IBM next month launches its first campaign targeted overtly at the gay community via an ad that will run in The Advocate, Out and about 40 other gay-themed publications.

The ad, created by IBM shop Ogilvy & Mather in New York, courts the gay business community. Above a diverse group of men and women, the headline links IBM's Armonk, N.Y., headquarters with well-known gay hangouts: "Chelsea/Provincetown/The Castro/ Armonk." Copy explains that the six people shown are IBM employees who belong to the company's 1,100-member GLBT (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender) Network.

Joseph Bertolotti, program director for the GLBT and pictured in the ad, said IBM decided to launch the group two years ago because research showed gay business owners are more likely to buy from gay sales reps. "This ad is ground-breaking," he said.

IBM has winked at the gay community in previous advertising. A 1998 print ad, for example, showed two men alongside copy explaining that they weren't "your typical mom and pop operation. We're not even your ordinary pop and pop." More recently, a print execution for IBM's ThinkPad that ran last year in publications including Advocate and Out featured Simon Doonan, the openly gay evp of creative services at retailer Barneys.