Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Are You My Angel? Random Homo Erotic Imagery in Advertising

I can't follow the connection between the headline and the product, or the visual. But the visual is nice.

Hot Latin Bear Bares All For The Love of Snacks: Gay Fantasy Doritos TV Spot Gives Quiznos A Run For The Money

And I thought Quiznos had pushed the envelope on queer fantasy and straight queer fear with the "Scott Put It In Me" spot. Nope. Australian ad agency MAKE has just put out a spot for Mexicana flavored Doritos that follows the thoughts in the head of a young man who starts to eat the snack. He begins to have fantasies of a naked Mexican man rolling in Doritos a la American Beauty. He looks horrified at the contents of his own mind. Little does he know what's about to happen though, when his fantasy is made manifest right on his coffee table. This is positively surreal. And I sure wish I could see the sales figures of this product over the next few weeks.

Eat, Drink, Man, Man, Man, Man: Gay Film in Korea

Okay, so when King and Clown came out a few years back it was impressive, and totally shocking given that any lgbt film coming out of Korea was rare. And it was a terrific film - a historical romantic tragedy that felt as real as it gets. So now there's a new film based on a Japanese Yaoi comic book, which is generally as unreal as it gets, and it looks like great fun:

The longest running sales promotion in the world: Maxwell House & Passover

A Passover Dessert & Coffee Story

In 1934 the Maxwell House Haggadah was published for the first time by the
Joseph Jacobs Advertising Agency of New York City. At some point, almost every Jew in North America has held a copy of this Haggadah at a Passover table.

Traditionally, Ashkenazi Jews (whose ancestors came from either Central, Northwestern,
and/or Eastern Europe) followed a traditional custom not to drink coffee during
Passover under the mistaken belief that the coffee bean was an actual bean that
therefore fell into the category of legumes, and any food, which fell into this category, was
religiously forbidden to be consumed during Passover.

In 1923, Joseph Jacobs, the eponymous owner of the Joseph Jacobs agency in
New York City, consulted an Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Hersch Kohn,
to determine if the Maxwell House coffee bean was, in a technical sense, more similar
to a berry - a fruit - than a bean and therefore, kosher for Passover, meaning it would be
permitted by the Orthodox rabbi to be consumed during Passover. After the Orthodox
rabbi issued his approval and certification that the Maxwell House coffee bean was in
fact, kosher for Passover, General Foods, with the help of the Joseph Jacobs
Advertising Agency, started to market Maxwell House coffee for Passover to Jews in
New York City.

Sales of Maxwell House coffee during Passover among the
Jewish population rose dramatically. The success of this strategy led Jacobs to
reinforce the kosher-for-Passover message by developing a Haggadah for Maxwell
House in 1934.

The Maxwell House Haggadah was to be printed and then distributed for free to supermarkets across the United States, with free copies offered to consumers with the purchase of any Maxwell House coffee product.

Since the Maxwell House Haggadah, noted for its simplicity, was given away as a premium with purchase of the coffee, it became one of the most popular Haggadahs in North America.

In fact, the Maxwell House Haggadah is still being produced and offered today, making it
the longest running sales promotion in advertising history.

Over 50 million Maxwell House Haggadahs have been printed, making it the most widely used
Haggadah in the world, and the most widely circulated Judaica item in the world. The
result of this advertising campaign was that Maxwell House coffee became the preferred
coffee in Jewish households. In the mid-1960’s, the Haggadah used a more modern
English-language translation, and in 1997, the color scheme, traditionally a blue color,
was changed to a multicolor scheme. Today, Maxwell House is owned by Kraft Foods.

Varmints, Vermin, Vermints

Can you think of a more unfortunate name for an all natural breath mint from the great state of Vermont? Given that the federal government has a limit to the number of insect parts that can be found in candy. Or so I've heard. Given that confectioners glaze can actually be made from insects —since food grade shellac comes from the the lac insect there's no question that insects have been involved in the making of a lot of candy. For that matter, food grade shellac is applied to apples after they've been washed of pesticides, which also removes the natural waxy protection off the apple skin. So shellac is applied to protect the skin and give some shine. Gives new meaning to Gummi worms, eh?

Put it in me Scott

Okay, just how queer is this Quiznos commercial? Starring a toaster oven that is the bastard child of HAL9000, and a fast food clerk who's sexier than anyone I've seen behind the counter of a Quiznos.

Toaster: Scott, I want you to do something.

Scott: I'm not doing that again, I'm burned.

Toaster: We both enjoyed that. [product copy] Put it in me Scott.
It's over a foot of flavor...Say it Scott, say it sexier....

I hereby nominate "Put it in me Scott" as the best catchphrase of the year. And it's only March.

Soup is good food

Robert Indiana: "I knew Andy very well. The reason he painted soup cans is that he liked soup."  

Andy Warhol gave Campbell's the best free advertising in the world with his famous soup can series. And it's taken more than 40 years, but finally Campbell's is returned the favor to the lgbt community, with a series of ads running in the Advocate. Agency Spy reports that Campbell's choice of media buy, along with featuring a lesbian couple with a a child in the ad has gotten the AFA's knickers all in a twist (I so love that phrase):

The AFA recently said the following on their Web site, in an article entitled, "M'm! M'm! Bad! — Campbell Soup Company embraces homosexual agenda,":

"Campbell Soup Company has openly begun helping homosexual activists push their agenda. Not only did the ads cost Campbell's a chunk of money, but they also sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support. They also gave their approval to the entire homosexual agenda.

In defense of the ads, three of which included New York City chefs, a Campbell's rep. told Slog, "We support all types of families, regardless of how they're defined, [and have done so] for more than 100 years. We advertise in a variety of different media outlets that appeal to a broad spectrum of society. That's what we're doing here, and that's what we'll continue to do."

Another company rep. told AdAge, "The LGBT audience is the third-largest in the country behind African-Americans and Hispanics," said Ms. Graham. "And we're very in tune with which brands embrace the community and whose messaging and imaging reflects that."

So all you boys in Chelsea and WeHo, and to all the women in Gowanus and Park Slope: go buy yourself a can, invest in some art and nutritious body warming food. And send the folks at Campbells a letter, cause you know they're getting tons from the minions of the AFA

Better than Jesus on toast: Satan in your spaghetti!

From BBDO Dusseldorf comes the proof that in cuisine, presentation is indeed everything:

This could be an ongoing theme: best penis quote of the day!

The ongoing Chinese food scandals have now rocked the U.K. sex toy market. Seems that melamine in dangerous levels has been found in a chocolate flavoring used to make the sucking all the sweeter. A spokesman for the British Food Standards Agency, in alerting the nation to this clear and present danger, said:

"We’ve never had to put out an alert before on 'willy spread' – chocolate-flavoured or otherwise."

Even better, Ann Summers, the owner of the  sex toy chain (and of course, chains are sex toys) gave me even more of a laugh with this quote:

"As a responsible retailer we have tested all of our chocolates and even before the FSA alert was issued had taken all relevant steps to remove the chocolate willy spread product that could be affected by this issue."

Just how are they testing the willy spread? And do they need help?

What's a QWERTY keyboard without an Option or Command Key: A Typewriter!

This lovely little ad for M&Ms utilized the ubiquitous qwerty keyboard to sell the candy maker's ability to produce custom candies. Except that the keyboard shown is rather retro — after all, without Control, Option, or Delete we're looking at the keyboard that could only be found on one of those marvelous old Royals, Olivettis, Coronas, not to mention Olivers, Hammonds and Empires. And of course, it will require a new slogan: Melts in your mouth, not on your fingertips.