We Have Something Special in Common: A PFLAG Campaign That Never Ran

Happy Pride month. A time for reflection back and strength forward.

Going through ads from early in my career, I stumbled across this campaign concept for PFLAG (Parents of Friends of Lesbians and Gays) of Northern New Jersey from 1998. Since I had come out as gay in 1992, my parents were active members in this suburban chapter.

My parents initially attended meetings to get support, and consistent with their characters, shifted within years becoming support to others. In fact, for a decade, they hosted the PFLAG NJ telephone hotline. If your kid came out at Thanksgiving and you reached out for help, you dialed a number and you got my mom. After Brian and I met, we were guests at a chapter meeting speaking about what it was like to build a same-sex relationship in these times. For the potluck that day, Mom made a pride-themed Jell-O mold. It was a marvel.

No one asked me to create an advertising campaign to promote the group; I think I just wanted to to lend my emerging skills as a young ad copywriter to what I though was a beautiful organization doing important work that changed the lives of many including those in my family.

The marketing objective was simple: Get parents going through this ordeal to reach for the phone. Get them to show up on a Sunday at the meeting spot in South Orange for coffee, conversation and support. “Get butts in seats,” as we say in direct marketing.

“We have something special in common,” the campaign line, is all about heart and head - i.e., commiserating with the reality of what is felt and heard, but matching it with both the reality and a sense of optimism that one can do something about it.

With these layouts (horrible design, apologies to art directors), I also found my research: articles about teen suicide by gay teens which, combined with what I saw from my experience and friends, I apparently had based the campaign on.

Feeling alone isn’t just for the LGBTQIA+ folx. It can also be felt by those around them. PFLAG National you should know if you don't is the largest U.S. organization to take on this education and this support.

Here is a few ads from a campaign that never ran:

Looking back at the batch of ads I mocked up on an early Macintosh computer in 1998, it strikes me that they are very male-focused and lack a lesbian or trans point of view in the series. Something to rectify (in addition to the crappy design).

There were a few other headlines not yet put into layout that I liked: “The best actors don’t all live in Los Angeles.”

This month, please remember to support your local PFLAG chapter or the national group. And if you need help, reach out.