Google Again Features A Gay Marriage In A New Ad, This Time For The Nexus 5

Google

Google has been branding itself as the tech company that relates to its users on an emotional level, as seen in a recent ad about a boy leaving college to visit his sick dog at home. Now, it's making a similar emotional appeal to women in its new wedding-themed spot for the Nexus 5 Android smartphone.

The ad includes a scene from a gay marriage, five months after Google made an ad featuring a gay marriage for the French market.

In the ad, a woman uses her Nexus 5's voice search to look up her wedding photos, beginning a montage that features couples of nearly every demographic imaginable. There are several religious ceremonies, hippie and nerd affairs, one that looks like it's in a club, and a bouquet toss from the top of a mountain.

It's all in the context of showing off the phone's camera, but it's also about establishing Google as a brand connected to its users' diverse lives.

Here's the ad:

The ad starts with an appeal to women, and even features a bride playfully carrying the groom through crashing waves, but its brief shot of a gay couple at city hall has gotten the ad lots of attention. Many of the top tweets for the ad praise Google for the couple's inclusion, and of course plenty of hateful YouTube comments attack it.

Google's smartphone marketing comes at a time when Apple has turned away from emotional advertising and is utilizing cinematic ads to sell the visual appeal of its iPhone 5S.