In AdWeek article ‘How Banana Republic Moved From Skinny Models to Gay Guys,’ Robert Klara reflects on Banana Republic’s advertising history. Here are our highlights:
Banana Republic has proven itself adept at something else: keeping its casually classic persona intact even as it adjusts its marketing to reflect the wider world. In this case, that adjustment is as dramatic as the pace of social change itself. Banana Republic has long enjoyed the patronage of gay men, and a few months ago, it finally put them in its advertising.
Such a move would have been unthinkable two decades ago when this 1992 ad typified the mood of midscale fashion: black and white, mildly abstract, reassuringly heterosexual. “Twenty-one years ago, no major brand ran gay ads in general market magazines where ‘straight eyes’ could catch a glimpse,” said Thomas Roth, president of San Francisco-based Community Marketing & Insights.
