Amazon is out with a new Kindle ad, but the commercial’s most attention-getting message has little to do with the e-reader itself.
Instead, it’s about gay marriage. Here’s what goes down in the 30-second spot:
1. Man on the beach has trouble using an iPad because of the glare.
2. Woman next to him, using a Kindle PaperWhite, lists off all the nice things about her device. “This is perfect at the beach,” she says of the Amazon product.
3. Convinced he needs a Kindle, man buys one using his iPad. He turns, smiles and looks at the woman. “We should celebrate,” he says, apparently ready to make a move on her.
4. Woman responds and rejects his offer: “My husband is bringing me a drink right now.”
5. Man responds: “So is mine.”
Then, both turn around and wave at their respective husbands, who are buying drinks at the bar.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen support for same-sex marriage out of the Amazon camp. Last July, in what was the largest individual gift to support same-sex marriage in the U.S., Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie donated $2.5 million to a Washington state coalition working to approve Referendum 74. That measure was approved on the November ballot and upheld the state law protecting the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates also made $100,000 donations to the effort to preserve same-sex marriage in Washington state.
Same-sex marriage has been legalized in nine states and the District of Columbia. As MarketWatch points out, Amazon is one of the first big companies to portray same-sex couples that are clearly married in an advertisement.
Last month, Bezos said the company’s Kindle business is showing significantly greater momentum than traditional books. After five years on the market, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for Amazon and growing fast, up approximately 70 percent last year.
Previously on GeekWire: Amazon.com expanding in Canada, plans to open new development center in March
