Dining Room (advertisement)
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox advertising
| name = Dining Room
| image = Dining Room commercial.png
| image_size =
| thumbtime =
| upright =
| caption = Scott Blakeman (left) and John Sloman (right) playing Mitch and Steve in the commercial, respectively.
| agency = Deutsch Inc.
| client = IKEA
| market =
| language = English
| media =
| runtime = 30 seconds
| product =
| released = March 30, 1994
| slogan =
| writer =
| director = Patrick O'Neill
| music =
| starring = John Sloman
Scott Blakeman
| production company =
| producer =
| country = United States
| budget =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
| website =
}}
Dining Room (also known as Dining Room Table) was a television commercial made by the Deutsch Inc. advertising agency for IKEA in 1994. It is considered the first television advertisement broadcast in the United States that openly presented a gay couple.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ll-xBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA17 |title=Homo Economics: Capitalism, Community, and Lesbian and Gay Life |author=Amy Gluckman, Betsy Reed |accessdate=August 24, 2022 |page=17 |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136045103 }}{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9GMEAAAAMBAJ |title=Ikea's gay gamble |work=The Advocate |date=May 3, 1994 |accessdate=August 24, 2022 |author=Gallagher, John |pages=24–27 }}
Background
In June 1992, a Kmart commercial had been broadcast in the United States—on the occasion of Father's Day—in which a romantic relationship between two men was suggested. However, the company denied such a situation and pointed out that said characters had already appeared in previous commercials with their respective wives. In the commercial, two men were shown buying a chainsaw, one of them taking the other by the shoulder as they walked away from the camera shot.{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA24 |title=Normally gay |author=Kanner, Bernice |work=New York |date=April 4, 1994 |accessdate=August 24, 2022 |page=24 }}{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/BAR_19920625/page/n31/mode/2up |title=Gay K Mart TV Ad? |website=Bay Area Reporter |date=June 25, 1992 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 |author=Conley, Hollie }}
The first television commercial to explicitly show same-sex couples (both gay and lesbian) was broadcast in the Netherlands in 1992 for the insurer AMEV.{{cite web |url=https://www.bright.partners/pinkwashing-2/ |title=Pinkwashing |work=BrightPartners |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }} The following year, an advertisement made by Lars von Trier for the Danish newspaper Politiken showed the first gay kiss in a television commercial.{{cite web |url=http://www.adrespect.org/common/adlibrary/adlibrarydetails.cfm?QID=667&clientID=11064&ThisPage=Adlibrary |title=Politiken |website=AdRespect |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }}{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/l-g-b-t-advertising-chasing-the-pink-dollar-1.2801850 |title=L.G.B.T. Advertising: Chasing The Pink Dollar |website=CBC |date=June 2, 2012 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }}
Production
Made by the advertising agency Deutsch Inc. and with Patrick O'Neill as art director,{{cite web |url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/46857-ikeas-history-making-lgbt-friendly-dining-room-ad-looking-back-20-years-later |title=This Was the Very First LGBT-Friendly Ad |author=Peters, Lucia |date=October 30, 2014 |accessdate=September 26, 2022 |website=Bustle }} the ad featured two actors (John Sloman—who is also openly gay—and Scott Blakeman){{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A2QEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78 |title=Shopping outing |website=The Advocate |date=May 17, 1994 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 |page=78 }}{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5WMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA787 |title=Television: Small sacrifices |website=The Advocate |date=January 24, 1995 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }} playing respectively Steve and Mitch, a gay couple who had been together for around 3 years, and presented the search in an IKEA store for a new table for the dining room of their house.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/03/opinion/journal-gay-shopping-spree.html |title=Gay Shopping Spree |author=Rich, Frank |website=The New York Times |date=April 3, 1994 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }} In addition to the search for the table, the characters talk about how they met and their future plans.{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/BAR_19940407/page/n13/mode/2up |title=Ikea Breaks Ground With Gay TV Couple in Ad |work=Bay Area Reporter |author=Ocamb, Karen |date=April 7, 1994 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 }}
The commercial first aired on March 30, 1994, on local television stations in New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. at night, being also planned to be broadcast in Los Angeles.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/29/business/the-media-business-advertising-addenda-ikea-ads-feature-gay-customers.html |title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING – ADDENDA; Ikea Ads Feature Gay Customers |website=The New York Times |date=March 29, 1994 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 |author=Elliott, Stuart }} The ad was part of a series of IKEA commercials in which different types of families and their members were presented; some of them featured, for example, a divorced mother and a heterosexual couple with an adopted child.
Reception
IKEA received more than 3,000 phone calls about the commercial, of which 307 contained negative opinions, and the company received free publicity, since CNN, for example, showed the commercial 38 times in its news blocks when covering the reactions to its broadcast.{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4189088 |title=The Effect of Consumer Prejudices on Ad Processing: Heterosexual Consumers' Responses to Homosexual Imagery in Ads |author=Subodh Bhat, Thomas W. Leigh, Daniel L. Wardlow |journal=Journal of Advertising |date=1998 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=9–28 |accessdate=September 26, 2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis, Ltd. |doi=10.1080/00913367.1998.10673566 |jstor=4189088 }} Stuart Elliott, an advertising columnist for The New York Times, noted that IKEA's ad sought to get the brand the "Gay Housekeeping Seal of Approval". Scott Sherman, a member of the New York Communications and Advertising Network, noted favorable reviews for the commercial.{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/03/29/Ikea-to-air-commercial-featuring-gay-couple/4523764917200/ |title=Ikea to air commercial featuring gay couple |date=March 29, 1994 |accessdate=September 25, 2022 |website=UPI }}
The broadcast of the IKEA commercial generated protests from conservative and Catholic groups; some of the store's branches on the west coast of the United States had their phone lines inundated by protesters expressing their anger at the announcement. A store in Hicksville, New York, received a bomb threat, which was ruled out after the evacuation of the premises. Despite protests from these groups, IKEA continued its campaign in the weeks that followed, refraining from withdrawing its TV ad.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-05-fi-42403-story.html |title=TV Commercial Featuring Gay Couple Creates a Madison Avenue Uproar |website=Los Angeles Times |date=April 5, 1994 |accessdate=September 24, 2022 |author=Horovitz, Bruce }}
References
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External links
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf9eLYIwqkE Dining Room commercial] on YouTube
Category:1990s television commercials
Category:American television commercials
Category:LGBTQ-related television commercials