Can you imagine superheroes for lgbt rights in Colorado? If you can't, you aren't imaginative enough, because the GLBT Community Center of Colorado has just launched a website and a youtube cartoon featuring these spandex-wearing characters:
My only question is, where's Scoobie-Doo? There is also a full website where you can sign on for updates and take advantage of viral email to let other people know.
Well, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...just not this time.
I can't follow the connection between the headline and the product, or the visual. But the visual is nice.
Many retailers and companies are using shopping bags in a witty way to get attention on the street nowadays. Looks like Tom of Finland has joined the crew. I wouldn't say that of all the shopping bag promos I've seen that this is a very creative usage, but it does get attention.
Courtesy of Rhode Island's Future site and my friend John in Providence...
MediaBistro's Agency Spy reports on a TV spot previously posted here for Europride. But after they show that spot they report on a video from Gillette Fusion razors on how to shave your pubes, because, "trimming the bush makes the tree look taller." The target here looks like a young male — teens. Yep, I clearly have the wrong copywriting work at the moment.
Of course, because the target is young men, and we don't want to scare them off with the idea that body shaving is queer (especially since they're suggesting shaving your groin as a strategy to deal with self esteem issues about size) you'll note when you go to the Gillette site that there is a woman on the side of every visual to remind the dudes that they're still straight and that women will find it attractive.
For all the talk about the gay market -- and by that I refer to the oft spoken of market of well to do and flush with disposable income gay male singles and couples -- there isn't really much advertising that speaks to this target with intelligence and respect. There isn't much that doesn't buy into demeaning objectification that we often take on ourselves. Well, I'm getting curmudgeonly, and I promised I'd only do that once today. Except that I need to note, as a queer copywriter/creative director, a contest that has been announced in Palm Springs by the Moxie Project to create advertising to attract lgbt tourism doesn't support the myth of gay men with money.
If all they can offer as a prize is $1000 for the best commercial, gay tourism in Palm Springs is in trouble. Well, maybe not, since it really doesn't need any advertising. Nevertheless, I am curious to see what kind of a brief they gave (and not the kind of brief that appears in the post below).
The ad below makes fun of a man who is either so behind on his laundry or so unprepared to live on his own that he's drying his face with, presumably his (but who knows) underwear. The department store that is running the ad makes the point that they've got a two for one sale on towels. Okay, but have they got towels that look like underwear? This could be a whole new line of niche products for a special audience, don't you think?
The ad below is is for a gay club in, of all places, Chennai, India. India is one of the more socially conservative societies, so an ad like this (even if it's in a queer only publication) speaks volumes about how gay life is changing there. Or perhaps it's simply that an ad agency in India thinks this kind of work is an example of edgy work that will bring them attention when they post it on adsoftheworld.com:
A website has been launched to promote gay tourism in Israel. From the images on the home page, you would never guess that lesbians existed. But hey, I don't any websites from Egypt extolling Pride celebrations in cities all over the country, as this site does. (The very fact that I praise something while at the same time criticizing it is about as Jewish as you can get). And I've got to say, the site certainly makes a visit look like a lot of fun.
