Allstate Releases Pro-Gay Ad Campaign for Pride Month

Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Allstate Insurance has released a new gay-inclusive ad campaign just in time for Pride Month, as part of a larger campaign that asks users to submit photos of themselves "showing affection out in public."

LGBT Weekly reports that the "Out Holding Hands" ad encourages members of the LGBT communities to share special and everyday moments out holding hands with their loved ones, to be posted on Allstate's website.

The ad features an animated short film that uses the metaphor of big hands as a stand-in for homosexuality. Huffington Post reports that the ad's animated protagonist is ostracized from his peers while doing sports and riding the subway because of his oversized hands.

In the end, however, he meets another big-handed dude, and the two fall in love. As the ad comes to a close, they are walking through the park, hand or hand. Or rather, giant hand in giant hand (no word yet as to what caused these animated gentlemens' hands to expand).

"Being visible should never leave you feeling vulnerable," reads the tagline at the end of the video, touting Allstate Insurance's slogan of "everyone deserves to be in good hands."

The video features Eli Lieb's single, "Safe in My Hands."

"It's a privilege to be working with Allstate on an issue close to my heart. We're collaborating to celebrate every kind of love, and encouraging people around the country to express it and share," Lieb told LGBT Weekly. "I wrote the song, 'Safe in My Hands,' to encapsulate the empowering feeling of being out and proud without reservation. I'm anxious to see the response to the film's powerful message."

The insurance leader follows companies like Levi's, which launched a gay Pride line of clothing this month, and Honey Maid, which came under fire from the conservative Christian right when it aired an ad featuring a family with two dads, and later put together another ad where HRC's iconic equality signs were replace with two graham crackers. Their Twitter and Instagram photo blast is similar to Lucky Charms' #LuckyToBe campaign.


by Winnie McCroy , EDGE Editor

Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Read These Next