Grab a tissue

Timothy Kincaid

May 3rd, 2011

Google is running the following ad tonight during GLEE. You might want to take a moment to grab a tissue before you watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skPnJOZYdA&feature=player_embedded

paul canning

May 3rd, 2011

A tissue? Didn’t find anything arousing about it at all …

That was an ad for Chrome, piggybacking on Dan Savage. Can’t see where the tissue comes in …

Nick Thiwerspoon

May 3rd, 2011

I think it’s wonderful that a giant corporation like Google should use the Things Get Better Youtube campaign as the basis for an ad which encourages gay kids to be proud, to survive, and which also tells them that the homophobes and Christian-Fascists out there are wrong.

Once upon a time they wouldn’t have. But they did. They could have chosen to use something conventional and straight. But they didn’t. They’ve explicitly tied Google and Google Chrome to support for bullied gay kids. That will cost them. That cretin Santorum and his ilk, for example, will prolly never load Chrome on his laptop now. He’ll use Bing in future instead of Google.

Every time a major corporation shows an ad in prime time which includes ppl like us, unstereotyped, natural, human, the troglodytes have a bit of their homophobia, a bit of their ignorance and narrowness worn away. We come to appear normal and ordinary even to them.

Good on you, Google.

Lucrece

May 4th, 2011

The fact that Google was so generous is heartening. Dan Savage telling kids they should “tough it out” isn’t. The message should be for these kids to arm themselves with proper recourses to get these miserable pondscum to back the hell off them and crucify the institutions that were responsible for their protection but neglected to do so.

MKYLL

May 4th, 2011

I’m not putting the spot down, but what is so unique about it? Haven’t we seen these It Gets Better things before? What am I missing?

Eddie89

May 4th, 2011

@MKYLL: What’s unique about this “It Gets Better” advertisement by Google is that it aired during Tuesday night’s episode of GLEE on the FOX network.

Even if the anti-gay crusaders change their search engine of choice to Microsoft’s Bing, little do they know that Microsoft is a huge supporter of lgbt civil rights. http://www.queeried.com/10-pro-gay-companies-to-go-and-spend-all-your-money-with/

Bruce Garner

May 4th, 2011

Some of us get so jaded that we forget the importance of some of the more simple efforts to combat the evils of this world for LGBT young people. I’m proud of the fact that a major corporation is doing this. Perhaps, just perhaps, some of the homophobic and ignorant folks at FOX will actually see the world from a different perspective because of this. ANYTHING we can do to prevent the harrassment and suicide attempts teens endure is helpful. And as much as I really would like to teach them to take a baseball bat to the jerks who taunt them, that really will not resolve anything. I will not descend to their level…I may read a homophobe to filth, but I will do so with a smile that says “I have a functioning brain and clearly you do not!”

MattNYC

May 4th, 2011

Lucrece, are you endorsing Columbine solutions????

Jim Burroway

May 4th, 2011

Dan Savage telling kids they should “tough it out” isn’t.

What alternative is there for these kids other than to keep at it? Fold and die? Because that’s what too many of them are doing now because they don’t have any real-world examples where it does get better.

Jim Burroway

May 4th, 2011

Yeah, it’s a Google Chrome commercial. We know that because they flash the Chrome logo for about 5 seconds in the beginning and another 4 seconds at the end. The rest of the minute and a half is dedicated to message of encouragement to kids who are growing up battered and abused for their sexuality and gender identity. I’m counting about 81 seconds of pure encouragement on national TV.

Some may say that it’s an ad for Chrome, piggybacking on the It Gets Better campaign. The screentime and focus tells a completely different story. They have it exactly backwards. For the life of me, I cannot understand how some people can dismiss this.

Regan DuCasse

May 4th, 2011

I have to say, that including WOODY was a touch of class.
I can’t criticize anything about what Dan Savage STARTED. He started it out of compassion, from frustration, from anger and hurt…as what we ALL here have been feeling for the loss of all these young people.
He did this to bring comfort, some sense of having others KNOWING and understanding the same.
And doing it through a medium that is open to MOST young people, gay or not.
This was one of the better ways of engaging the social network, when even THAT has been used to bully and harm others.

Sometimes the Net is the only refuge for some at risk kids. Believe me, years ago, the web was full of young people devastated, afraid and angry and in pain at the murder of Matt Shepard. Matt’s mother Judy started a web meeting and comment site called “Matthew’s Place.”

And some of those kids who contacted the site, and who I promised Judy I would write to each and every one, are now successful and wonderful young adults. Most of whom have come to visit ME personally and still do, or who had an opportunity, through me, to meet Judy herself.

So what Dan is doing, is at least TRYING to save lives and he got some very influential people to join in, even POTUS.

Sometimes, and I (and I know you do too) know from personal experience, a lifeline to a friend, support, anything that will help you see another day and a whole future, is a click away.

It might not be perfect, but compared to what the opposition is doing, it’s not much short of angelic in intent and purpose.

Timothy Kincaid

May 4th, 2011

Why is this important? Why is it not just oh another commercial?

Because while we have seen dozens and dozens of It Gets Better videos, many kids haven’t. Because it’s one thing for me to say it get’s better and something entirely else for Google to say so. Because it’s a giant middle finger to the anti-gay activists at AFA who accuse businesses of “taking sides” if they even so much as smile at a gay customer. Because this commercial – this very commercial – will bring hope to some kid out there who feels very very alone.

And because Google’s prime time commercial on one of the most popular television shows for teens takes the messages across the threshold and into the living rooms of those who actively seek to harm us and speaks directly to their families. Because Michelle Bachman’s kids watch GLEE.

Sean Santos

May 4th, 2011

It bears repeating that not everyone is exposed to the same messages. A TV ad is going to reach a different audience than Savage’s column, or a bunch of gay blogs. Although I do have to admit that it’s a bit late (not only have such a variety of famous people already done these videos, but I also suspect that people who are watching Glee are predisposed to have already heard of the It Gets Better project).

And Lucrese, I know that “Tough it out” is not the ideal advice, but there are a lot of 14-year-olds who aren’t emotionally, mentally, or socially equipped to start a personal crusade against oppression. In fact, those are precisely the people that these messages are trying to reach, the young people who not only feel too overwhelmed to fight back, but are being driven into self-destructive behavior.

Back to the ad: I think it’s important in that it’s a completely unapologetic message from a corporation which (for better or for worse) is something of a cultural institution, and not just a tech company.

People expect pro-gay messages from certain groups (for example, the sort of people who are involved in writing Glee). They don’t expect it as often from private corporations, which would only tend to take such a stand if they believed that a pro-gay reputation will be a net gain for them.

Which is also an important thing to take note of here. There are a lot of companies which were known to be pro-gay within the liberal centers where they were headquartered, or in an unofficial way, or in matters related to their employees and recruiting. Taking such a stand nationally and as a matter of course is something rather different, and it’s increasingly common.

MKYLL

May 4th, 2011

Eddie 89 : Thanks.

Kate

May 5th, 2011

I think it’s a wonderfully subversive piece – on the surface, it shows how the Internet community responded to a crisis, how people took up the message and added their voices, how the connectivity and media choices made the message multi-dimensional, and yes, how you could use Google Chrome to search out these things…it also showed people who might not have known about It Gets Better that this message is out there, and where to get more information. For viewers who may have been sheltered from the information we take for granted, by ignorance or by interference from family and community, this could be a lifeline. Bravo, Google!

Priya Lynn

May 5th, 2011

Paul said “That was an ad for Chrome, piggybacking on Dan Savage.”.

I didn’t notice anything referring to Google Chrome, all I saw was the “It gets better” message.

Paul J. Stein

May 5th, 2011

I can’t be the only one who gets the impression that the FOX network is Bi-Polar. The news end would like to see gay strictly in the background of the service industry making everything elegant and tasteful. the entertainment end is like a branch of the family with a closet jock and drag queen mated to a volleyball coach lipstick lesbian breeding a pack of off the wall kids. Which is not a bad thing at all!

Jarred

May 5th, 2011

I’m certainly not going to criticize Dan Savage for trying to do something to encourage gay kids. At the same time, however, I do think that promising a kid that it’ll get better eventually may not be much encouragement or help when said kid is at their wit’s end right now. I am thankful that there are organizations (and I grant you that I wouldn’t be surprised that Savage supports them as well) that struggle to get gay kids the help they need right now. I’m glad that new GSA’s and gay youth centers are being established all the time. Because in the end, I think that “it’ll get better, and here’s where you can go to get help in the meantime” is better than “hang in there, it’ll get better eventually.”

As for Google using clips from the campaign in its ad, that’s just awesome any way you slice it.

Timothy Kincaid

May 5th, 2011

Jarred,

Savage’s “It Gets Better” campaign is designed in coordination with the Trevor Project, a nationwide suicide help-line for gay kids.

Timothy (TRiG)

May 7th, 2011

Yes, Google is a commercial organisation. They produced this ad because they thought it would help the bottom line. So that means that we now live in a world where supporting lost and lonely gay or questioning kids helps the bottom line. That’s a nice thought, isn’t it?

TRiG.

Elias

May 10th, 2011

I was wondering why only gay views are posted and then I realized this is a gay site. Does this site filter out comments against the commercial?

Timothy Kincaid

May 11th, 2011

Elias,

We do not filter out comments based on opinion. We do, however, filter out hate speech and attacks on communities.

So a comment such as

“I think that homosexuality is bad for society and that this commercial furthers a social ill”

would be allowed, while something like

“Bunch of fags!! You deserve to be bullied”

would not be allowed.

(And, by the way, we also do not allow hate speech towards Republicans, Christians or any other demographic.)

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