Two Marriage Equality Ads Premier on News 12 Tonight

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - Two television commercials advocating marriage equality will hit the air in New Jersey beginning tonight, Election Night, on News 12 New Jersey.  They are sponsored by Garden State Equality and Blue Jersey, the state's leading progressive blog.  The two commercials, each 30 seconds, are scheduled to run for at least two weeks.

Garden State Equality's commercial "Busy Family," which you can view now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ4hg3FqmCY, is a cinema verite-style portrait of a real-life same-sex couple at home with their two kids.  As the couple feeds their kids in a busy scene typical of any family, President Bush is seen on a television in their living room, delivering a speech to Congress about his belief that committed same-sex couples should be banned from marriage.

As the scene unfolds, so, too, does text on the screen:

"Mike and Jeff missed the president's speech on protecting the American family.  They were too busy being one.  Support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples."

"Mike" and "Jeff" are actually the producer of the commercial, Whitney Pillsbury, and his civil-union partner, John Clarke, with their own kids.  The spot takes place at the family's home in South Orange, New Jersey.

Pillsbury is creative director at the New York ad agency The Kaplan Thaler Group, www.KaplanThaler.com.  He is well known in the industry for his edgy, award winning advertising campaigns.

"I wanted to show just how normal - and American - a same-sex family is."  Pillsbury, his partner and their three children were featured in a New York Times article earlier this year on how civil unions are failing to provide equality for same-sex couples in New Jersey.

The writer of "Busy Family" is Steve Salinaro, associate creative director at The Kaplan Thaler Group.  His short films have been shown in festivals worldwide, including The New York Film Festival.

Steve remembers, "I approached Whitney to help make some posters for a marriage equality rally.  The posters then became the idea for the television commercial.  Hopefully it will lead to some weddings, too, maybe even mine."

Blue Jersey's commercial "Think Equal," which you can view now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ise-NLtw1jI, is produced by Jack Bohrer and Juan Melli for Blue Jersey, www.BlueJersey.com, the state's leading progressive blog.

"Think Equal" features two women friends, one of them married and the other one in a civil union, talking about what seems, at first, to be the similar rights they're each accorded under New Jersey law.

As the conversation continues, the civil-unioned woman points out that in the real world, her civil union isn't at all recognized as the equivalent of marriage.  The two friends then discover they don't have the same rights at all, symbolizing what hundreds of civil-unioned couples across New Jersey have experienced since the law took effect in February 2007.

In fact, dozens of newspapers across the state, many conducting independent investigations, have now run stories on the failure of New Jersey's civil unions law.

Garden State Equality has received 376 complaints from couples denied benefits or rights because their civil unions are not recognized as the equivalent of marriage.  And in the three hearings this fall of the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, nearly 100 couples and other witnesses testified over seven hours about the failure of New Jersey's civil union law.

Here is the text of Blue Jersey's commercial:

Married woman:  Hello, I'm married.

Civil-unioned woman:  And I'm civil union... nuh.. nized.

Married woman:  I have all the legal protections and rights of a marriage provided by the state constitution.

Civil-unioned woman:  I have those, too.

Married woman:  I have insurance and pension benefits.

Civil-unioned woman:  Me too.

Married woman:  Hospital visitation rights.  Just last week, my husband was in an accident.  I felt so much better when I got to see for myself that he was okay.

Civil-unioned woman:  The same thing happened to me.  I told the nurse that my civil union allows me visitation.  She wouldn't let me in, or tell me what happened.

Married woman:  Really?

Civil-unioned woman:  Really.

Married woman:  You should upgrade to a marriage.

Civil-unioned woman:  I think so.

Text on screen:  Think Equal.

"Everyone at Blue Jersey pitched in to make this commercial possible," said Jack Bohrer, the commercial's coproducer, "whether it was helping to raise the money, finding props or generating support by blogging about marriage equality."

Juan Melli, the founder of Blue Jersey and the commercial's other coproducer, said:  "'Think Equal' highlights the undeniable truth that words do matter. Until all committed couples are given the right of marriage, the confusing semantics of civil unions will serve to deny the LGBT community basic civil rights.  The progressive community has never accepted 'separate and unequal,' and we're not about to start now."

Though "Think Equal" has not aired on television before, Blue Jersey produced it for the web in the fall 2006, right after the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the legislature to pass either a civil union law or a real marriage equality law.

Interestingly, the failure of the civil union law this year - since the production of this commercial last year - would require a script even more pessimistic today about the law's ability to provide the rights and benefits of marriage. 

As hundreds of civil-unioned couples in New Jersey have lived through in 2007, the civil-unioned woman in this commercial might not be able to say "me too" as to receiving insurance and pension benefits today.