Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Pretty boys and watersports...Dasani advertising from Argentina and water politics

The headline/slogan for this campaign for Dasani is Move Your Water. Clearly something is lost in translation — this must be good in Spanish, because in English the connotation is urination. And while some might consider the thought of watersports with the handsome fellow in this ad to be appealing, I don't think this is what Coca Cola had in mind.

Dasani, by the way, has got to be one of my least favorite water products out there. It's bad enough that we've lost public drinking fountains so that we have to pay to drink what used to be free — and we mess up the environment after drinking it. Even before actually. The fuel cost of shipping this water, the use of water to clean the plastic bottles before they are used, and then the cost to the environment in landfill is appalling. And all this for water that has been completely denatured. Completely stripped of the trace minerals you want.

Oh, it's true, public water sources now are frightening when you consider how much in the way of pharmaceutical runoff is coming out of our faucets. Who needs an anti-depressant? Have a glass of water.

The New York Times has been reporting recently on the despoiling of water sources in the U.S. It's an important story: "research shows that an estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways. Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking-water wells."

But industry gets a double bonus with this issue — they destroy our water and use it without paying for clean-up, and then they sell us water since we can't drink what they've messed up. Yup. Of course, some of the spring waters come from sources that are just as exposed to pollutants like agricultural pesticide runoff. So if you think you're doing better when you pay for water, many times you're not. The Environmental Working Group published a study last year showing that "10 popular brands of bottled water, purchased from grocery stores and other retailers in 9 states and the District of Columbia, contained 38 chemical pollutants altogether, with an average of 8 contaminants in each brand." And most of the plastic bottles contains PCBs, a known carcinogen that is released into the water when the temperature of the plastic rises or falls below a certain level. 

Even more amazing was the information that some of the bottled water brands were simply tap water: from public water sources you have access to for free. 

Mind you, there are some bottled waters out there that come in PCB free bottles (of course most of those bottles are glass, but not all). And some bottled waters are actually a good source of important minerals, helping to restore the pH balance of the body. But there aren't many of these, and of course, caveat emptor.

Yup. Ya gotta love the free-market economy and the rape of the environment brought to us by the last 8 years of the MBA President.

Really, you didn't think I was just gonna put up an ad with a sexy Argentine guy without getting on my soap box? Now excuse me, but I think I'll head downtown to Escuelita...

Sexy men in print advertising: who says only women are exploited?

Found the ad below on a site of neat photos put together a self described "gay bloke in Haringey." The ad ran earlier this year, even though the guy looks like he's out of a porno movie from the '80s. Not saying I don't think he's handsome — he is. Maybe it's just the cheesy ad that makes the whole thing feel like it's from another era, and he just suffers from being in it. Whaddaya think?

The Demographically Correct Homosexual: Adweek on the Upbeat GLBT Mood in a Down Economy

There is a corner of of the world where gay activism and gay consumerism meet in an alliance that believes money buys acceptance. This is the world of advertising. And today Adweek has published a new study from Witeck-Combs Communications and Harris Interactive that says:

"57 percent of GLBT respondents said they expect the economy to improve in the coming year, vs. 45 percent of the survey's heterosexuals. Moreover, 31 percent of gay and lesbian respondents said they think their own household's financial situation will improve during the next six months, vs. 24 percent of the heterosexuals." The usual reasons are trotted out for this (child-free households, though less true today than before) and some news ones are mentioned, including the Obama election (though with friends like these...).

I am not sure these pollsters spent any time on Fire Island this summer, where several houses went into foreclosure and rentals were off a good percentage. They believe that glbt people have been less affected by the downturn because we hold more white collar jobs, a questionable fact to say the least. Perhaps more gay men (as opposed to lesbians, bi folk and trans folk) feel secure enough in white collar environments to come out:

David Paisley, senior projects manager at Community Marketing. "But we have found that gays and lesbians tend to be overrepresented in careers such as education, healthcare and urban core professional careers. These jobs have been less affected by the recession than jobs like construction or manufacturing. In some ways, traditional gay and lesbian careers track closer to women as a whole in the U.S., and these types of jobs have experienced fewer job losses." He remarks that the pattern of unemployment has led some people to dub the current recession a "man-cession," since "it is traditional male jobs that have been hit the hardest. 'Will and Grace' have done much better in this recession."

I suspect the former employees of Men's Vogue might disagree. I suspect that the teachers at schools across the country seeing salary freezes or union givebacks would disagree — and the adjunct professors without tenure would disagree. Nurses would disagree. But this doesn't fit the desired storyline in selling our "market" to corporations. Because this sale is just as much an advertising strategy to win dollars from clients as it is a semi-political strategy on the part of the queer folk who do have white collar jobs — working for polling agencies.  

For many years there have been studies purporting to show that lgbt people earn more money and/or have a greater disposable income, so we are more attractive as a market for certain consumer goods. This study repeats this "fact" which applies overwhelmingly to white gay men in the professions:

"The GLBT market may be the last people on earth who can afford my product." That's in sync with what Combs has seen: "With more discretionary income, GLBTs can spend money on more luxuries than the average household."

Spare me.

It is certainly true that there was a time these studies were important, since the nascent local and national gay media struggled for advertising dollars (which is after all, the media model we follow in this country). But there is also the confusion that acceptance buy business in consumerist society is the same as social acceptance and a way to win political rights.

I have no idea where the economy is going, though I am certainly nowhere near as hopeful as this study suggests my brethren and sistren are. And I am not buying any luxury goods anytime soon. Wish I could, but nowadays I depend on freelance. The job market for this urban media professional is tougher than I've ever seen it — and I started in the biz in the recession of 1976. Will things get better? Sure. When? Beats me. What I do know is that the way the lgbt market is sold doesn't seem to change.

An ad that gives new meaning to the phrase "rock hard butt."

Today's entry for advertising that's queer in some way — in this case targeting the gay male community for travel and tourism in the United States — uses Mt. Rushmore in a way that even Alfred Hitchcock probably never imagined:

What would Shelley's Ozymandias have been like if his traveler had some upon this stone monument? Asses to asses, dust to dust...

Sunday Morning Cartoon on Tuesday Afternoon: The Rights Five!

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.

Cigar Smoke Bukakke

What were they thinking?????

Well, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar...just not this time.

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.

Tom of Finland: That's an interesting package you have there...

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.

Rhode Island Marriage Equality Demo: Best Photo

Courtesy of Rhode Island's Future site and my friend John in Providence...

Manscaping the pubes and advertising

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.