Abstract
This paper represents an interpretivist analysis of how one group of minority consumers—gay men and lesbians—respond to targeted advertising as they encounter the oppositional forces of commercial validation in the marketplace and discrimination in the political domain. Interviews conducted with 25 self-identified gay and lesbian informants indicate how these consumers construct self-empowering interpretive strategies to cope with the stigma and negotiate the subordinated social status. The findings highlight the sociocultural role of advertising and the power of consumer myth, and illuminate disenfranchised consumers' struggles to seek public validation of their subcultural identity while evading potentially stigmatic subcultural distinctiveness.
