smoker. 45% of women in relationships with other women smoke. The average of smokers in Colorado is 67% while the average of people who seek services at Rainbow Alley (Denver's LGBTQ Youth Drop-In center) is 75%. The current Colorado statistics for smokers statewide is 25% and the current Rainbow Alley statistic is 49%. This is an obvious and huge disparity.
So why is this happening and what can we do about it?
One theory about why this occurs higher in the LGBTQ community is because of the media. In the recent hit film "Brokeback Mountain" both of the male stars smoke. Kristanna Loken, a former model, an actress in one of the "Terminator" movies on the hit lesbian series"The L Word" was featured on the cover of "The Advocate" a widely read LGBTQ publication smoking. LGBTQ have very few, if any, "role models" or representations of anything close to how they identify in popular culture. If all the representations they see are of attractive, healthy people smoking, they'll be likely to identify smoking as cool and sexy.
How can we combat this problem? One way the GLBT Center of Colorado is doing it is by making strong partnerships between Youth and Adults. So how does that work?
*True partnership is one in which each party has the opportunity to make suggestions and decisions. Share the power.
-Some problems that come between Youth and Adults are:
--the youth experiencing Tokenism (feeling as though they are only being included because they are youth)
--a lack of clear roles
--assigning youth only tasks that adults don't want to do
-Suggestions to combat these problems
--Adults and youth must understand how to communicate
--value what youth and adults bring and hold everyone accountable
--include room for growth
--remember that youth have other priorities and interests
--VALUE the youth
--budget incentives like food, transportation (bus tokens) to advocate for youth involvement

Barriers from the you the youth perspective as presented by youths:
Boredom**
Assumptions
Fear of a lack or respect, lack of understanding, lack of feeling safe, being told what to do...
Ageism
Power imbalance
Not respecting the way youth say things

Barriers from the adult perspective:
Youth are too spontaneous
Cultural stereotypes they may already have
Don't know how to talk to youth
Youth never show up
No common interests
Youth value their social lives above other things
Youth may not understand politics/funding
Disorganization

Things to remember:
Many adults have good intentions but might not have good experience in working with youth.
Use appropriate language, ask for clarification when needed
Say "no" when you have other commitments
Criticism doesn't mean condescension or that your contribution isn't important
Provide meaningful opportunities for participation
Be honest about expectations, make projects interesting

What the youth and adult outreach teams have done so far
One time events
Denver Pridefest outreach
Creating a smokefree youth area at pride
Drag show about smoking and tobacco cessation
Creating own your C (own your choice) stickers
Tobacco Free Queer Prom and outreach

Youth may know what will work and provide a really valuable perspective.
Continue to partner Youth and Adults and the results will be highly successful.

The LGBT Tobacco Control Network gave me a scholarship to travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend the 5th annual LGBTI Anti-Tobacco Summit. Although the summit was only one day everyone accomplished a ton of great networking and went to fantastic breakouts. I will blog about the two that I went to.