A new ad from Airbnb, the lodging marketplace, features a two-mom family. Because we travel, too.
The ad, part of the company’s “Don’t go there. Live There” campaign, features the moms and their three kids having a good time at a Los Angeles vacation rental. The moms even share a kiss about 18 seconds in. It’s pretty tame—but I can’t remember the last time I saw same-sex parents kissing in an ad, showing affection like any normal couple.
As Alana Romain at Romper points out, of course, “everyone in the Airbnb family is white, and they’re still all pretty catalogue-perfect.” Still, I love that Airbnb is using same-sex parents and their kids in an ad that’s not directed exclusively at same-sex parents or even the LGBTQ community as a whole. The family travels and, we’re led to assume, enjoys using Airbnb when they do so. Airbnb presumably feels that’s enough for other people to relate to.
I also like that this ad comes from a travel company. The politicians who believe that issues such as marriage equality and public accommodations should be left to the states seem to forget that we LGBTQ folks move around, and it’s no fun having our civil rights fluctuate as we do so. Reminding people that we take vacations, too, can only be a good thing.
