Google, Allstate and American Airlines
are among the 15 companies being honored by the Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for their gay-inclusive
advertising campaigns.
GLAAD announced the winner of its
Amplifier Awards on Friday. Winners will be recognized at an October
4 event at The Altman Building in New York City.
Insurance giant Allstate will receive
the group's Corporate Responsibility Award and marketing group Bob
Witeck & Wesley Combs will receive its Public Visibility Award at
the event.
“The advertising industry is still
behind news and entertainment media in terms of including images that
reflect the diversity of LGBT people,” said GLAAD Acting President
Mike Thompson. “By highlighting the great work of all of our award
recipients with an Amplifier Award, we hope their corporate peers
will begin including our community in ads which accurately reflect
the fabric of American culture today.”
Google's television ad for Chrome –
The Web is What You Make of It: It Gets Better Project – won
in the Outstanding TV Campaign – Mainstream Market category. The
television ad debuted in May on the Fox musical-comedy Glee.
The video ad touts the search giant's browser Chrome, which is used
as a vehicle to highlight videos uploaded to gay activist Dan
Savage's It Gets Better Project. (The ad is embedded in the right
panel of this page.)
American Airlines' Beach Towel
ads won in the Outstanding Outdoor Campaign category. In the print
ads, a same-sex couple is seen on the beach with the headline “Here's
to hers and hers beach towels” or “Here's to his and his beach
towels.”
Also
winning are Absolut Vodka, Expedia, GE, Kaiser Permanente,
MetLife, Wells Fargo, Rokk Vodka, Allstate, Desert AIDS Project, NYC
Administration for Children's Services, Gay Men's Health Crisis
(GMHC), and the Hispanic Federation & The NY AIDS Institute.