“For Your Consideration”

Abstract

Massive campaigns are annually launched by Hollywood studios to persuade film awards bodies to vote for their films, with success resulting in publicity, prestige, and potentially millions more in product revenues. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the media were supposedly progressing in their portrayal of LGBT storylines. As the Academy Awards body is composed of mostly older, white men who are, or were, the major players in the film industry, critically and historically analyzing the print advertisement campaigns that targeted these persons gives us telling indications of these culture creators' views toward LGBT content. This study found that, over sixteen years, film award campaign ads continually avoided queer imagery while promoting heteronormative themes, even in queer films. This counters a notion of progress during this era within this elite group while complementing psychological, political, and mass communication research analyzing how normative voters respond to queer content in advertisements.