Akala Mo Lang Wala Pero Meron

ABSTRACT

Estares, I.L. & Flores, J.N.S. (2015). Akala Mo Lang Wala Pero Meron: Exploring the strategies used in print ads in broadsheets in targeting the Filipino LGBTQ community, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

The show My Husband’s Lover expanded the mainstream knowledge on gender diversity. It garnered high ratings, which could have been an opportunity for advertisers to tap the potential of the pink market by publishing LGBTQ-targeted ads. However, there were no ads that explicitly did so during the time period. This study aims to find out if there were ads that implicitly targeted the LGBTQ consumers and if there were, what strategies did these advertisements use to target the community.

The researchers conducted visual analysis on advertisements that ran from June 10 to October 18, 2013 in the three major Filipino broadsheets, Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin. Focus group discussions and interviews were also conducted to see how readers deconstruct messages. The results of these three methods showed that although there were no ads that explicitly targeted the LGBTQ community, there were ads that used gay window advertising to subtly advertise through the following approaches: the use of celebrity icon to evoke response from reader by recognition, the portrayal of unconventional gender roles, character proximity, usage of text or copy, use of visual appearance of characters by portraying stereotypes and specific cultural knowledge, and the use of one or more of the above strategies.

Keywords: LGBTQ, advertisements, strategies, print media

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