As marriage equality continues to make big strides across the U.S., iconic jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co. featured a same-sex couple in an engagement-themed advertising campaign for the first time.
The two men featured in the Tiffany’s ad are not actually models — they’re a New York City couple on verge of tying the knot. The ad celebrates all the perfect and not so perfect aspects of love, reading, “Will you promise to never stop completing my sentences or singing off-key, which I’m afraid you do often? And will you let today be the first sentence of one long story that never, ever ends?”
In a statement to Elle.com, Linda Buckley, Tiffany & Co. VP of North American PR, said “Nowadays, the road to marriage is no longer linear, and true love can happen more than once with love stories coming in a variety of forms. The Tiffany engagement ring is the first sentence of the story that a couple will write together as they create a life that is deeply intimate and exceptional, which is the message we hope to convey through this campaign.”
Same sex couples can legally wed in half of the United States. Last week, a three-judge panel of the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments that may open the door to striking down same-sex marriage bans in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
Not only is this a win for equality, but it’s just makes good economic sense. “The vast majority of Americans have embraced gay people’s freedom to marry — a fact not lost on American businesses, who know that inclusion is a win/win,” Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, told msnbc. “Tiffany’s prominently featuring a gay couple in its ad campaign also reminds us that we need to stay engaged until the Supreme Court affirms the freedom to marry nationwide, without leaving anyone out.”
Bridget Todd