When Subaru Came Out (Classic) - NPR

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How lesbians helped save Subaru : Planet Money In the early 90s, Subaru was struggling to stand out in a crowded automobile market. In their greatest time of need, they turned to an unlikely ally: lesbians | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

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When Subaru came out (Classic) June 29, 20226:40 PM ET

By

Mary Childs, photographed for NPR, 2 August 2022, in New York, NY. Photo by Mamadi Doumbouya for NPR.

Mary Childs

,

Noel King

,

Stacey Vanek Smith

When Subaru came out (Classic)

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Subaru Ad Enlarge this image Courtesy of John Nash Subaru Ad Courtesy of John Nash

Note: This episode originally aired in 2016.

In the early nineties, Subaru was in trouble. The cars were fine. They ran well enough. But sales had been slumping for years. Subaru was up against giants like Toyota and Nissan. And it was losing. It needed a way to stand out.

Subaru started by hiring a new ad agency, to figure out who was buying their cars. The ad firm went out to a hotspot for Subaru sales – Northampton, Massachusetts. A group of Subaru owners filed into a little room in a shopping mall to answer a few questions, and the researchers noticed something right away. All of them were women and many identified as lesbian.

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This wasn't a time of tolerance for LGBT Americans. It was the era of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In a few years, Bill Clinton would sign the Defense of Marriage Act, which barred same sex couples from being recognized as spouses. And yet, Subaru executives signed off on ads aimed at lesbian consumers. They did it in very precise, clever ways that became a template for many of the ad campaigns you see today... if you know how to look for it.

Music: "Good For Nothin" and "Evergreen High."

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