Luxury automaker Lexus and its six-year-old YouTube channel, L/Studio, have kicked off the second season of “It Got Better”. The video series features LGBT celebrities talking about their personal experiences of coming to terms with their sexual orientation and gender identity. It’s produced in partnership with Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky’s Is Or Isn’t Entertainment and Dan Savage and his It Gets Better Project.
The first season of “It Got Better” debuted around this time last year, and it featured starts like Jane Lynch, Jason Collins, Tegan and Sara, Laverne Cox, George Takei, and America’s favorite stern taskmaster, Tim Gunn. The second season kicks off with a clip from comedian/actress Rosie O’Donnell, who’ll be followed by actors Portia de Rossi, Andrew Rannells, and RuPaul; author/journalist Janet Mock; and interior designer/TV personality Nate Berkus.
You might be tempted to ask, “What in the name of all that is good and holy does any of this have to do with cars, much less Lexus?” It’s a fair question.
This is what’s called “lifestyle marketing”. It’s not meant to be a hard sell, it’s not intended to get you to run out and buy a particular car this very second. Instead, it’s supposed to show that the brand in question — in this case, Lexus — is on your side, that it “gets” you. That, in turn, is meant to make you think of the brand more positively so that you’ll consider it when purchasing your next ride or the one after that.
Is it marketing? Absolutely.
Does that make it a bad thing? Does that make it contrived or superficial or underhanded? Not at all. In fact, it’s kind of a compliment.
Not so long ago, automakers saw little need to market directly to the LGBT community. We weren’t as organized as we are now, we were harder to reach, and we were marginalized — literally, shoved to the margins of society. Now, we’re mainstream. We have our own media outlets, we have a long list of LGBT stars and allies, and except for far-right-wing websites and Fox News, we’re largely seen as the good guys.
And so, just as car companies have special marketing campaigns aimed at women and African Americans and Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans, they now have marketing campaigns aimed at us. This is one of them.
If that still icks you out, that’s fine. I completely understand. Some people just don’t like to be marketed to.
That said, I think you can enjoy the videos without knowing anything about the Lexus sponsorship. They’re great mini-documentaries featuring some very interesting people.