Congratulations to the team here at Mullen and at Orbitz, which has a long history of leadership in the gay travel market.

A few savvy observers have noted the appearance of a gay rights symbol (the Human Rights Campaign’s blue & gold logo on the guy’s shirt) in the new Orbitz hovercraft commercial from Mullen.  We’ve had press inquiries on this subject with people wondering about motives.  Well, it’s pretty simple.  Orbitz was the first online travel company with a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.  Orbitz has a long track record of marketing to the LGBT community.  They’ve been recognized by Commercial Closet for their progressive approach to this active-travel demo and they were presented with the Rosoff Award for marketing to a diverse community by the Ad Club of Boston in part for this earlier spot from Mullen.  So nothing subversive going on here.  Just business as usual.