Okay, this is beginning to become an interestingly odd phenomenon. This is the third ad in the last year to feature sumo wrestlers in either a gay context or in cross-gender costume. Clearly there is some fetishization going on out there in the world. All the more interesting to me is that on a daily basis, about 5% of my daily hits are from people on search engines looking up the term "gay sumo." What's up with that? If you haven't seen the previous ads, you can find them here and here.
Not one to argue with reality, and since I have found yet another ad that plays with the image of sumo wrestlers and sexuality/cross-gender costume, I present this print ad for Swatch watches. You will note that the branding and product are particularly subtle in this ad, as opposed to the image itself. What it means however, I can not say. Either from a cultural/sexual fascination with these Japanese athletes or from a conceptual reason for their use in this ad. Perhaps it was explained or discussed at the recent awards given out by the Commercial Closet, which cited this ad in its nominees for the year.
Comments