The June 26 Supreme Court deci­sion sup­port­ing same-sex mar­riage is one that will clear­ly have a pro­found impact on the lives of LGBT Amer­i­cans, but it is also one that will influ­ence main­stream adver­tis­ing.

That’s because mar­keters seek­ing to com­mu­ni­cate more hon­est­ly and authen­ti­cal­ly with con­sumers now have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to not only tell bet­ter sto­ries, but to pro­vide a more accu­rate snap­shot of con­sumers over­all.

It’s been a long haul from the first depic­tions of gay cou­ples in main­stream media to broad­er mes­sages of sup­port and inclu­sion for the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty from major Amer­i­can brands, but experts say mar­riage equal­i­ty will like­ly open up even more doors and accel­er­ate the pace of change with­in the adver­tis­ing world.

There’s def­i­nite inter­est among con­sumers in LGBT con­tent.

Per Top­sy, for exam­ple, the hash­tag #LoveWins has been used sev­en mil­lion times since June 22.

In addi­tion, many brands have shared real-time mes­sages of sup­port, such as JELL‑O, Jet­Blue, Ben & Jerry’s and even the May­tag Man.

J‑E-L-L‑O is for every­one. So is L‑O-V‑E. #Deci­sion­Day #Pride pic.twitter.com/xw4pHTcodF

— JELL‑O (@JELLO) June 26, 2015

Here’s to find­ing the one who com­pletes you. #SCO­TUS­Mar­riage pic.twitter.com/Ox1WB3WCL1

— The May­tag Man (@TheMaytagMan) June 26, 2015

Accord­ing to Bob Witeck, pres­i­dent of PR and mar­ket­ing firm Witeck Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, mar­riage equal­i­ty gives “refresh­ing per­mis­sion for brands to real­ly shake up their think­ing about all the sto­ry­telling they do…as well as to show the mar­ket they ‘get it.’”

In addi­tion, from this point for­ward, Witeck notes brands must con­sid­er nar­ra­tives that include LGBT con­sumers, fam­i­lies, prod­ucts and ser­vices as part of inte­grat­ed cam­paigns, liken­ing the jour­ney of LGBT indi­vid­u­als to oth­er civ­il rights move­ments, includ­ing par­al­lels with depic­tions in main­stream adver­tis­ing.

But, like the move­ments that pre­ced­ed it, it has been an incred­i­bly slow evo­lu­tion, both broad­ly with­in Amer­i­can cul­ture, as well as with­in the adver­tis­ing indus­try specif­i­cal­ly.

In fact, Kirk Soud­er, CCO of cre­ative agency Enso, says he was at adver­tis­ing agency Deutsch in the ear­ly 1990s when the firm worked with Ikea to put what he says is the first gay cou­ple in a TV spot.

“We all thought when that spot ran back then…we knew it was a big moment and what’s fas­ci­nat­ing to me is that we’re over 20 years lat­er and you would think that through­out time, a nor­mal­iza­tion would have already tak­en place, but it’s still tak­ing place in a way,” Soud­er says. “It still kind of rais­es eye­brows when some­one of a dif­fer­ent ori­en­ta­tion is in main­stream adver­tis­ing.”

But, since the Ikea spot, brands like JCPen­ney, Chee­rios, Mar­riott, Tiffany and Wells Far­go have includ­ed LGBT con­sumers in nation­al adver­tis­ing cam­paigns as well.

In fact, per David Pais­ley, senior research direc­tor, Com­mu­ni­ty Mar­ket­ing, which pro­vides LGBT research, mar­ket­ing insights and strate­gies, the trav­el and alco­hol indus­tries were the first to reach out to the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty 20 years ago, but more indus­tries – includ­ing day-to-day CPG prod­ucts “like tooth­paste and crack­ers” – are fol­low­ing suit more recent­ly.

And, Pais­ley says, mar­riage equal­i­ty will pro­vide even more brand oppor­tu­ni­ties going for­ward.

And that’s in part because the inclu­sion of LGBT con­sumers in main­stream adver­tis­ing pro­vides a more accu­rate por­tray­al of Amer­i­can con­sumers over­all. It also helps brands tell more authen­tic sto­ries.

“One of the things I real­ly loved about that first Ikea piece in the ear­ly ‘90s was that it was a gay cou­ple and it wasn’t remark­able that they were gay, but they were hav­ing the same dis­cus­sions as straight cou­ples about what they want­ed in their apart­ment,” Soud­er says. “And to me that hope­ful­ly becomes the next gen­er­a­tion of advertising…gay cou­ples aren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly put in an ad because [the brand wants] to make a point about gay cou­ples, but they are put in because they are con­sumers, too.”

But that’s not to say LGBT mar­ket­ing will cease to exist as a sep­a­rate enti­ty entire­ly.

“Just like any niche mar­ket, it has to be a bit of both,” Pais­ley says. “More and more, you’ll see same-sex imagery in main­stream ads and research [shows] LGBT peo­ple are impressed a lot more [when they see that imagery] in main­stream media than in gay media.

But adver­tis­ing is always about tar­get­ing.” But it also means con­sumers will poten­tial­ly start to see more accu­rate por­tray­als of LGBT con­sumers.

Accord­ing to Witeck, depic­tions of gays and les­bians in adver­tis­ing used to be sourced from stock pho­tos of attrac­tive peo­ple of the same sex who were put in a giv­en set­ting with the assump­tion that they were gay. Now, how­ev­er, more brands are includ­ing “real peo­ple in real sit­u­a­tions.”

And that’s reflec­tive of a shift with­in mar­ket­ing over­all.

Includ­ing LGBT con­sumers in main­stream adver­tis­ing may also be an imper­a­tive when it comes to con­nect­ing with younger con­sumers.

“Brands that hope to reach younger audi­ences and Mil­len­ni­als will look for fresh mes­sen­gers and images to do it,” Witeck says. “I’ve learned watch­ing all of these brands try to make them­selves more con­tem­po­rary and try­ing to refresh their appeal, look and perceptions…and LGBT imagery and nar­ra­tives are one of the most test­ed and suc­cess­ful paths.”

In oth­er words, mes­sages of inclu­sion can help brands update their images and demon­strate shared val­ues to younger con­sumers.

“My point of view is very sim­ple: Gay mar­ket­ing doesn’t exist as it used to. It’s real­ly Mil­len­ni­al mar­ket­ing,” Witeck says. “Gay peo­ple are deeply invest­ed in that sto­ry, which appeals to a broad­er cross-sec­tion.”

Pais­ley agrees that more inclu­sive out­reach “impress­es all Mil­len­ni­als. That’s what our research real­ly shows – if you’re more inclu­sive, Mil­len­ni­als are impressed with the brand.”

How do you think mar­riage equal­i­ty will impact mar­ket­ing to Amer­i­can con­sumers?