Madison Avenue hoists rainbow victory flag

Behold the first ad of its kind:

Why it matters:

The ad for the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader features a man and woman sitting on a beach. He appears to have trouble reading on his iPad due to the glare of the sun and, on the advice of the woman, decides to buy the Kindle. 'We should celebrate,' the man says. The woman pauses. 'My husband's bringing me a drink right now,' she replies. 'So is mine,' he says. And with that, they both turn around and wave at two men at the bar. See the ad here.

"It's a game changer," says Bob Witeck, president and founder of Witeck Communications Inc., a public relations firm in Washington D.C. More companies are likely to follow suit with similar advertisements that naturally ' and directly ' portray same-sex couples who are very clearly married, he says. "This is the first time we've seen a glimpse of that conversation in a television spot," he says. "It gives permission to other marketers to frame their stories in the same way.'

I still can't believe that after all those years they used equality as a cudgel to beat us politically, that our nation has evolved so quickly, so dramatically, and so conclusively. Kindle sales may suffer in Alabama, but they probably didn't buy very many anyway. And in any case, Amazon is showing us that "real" America isn't the hateful backwater conservatives wish it was.

Also, great PR score, Amazon. Surprised someone else didn't jump on this opportunity sooner.