Banana Republic ad which ran in the third issue of Out.
MichaelGoff: ACT UP’s messages, among others, were starting to resonate. Clinton had said he’d end the ban on gays serving in the military, and Banana Republic, which was owned by the Gap, started running these ads, one of which featured two guys. It was like the sky was falling. Banana came into our third issue with that campaign, which made all the rest happen. Absolut had been in the gay market for a year, but that wasn’t news. Benetton was considered very weird as an advertiser -- this was at the moment they ran the ad with a guy dying of AIDS and looking like Jesus -- but Banana Republic was blue chip.
Read the full oral history here.
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