Brian Safi offers a fun tripartite typology of (mostly) gay men in advertising: (1) homoeroticism as simultaneously hilarious and disgusting in ads aimed at straight men, (2) coded gay cues in ads aimed at a general market, and (3) parallel ads, differing only slightly from each other, playing in straight and gay media. The second set of ads = especially hilarious. Enjoy.
I love how you’re all infomania-ed, too! Isn’t it the most awesome show?
“We all know none of these shows have a gay puppet…” Gotta love it.
yay! i actually noticed some of these gay hints in the ads a while back, i’m so proud. 
my gay straight alliance in high school taught me well!
I started noticing that there were more same sex couples/relationships included or at least being hinted at in commercials, but I never really thought too much about it. Just figured, “Yeah, that makes sense.” But pin pointing more and more of them, and now knowing that there are “clean” versions is pretty interesting.
While this may sometimes be the case, I keep seeing a gay Chemistry.com ad on a bunch of different TV networks (I don’t receive Logo and I don’t watch Bravo).
I was wondering what you made of these ads for a cider here in Ireland: http://www.bulmers.ie/the-ads/. Is the main character in the first one a little camp for trivialising reasons?
I suspect that the Gay friend is the new Black friend – every girl needs one, because they take you shopping! They are so cool! And they know stuff about fashion, and stuff! Also, they will totally save the day, in that ‘wise gay man’ way by making some bitchy comment about how your butt is big, but in a funny way!!!!
[...] Lesbians are Hot (except the masculine ones) October 6, 2009, 4:34 pm Filed under: Uncategorized Blue shared this with me. What I find fascinating is what is “feared.” Boys fear physical contact with another male. But the fear for females is not the same. Instead of showing women kissing other women, they show “masculine” females. Of course, women having sexual contact with other women has become, in a way, normalized — as long as it is done for the sake of men. It reminds me of this coverage of gays in commercials that I originally saw from Soc Images. [...]
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