August 4, 2025 • 18 mins
The brand Subaru has a well-known reputation as being for Lesbians. This was part of a purposeful marketing decision, backed with actual support. We go off-road to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to stuff. I never told your production by heartdio.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, if you haven't heard.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I recently bought a new car, right Annie, My Lantra
was one of the many that had the recall and
had to get a new engine.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It stalled out.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It was a whole thing and the way the government
has been doing this thing and all the tariffs, which,
by the way, I just saw reports saying that Ford
went in the hole because all the terriffs took out
all the profits, even though Ford is supposed to be,
you know, locally a local car car dealership where they
supposed to build here in the US, but they.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Get all their materials outside of the US.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
And apparently again the administration has tax the hell out
of steel and all the such for the car industry
is bombed. So whatever it's supposed to be helping is
not helping. But with that, because of that, I actually
got into a really anxious mode in trying to buy
a car, because I could if you don't know Atlanta well,
and especially if you're not living in a nice area,
(01:21):
which is fairly expensive to do. As again, I've also
bought a house. Walking is not a thing. Transit is
not really a thing. So it is a very heavily
relied upon cars. And we do well because in our
household we only have one and we try to you know,
we've done well with that. But that's even a struggle, honestly,
(01:43):
because it is so heavily car pool slash, you know,
commuting all of the things that have happened. And when
I were to Dajja, I drove every day. It was
a whole thing thinking as we are now into like
working from home. So that's all good, but with that
meant I needed a car. I needed a reliable car.
I need to make sure that I got you know,
all these things. The interest rates are crazy, if y'all know,
(02:08):
you know, like his spike and his doesn't look like
it's going down. Whatever has happened after all of our
economy busting. Their solution, instead of helping people, they're like,
we're going to help corporations so they're able to keep
with this level of high interest and don't care about
selling anything because there care more about profits than anything else.
(02:30):
And to do so, they must go after the consumers,
as you know. So with that decided, okay, let me
buy a car.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I want to do it before all the tariffs have hit,
because I hadn't hit quite yet. We knew it was coming,
but no one was really been too anxious about it,
as in like raising prices as of yet unless you're
going to Toyota. Toyota gives no like they're like, people
want our car, We're going to hike up the prices.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I mean, we will never negotiate.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So with that I decide did that I would go
on this journey of the very like overwhelmingly over anxious
decision of purchasing a new car. And I will say,
as an awkward introvert who hates interacting with strangers, this
was a nightmare, a nightmare for me. Like y'all know,
(03:19):
my reaction is to get stressed and sleepy. I was
so sleepy all. I was so sleepy, and I hate
to admit it. But my partner, who is a man,
was way better at this than me. First of all,
he's not as he's anxious, but he's not much as
much of an introvert as I am. And even though
my soul felt like it was shriveling into oblivion as
(03:39):
they tried to negotiate, because we had desevered several dealerships,
including Toyota, BT dubs. I'm not being sponsored by any
of these companies, which we have like done a few
ads for some of these companies, but Subaru's not one
of them, which I feel like Suberu should be calling
me hello anyway. But all that to say is we've
through all the negotiations to the three for actual dealerships,
(04:02):
and y'all, I've been months in the making of looking
up and researching things. And if you know about it
and you go to a dealership, they expect you to
walk out with the car, so it's so stressful anyway.
You can't just shop around.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
It's a thing. I've watched videos, I had done all
the things.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So in the end, we finally decided on Superu, and
I will say it was pretty upfront and no hackle process.
There was still things that we did hackle about. But man,
I hated this whole thing, which is why I failed
for the high interest rate a long time ago. And
because of the process of Carvana, I loved it. I
didn't talk to anybody. They brought me the car. I
(04:39):
had tend like a week to like, you know, test driving.
If I wanted to take it back. But by the way, parently,
this company is not doing well. I think they've filed
bankruptcy a few times, and everybody was so sure that
they would like shut down, but they have it yet
they still have a little like like uh I see them,
you know, convey but like yeah, yeah, like it's like
a machine for cars.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Anyway. But with that long drawn out story, and shout.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Out to Demayer who was the one who helped us throughout,
and he did.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
He was just very upfronted, like this is this, this
is this is this.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And it was quite funny because we also talked about Tesla.
They so I feel like there's an opposite to Tesla.
It'd be super U in my mind. But anyway, apparently
it's Rivian according to the Electra car people.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
But what do I know. Again, these are sponsors, so
please don't come after me.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
But with all that long drawn out backstory, of course,
with all of that, I immediately started getting Subaru content on
my FYP.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
It is a it's a community. So Jeep has a community.
Subaru has a community. They have Miata. I don't know
if you know about the Miyata.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
They have a.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Giant community like it. It's an interesting thing about cars.
They have very loyal communities, to the point so I immediately
started getting content about Subaru. Of course I was when
we were when I was first driving the car. Any
you had ridden with me more than my partner had
at one point, and you're like, as I should, as
it should be, and I was like, you are correct.
(06:08):
It should always be two women in the front, and
one of us should be bisexual and queer at the
very least, if not both. But but all that to say,
because of all of this, you know that it's not
a surprise. It definitely leans into the whole. You're most
likely a lesbian if you're driving this car, or and
or really outdoorsy.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I'm neither, but I am about a good brand, I
will say that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So again, with all of this, I learned that superu
is really for the gaze. When people say they're for
the gaze, it really is as they say, And it
was a purposeful marketing strategy. And I was like, you
know what I needed to say this. I need to
talk about this because in the time and frame of
everybody backing out of being inclusive, Yes, target, we're looking
(06:56):
at you and mini brands just capitalizing on a moment
instead of an actual cause. I thought it was interesting
to talk about this, and I know there are a
few other brands that maybe in that same months, but
I could not find many. Ikea, I think had gotten
some accolades in the early nineties because they did the
same thing, which is not too surprising.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
But I despise Ikea, not.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Because of the store, but because of the way it
sucks my soul as well. Like walking into an Ikea
feels like I'm being punished on the third level of hell,
you know what I mean. The only thing that redeems
it usually is a cinnamon roll, and every time I've gone,
they've run.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Out, So that place is cursed to me. Cursed.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
So talking about super specifically again not sponsored. Hello, I
need some cute things call me So I feel like
old producer of the show Andrew would also agree, because
he is a tub rud dude. He loves the Yes,
he loves this cross track. You and I talked about
it when I first bought it. Anyway, So here's a
bit from a twenty sixteen article from The Atlantic. Quote
(08:10):
in the nineteen nineties, Suberu's unique selling point was that
the company increasingly made all will drive standards on.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
All its cars.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
When the company's marketers went searching for people willing to
pay a premium for all will drive, that identified four
groups who were responsible for half of the company's American sales.
Teachers and educators, healthcare professionals, IT professionals, and outdoorsy types.
Then they discovered a fifth lesbians.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When we did the research, we found pockets of the
country like Northampton, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, where the head
of the household would be a single person and often
a woman, says Tim Bennett, who was the company's director
of advertising at the time. When marketers talked to these customers,
they realized these women buying suber Rus were lesbians. So, y'all,
this is a well earned rumor, this one of those things.
(09:02):
And they were like, wait, no, we really are for
the gays. And because they were smart, they went on
to focus on these five groups. They realized, let's let's
let's go to the loyals, the loyal ones, making ads
and commercials specifically targeting them. And even with the senior
managers they weren't who weren't completely on board at the time,
(09:23):
being more appealing to lesbians, like actually focusing the company
did it anyway. Even again, it was around the same
time as dontuts, Don't Tell, and that was kind of
the accepted idea, like don't put it in our faces,
which is.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Annoying, Like it's like, no one's putting it in your faces.
You're putting in your own face because you're taking anoy
with rights. But whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So it was during this time where everybody's like, yeah,
you can be gay, but just don't talk to us
about that. And again with that, the company understood that
if they were to be loud and using the lgbtquia
to sell their products, they needed to be able to
support the community within their organization. Uh and the Atlanta
continues with this. Superoo of America knew it had to
(10:06):
support its gays and lesbian employees if it wanted to
appeal to lesbian customers, so they scheduled a meeting with
a senior Japanese executive to make the case for domestic
partnership benefits. Again, so it's a Japanese company. All.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
If y'all didn't know, a lot of people kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Attributed to I think Australia because of the names of
the car, you.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Know, like outback, all that.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Well, that is all that because I went to bed
a dealership in Australia.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And my partner was like, wait, it's not it's Japanese.
He was confused for a second because I kind of
forgot even though it's associated with rugged outback like Australia.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, it's actually not, but anyway, Japanese company.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So Bennett and his colleagues had prepared to argue their
case at length, but the meeting lasted twenty seconds. The executive,
who had worked for super U in Canada already knew
about benefits for same sex couples. He said, yeah, that's fine,
we did that in Canada years ago. Anything else sus
been it. It was the easiest thing we did. So
they were ready. They were ready to back it. They
were already doing it in other countries. It made sense,
(11:08):
and I love that. I love that they actually was like, yeah,
we're gonna go forward with this without even like hesitation. Again,
you gotta love some of the niche as they had, so,
Caitlin R. Weiner wrote in her Medium article quote the
kind of ads that did end up being successful were
those that included subtle coded nods to lesbian culture. For example,
(11:29):
a few ads showed subarus with license plates that read
Xena Lover or LVR A not to Zena Warrior Princess
and Peetown a reference to Provincetown, Massachusetts, which to this
day is a popular gay vacation spot. Many ads had
taglines there that were double entendres, like get out and
stay out, a push for hikers in outdoor and outdoor exercisers,
(11:52):
you know with that, or a reference to coming out
of the closet.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Who's to say?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Another tagline was is not a choice, it's the way
we are built, referring to the car's construction with all
well drive, but not exclusively that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So again, we love zing A Warrior Princess.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Here.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
We've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
You still haven't watched it, have you?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
No? I haven't.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I thought about it though, because we've been discussing what
we're going to watch, you know, for movies, and we
were talking about maybe doing a show, and I was like,
we could do.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
We could do some good episodes. Yeah, I'll be down.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So the agency mul Ryan Nash, which actually specialized in
gay marketing, uh, they were part of this campaign they
were the ones that did this campaign, and they went
from like fully open to tongue in cheek with their
different ads. So they started out with like an obvious couple,
a lesbian couple, but that wasn't as well accepted as
these like niche ads. So they were like, Okay, you
(12:49):
know if this work works again And much like those
who love to decipher Taylor Swift tens Any, I'm looking
at you, the Subaru audiences.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Did the same.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
From the Atlantic article again, they say the delight among
niche audience groups in quote decoding the hints and zuero
as surprise the marketing team, and in the case of
its gay friendly ads, so did straight audience's ignorance. While
many gay and lesbian consumers love the shoutouts in the
license plates, straight people would only notice features like a
bike rack. Uh Poe, who helped come up with a
(13:21):
license plate's idea, says he held focus groups with straight
audiences where he showed ads featuring gay couples even after
an hour of talking about gay issues. They think a
man was shopping with his uncle.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Wow, wow?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And who how do they decide who's the uncle?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I guess he's one of them. Looked older. I
guess it's better than his uncle than not the father.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I don't know, but I do think it's funny that
they were like having like.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Like inside jokes about the straits. Essentially they're like, oh, yeah,
they don't get it. This is definitely for us.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Of course, some backlash did come about people who are
very upset writing in notes saying that they're never going
to buy the super Rues again, all these things, But
it turns out, much like today, most of the complaints
were from people who were never interested in buying a
suberru in the first place, or never even own one, like,
would not even consider it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So it was kind of one of those things where we.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
See people getting upset about things like I don't know,
going to gay clubs and be like, why does that
beget for gay people?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
You're like, you had a gay club? What are you
doing here? What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You know, Like it's kind of like that same thing again.
Suberu isn't the first company to create LGBTQIA centered ads,
but they were the first to openly proudly do so
and has continued to do so as well. And with that,
they offered things like the Rainbow card, which helped many
different causes, including giving millions of dollars to things like
(14:51):
HIV AIDS research and LGBTQIA centered causes. So they were
very specific in what they were doing. Even today, they
have options that you can donate through your purchase. They
have times and a lot of it, like I've seen
with helping animals and such. You know, again, and though
we know companies love to take to make money off
(15:11):
of marginalized communities, again, what Subaru did at the time
was a risk, and the fact that they have relatively
stayed loyal to the community is nice to see.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Like they have not back down.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
They continue to do so there's no backing of like,
oh no, we're not well, we're not for the gas,
like they proudly stand up that and they're cool with that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Of course, they're all.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Getto to stop saying helping with animals about the ecosystem.
And I say that like lightly because again they're still
automotive that builds new cars, so that doesn't help the
environment too much, and they don't have too many hybrid offerings.
They are doing more that I've seen, but I don't
think that's something they've done really well, we'll say, but
(15:54):
we'll see, you know, and if you're wondering, they do
have interesting accessories which I have not gone an into yet,
Like I haven't purchased any of them. But I do
lovingly call my car the super Woo.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
She does, and I'm half convinced that's at least a
part of the reason why you went with it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I did.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
When we were going at car shopping, I did note
several several other the things that I wanted were more affordable.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
With super Us.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I will say that, so I did get to have say,
but I want to supu Woo. And when we were
talking about looking at toyotas, I was like, but I
can't say super Woo.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was a little disappointing to think of that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
No one seems to appreciate that more than you and
my partner, So I appreciate that you appreciate me. But yeah,
so that's interesting. I will say again, this is not
necessarily endorsement. I've only had this car this year and
thus far I do love it. But I feel like
because I had such an older model of a car
that had a lot of issues, that anything was an upgrade.
So I'm not a car in person. So I don't
(16:56):
know what to tell you. Then, Yes, I do love
mine currently, but I'll I'll come back to me in
five years tell me.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I'll tell you if it's lasted.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So, but I did find this the research interesting, and
I do hope I can find more companies that have
actually done well for communities like the queer communities, marginalized
people in general. You don't see too many. So even
though I'm not like EA capitalism, at least those who
have good practices are good to see.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Yeah, and I think it paid off for them, and
that's a lesson which other companies would learn. Because it's
funny that I never knew about all this ad campaign
or anything, but I still knew it was associated with lesbians.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And they they have a loyal fan base.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
They like you said, they have people that are in
part because of this, like that is my car company.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
They support me, I support them. I think that's worth
a lot. A win's a win, it is.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, thanks for bringing this story.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
I don't know about this. It's very interesting to us,
Samantha H.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Listeners.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
If you have any thoughts about this, please write in
and let us know. You can email us at hello
at stuff Onnever Told You dot com. You can find
us on Blue Sky at Mom's of podcast, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You. We're
also on YouTube and we have a book you can
get wherever you get your books.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Thanks as ays to.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
A super producer, Christenior executive producer My and your contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I
Never Told You is prediction by heart Radio.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcast wherever you listen
to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to stuff. I never told your production by heartdio.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, if you haven't heard.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
I recently bought a new car, right Annie, My Lantra
was one of the many that had the recall and
had to get a new engine.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It stalled out.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It was a whole thing and the way the government
has been doing this thing and all the tariffs, which,
by the way, I just saw reports saying that Ford
went in the hole because all the terriffs took out
all the profits, even though Ford is supposed to be,
you know, locally a local car car dealership where they
supposed to build here in the US, but they.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Get all their materials outside of the US.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
And apparently again the administration has tax the hell out
of steel and all the such for the car industry
is bombed. So whatever it's supposed to be helping is
not helping. But with that, because of that, I actually
got into a really anxious mode in trying to buy
a car, because I could if you don't know Atlanta well,
and especially if you're not living in a nice area,
(01:21):
which is fairly expensive to do. As again, I've also
bought a house. Walking is not a thing. Transit is
not really a thing. So it is a very heavily
relied upon cars. And we do well because in our
household we only have one and we try to you know,
we've done well with that. But that's even a struggle, honestly,
(01:43):
because it is so heavily car pool slash, you know,
commuting all of the things that have happened. And when
I were to Dajja, I drove every day. It was
a whole thing thinking as we are now into like
working from home. So that's all good, but with that
meant I needed a car. I needed a reliable car.
I need to make sure that I got you know,
all these things. The interest rates are crazy, if y'all know,
(02:08):
you know, like his spike and his doesn't look like
it's going down. Whatever has happened after all of our
economy busting. Their solution, instead of helping people, they're like,
we're going to help corporations so they're able to keep
with this level of high interest and don't care about
selling anything because there care more about profits than anything else.
(02:30):
And to do so, they must go after the consumers,
as you know. So with that decided, okay, let me
buy a car.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I want to.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
I want to do it before all the tariffs have hit,
because I hadn't hit quite yet. We knew it was coming,
but no one was really been too anxious about it,
as in like raising prices as of yet unless you're
going to Toyota. Toyota gives no like they're like, people
want our car, We're going to hike up the prices.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I mean, we will never negotiate.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So with that I decide did that I would go
on this journey of the very like overwhelmingly over anxious
decision of purchasing a new car. And I will say,
as an awkward introvert who hates interacting with strangers, this
was a nightmare, a nightmare for me. Like y'all know,
(03:19):
my reaction is to get stressed and sleepy. I was
so sleepy all. I was so sleepy, and I hate
to admit it. But my partner, who is a man,
was way better at this than me. First of all,
he's not as he's anxious, but he's not much as
much of an introvert as I am. And even though
my soul felt like it was shriveling into oblivion as
(03:39):
they tried to negotiate, because we had desevered several dealerships,
including Toyota, BT dubs. I'm not being sponsored by any
of these companies, which we have like done a few
ads for some of these companies, but Subaru's not one
of them, which I feel like Suberu should be calling
me hello anyway. But all that to say is we've
through all the negotiations to the three for actual dealerships,
(04:02):
and y'all, I've been months in the making of looking
up and researching things. And if you know about it
and you go to a dealership, they expect you to
walk out with the car, so it's so stressful anyway.
You can't just shop around.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
It's a thing. I've watched videos, I had done all
the things.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So in the end, we finally decided on Superu, and
I will say it was pretty upfront and no hackle process.
There was still things that we did hackle about. But man,
I hated this whole thing, which is why I failed
for the high interest rate a long time ago. And
because of the process of Carvana, I loved it. I
didn't talk to anybody. They brought me the car. I
(04:39):
had tend like a week to like, you know, test driving.
If I wanted to take it back. But by the way, parently,
this company is not doing well. I think they've filed
bankruptcy a few times, and everybody was so sure that
they would like shut down, but they have it yet
they still have a little like like uh I see them,
you know, convey but like yeah, yeah, like it's like
a machine for cars.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Anyway. But with that long drawn out story, and shout.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Out to Demayer who was the one who helped us throughout,
and he did.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
He was just very upfronted, like this is this, this
is this is this.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
And it was quite funny because we also talked about Tesla.
They so I feel like there's an opposite to Tesla.
It'd be super U in my mind. But anyway, apparently
it's Rivian according to the Electra car people.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
But what do I know. Again, these are sponsors, so
please don't come after me.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
But with all that long drawn out backstory, of course,
with all of that, I immediately started getting Subaru content on
my FYP.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Y'all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
It is a it's a community. So Jeep has a community.
Subaru has a community. They have Miata. I don't know
if you know about the Miyata.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
They have a.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Giant community like it. It's an interesting thing about cars.
They have very loyal communities, to the point so I immediately
started getting content about Subaru. Of course I was when
we were when I was first driving the car. Any
you had ridden with me more than my partner had
at one point, and you're like, as I should, as
it should be, and I was like, you are correct.
(06:08):
It should always be two women in the front, and
one of us should be bisexual and queer at the
very least, if not both. But but all that to say,
because of all of this, you know that it's not
a surprise. It definitely leans into the whole. You're most
likely a lesbian if you're driving this car, or and
or really outdoorsy.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I'm neither, but I am about a good brand, I
will say that.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
So again, with all of this, I learned that superu
is really for the gaze. When people say they're for
the gaze, it really is as they say, And it
was a purposeful marketing strategy. And I was like, you
know what I needed to say this. I need to
talk about this because in the time and frame of
everybody backing out of being inclusive, Yes, target, we're looking
(06:56):
at you and mini brands just capitalizing on a moment
instead of an actual cause. I thought it was interesting
to talk about this, and I know there are a
few other brands that maybe in that same months, but
I could not find many. Ikea, I think had gotten
some accolades in the early nineties because they did the
same thing, which is not too surprising.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
But I despise Ikea, not.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Because of the store, but because of the way it
sucks my soul as well. Like walking into an Ikea
feels like I'm being punished on the third level of hell,
you know what I mean. The only thing that redeems
it usually is a cinnamon roll, and every time I've gone,
they've run.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Out, So that place is cursed to me. Cursed.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
So talking about super specifically again not sponsored. Hello, I
need some cute things call me So I feel like
old producer of the show Andrew would also agree, because
he is a tub rud dude. He loves the Yes,
he loves this cross track. You and I talked about
it when I first bought it. Anyway, So here's a
bit from a twenty sixteen article from The Atlantic. Quote
(08:10):
in the nineteen nineties, Suberu's unique selling point was that
the company increasingly made all will drive standards on.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
All its cars.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
When the company's marketers went searching for people willing to
pay a premium for all will drive, that identified four
groups who were responsible for half of the company's American sales.
Teachers and educators, healthcare professionals, IT professionals, and outdoorsy types.
Then they discovered a fifth lesbians.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Quote.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
When we did the research, we found pockets of the
country like Northampton, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, where the head
of the household would be a single person and often
a woman, says Tim Bennett, who was the company's director
of advertising at the time. When marketers talked to these customers,
they realized these women buying suber Rus were lesbians. So, y'all,
this is a well earned rumor, this one of those things.
(09:02):
And they were like, wait, no, we really are for
the gays. And because they were smart, they went on
to focus on these five groups. They realized, let's let's
let's go to the loyals, the loyal ones, making ads
and commercials specifically targeting them. And even with the senior
managers they weren't who weren't completely on board at the time,
(09:23):
being more appealing to lesbians, like actually focusing the company
did it anyway. Even again, it was around the same
time as dontuts, Don't Tell, and that was kind of
the accepted idea, like don't put it in our faces,
which is.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Annoying, Like it's like, no one's putting it in your faces.
You're putting in your own face because you're taking anoy
with rights. But whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
So it was during this time where everybody's like, yeah,
you can be gay, but just don't talk to us
about that. And again with that, the company understood that
if they were to be loud and using the lgbtquia
to sell their products, they needed to be able to
support the community within their organization. Uh and the Atlanta
continues with this. Superoo of America knew it had to
(10:06):
support its gays and lesbian employees if it wanted to
appeal to lesbian customers, so they scheduled a meeting with
a senior Japanese executive to make the case for domestic
partnership benefits. Again, so it's a Japanese company. All.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
If y'all didn't know, a lot of people kind of.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Attributed to I think Australia because of the names of
the car, you.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Know, like outback, all that.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Well, that is all that because I went to bed
a dealership in Australia.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And my partner was like, wait, it's not it's Japanese.
He was confused for a second because I kind of
forgot even though it's associated with rugged outback like Australia.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, it's actually not, but anyway, Japanese company.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
So Bennett and his colleagues had prepared to argue their
case at length, but the meeting lasted twenty seconds. The executive,
who had worked for super U in Canada already knew
about benefits for same sex couples. He said, yeah, that's fine,
we did that in Canada years ago. Anything else sus
been it. It was the easiest thing we did. So
they were ready. They were ready to back it. They
were already doing it in other countries. It made sense,
(11:08):
and I love that. I love that they actually was like, yeah,
we're gonna go forward with this without even like hesitation. Again,
you gotta love some of the niche as they had, so,
Caitlin R. Weiner wrote in her Medium article quote the
kind of ads that did end up being successful were
those that included subtle coded nods to lesbian culture. For example,
(11:29):
a few ads showed subarus with license plates that read
Xena Lover or LVR A not to Zena Warrior Princess
and Peetown a reference to Provincetown, Massachusetts, which to this
day is a popular gay vacation spot. Many ads had
taglines there that were double entendres, like get out and
stay out, a push for hikers in outdoor and outdoor exercisers,
(11:52):
you know with that, or a reference to coming out
of the closet.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Who's to say?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Another tagline was is not a choice, it's the way
we are built, referring to the car's construction with all
well drive, but not exclusively that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So again, we love zing A Warrior Princess.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Here.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
We've talked about that.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
You still haven't watched it, have you?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
No? I haven't.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
I thought about it though, because we've been discussing what
we're going to watch, you know, for movies, and we
were talking about maybe doing a show, and I was like,
we could do.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
We could do some good episodes. Yeah, I'll be down.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So the agency mul Ryan Nash, which actually specialized in
gay marketing, uh, they were part of this campaign they
were the ones that did this campaign, and they went
from like fully open to tongue in cheek with their
different ads. So they started out with like an obvious couple,
a lesbian couple, but that wasn't as well accepted as
these like niche ads. So they were like, Okay, you
(12:49):
know if this work works again And much like those
who love to decipher Taylor Swift tens Any, I'm looking
at you, the Subaru audiences.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Did the same.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
From the Atlantic article again, they say the delight among
niche audience groups in quote decoding the hints and zuero
as surprise the marketing team, and in the case of
its gay friendly ads, so did straight audience's ignorance. While
many gay and lesbian consumers love the shoutouts in the
license plates, straight people would only notice features like a
bike rack. Uh Poe, who helped come up with a
(13:21):
license plate's idea, says he held focus groups with straight
audiences where he showed ads featuring gay couples even after
an hour of talking about gay issues. They think a
man was shopping with his uncle.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Wow, wow?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And who how do they decide who's the uncle?
Speaker 1 (13:41):
No, I guess he's one of them. Looked older. I
guess it's better than his uncle than not the father.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
I don't know, but I do think it's funny that
they were like having like.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Like inside jokes about the straits. Essentially they're like, oh, yeah,
they don't get it. This is definitely for us.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Of course, some backlash did come about people who are
very upset writing in notes saying that they're never going
to buy the super Rues again, all these things, But
it turns out, much like today, most of the complaints
were from people who were never interested in buying a
suberru in the first place, or never even own one, like,
would not even consider it.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
So it was kind of one of those things where we.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
See people getting upset about things like I don't know,
going to gay clubs and be like, why does that
beget for gay people?
Speaker 1 (14:23):
You're like, you had a gay club? What are you
doing here? What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (14:28):
You know, Like it's kind of like that same thing again.
Suberu isn't the first company to create LGBTQIA centered ads,
but they were the first to openly proudly do so
and has continued to do so as well. And with that,
they offered things like the Rainbow card, which helped many
different causes, including giving millions of dollars to things like
(14:51):
HIV AIDS research and LGBTQIA centered causes. So they were
very specific in what they were doing. Even today, they
have options that you can donate through your purchase. They
have times and a lot of it, like I've seen
with helping animals and such. You know, again, and though
we know companies love to take to make money off
(15:11):
of marginalized communities, again, what Subaru did at the time
was a risk, and the fact that they have relatively
stayed loyal to the community is nice to see.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Like they have not back down.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
They continue to do so there's no backing of like,
oh no, we're not well, we're not for the gas,
like they proudly stand up that and they're cool with that.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Of course, they're all.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Getto to stop saying helping with animals about the ecosystem.
And I say that like lightly because again they're still
automotive that builds new cars, so that doesn't help the
environment too much, and they don't have too many hybrid offerings.
They are doing more that I've seen, but I don't
think that's something they've done really well, we'll say, but
(15:54):
we'll see, you know, and if you're wondering, they do
have interesting accessories which I have not gone an into yet,
Like I haven't purchased any of them. But I do
lovingly call my car the super Woo.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
She does, and I'm half convinced that's at least a
part of the reason why you went with it.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I did.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
When we were going at car shopping, I did note
several several other the things that I wanted were more affordable.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
With super Us.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
I will say that, so I did get to have say,
but I want to supu Woo. And when we were
talking about looking at toyotas, I was like, but I
can't say super Woo.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
It was a little disappointing to think of that.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
No one seems to appreciate that more than you and
my partner, So I appreciate that you appreciate me. But yeah,
so that's interesting. I will say again, this is not
necessarily endorsement. I've only had this car this year and
thus far I do love it. But I feel like
because I had such an older model of a car
that had a lot of issues, that anything was an upgrade.
So I'm not a car in person. So I don't
(16:56):
know what to tell you. Then, Yes, I do love
mine currently, but I'll I'll come back to me in
five years tell me.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
I'll tell you if it's lasted.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So, but I did find this the research interesting, and
I do hope I can find more companies that have
actually done well for communities like the queer communities, marginalized
people in general. You don't see too many. So even
though I'm not like EA capitalism, at least those who
have good practices are good to see.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
Yeah, and I think it paid off for them, and
that's a lesson which other companies would learn. Because it's
funny that I never knew about all this ad campaign
or anything, but I still knew it was associated with lesbians.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
And they they have a loyal fan base.
Speaker 4 (17:44):
They like you said, they have people that are in
part because of this, like that is my car company.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
They support me, I support them. I think that's worth
a lot. A win's a win, it is.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
It is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Well, thanks for bringing this story.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
I don't know about this. It's very interesting to us,
Samantha H.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Listeners.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
If you have any thoughts about this, please write in
and let us know. You can email us at hello
at stuff Onnever Told You dot com. You can find
us on Blue Sky at Mom's of podcast, or on
Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You. We're
also on YouTube and we have a book you can
get wherever you get your books.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Thanks as ays to.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
A super producer, Christenior executive producer My and your contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stuff I
Never Told You is prediction by heart Radio.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcast wherever you listen
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