Gay-themed ads were back in the kinder, gentler Super Bowl of 2005.
The chilling effect after Janet Jackson's breast flap last year lead the Super Bowl halftime show and most advertisers to take a softer approach than in past years, apparently with no homophobic hijinks either. Diet Pepsi and Subway spent $2.4 million each for 30-second gay-friendly ads during Super Bowl XXXIX.
Pepsi featured a hunky man walking down the street to the Bee Gees song 'Staying Alive.' Clueless, he attracts women everywhere, including supermodel Cindy Crawford —and 'Queer Eye' designer Carson Kressley, whose head swivels and jaw drops. ( www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html )
Later in the football game, Subway has two cops that drive up behind a steamed up, parked vehicle. 'Looks like we've got a couple of lovebirds,' the officer says with amusement to his partner. As the cop approaches their car, music is heard from the inside, and a guy in the car softly says, 'Mmm, that's nice.'
The officer taps on the window. The surprised driver rolls it down, holding a sandwich, not a woman, as a ballad belts out, 'I need you now … .' However, behind him in the car is another man, who looks down at his sandwich, perhaps ashamed at the predicament. ( www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html )
The Subway spot from ad agency Fallon keeps a non-judgmental tone, compared to another that ran late last year. In that one, a husband dons drag to wash his car in a cheerleader's outfit, causing a passing vehicle to crash and narration says, 'Subway—good, so you don't always have to be.' ( www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html )
Diet Pepsi Ad Gets High Marks
The Diet Pepsi commercial, from DDB Needham, was rated No. 4 by TiVo watchers, No. 10 by AOL members, and also got high ratings according to Intelliseek, a Cincinnati-based research firm that tracked 40 consumer blogs online. Pepsi also ranked 14 in the most popular spots of the night in USA Today's widely read Ad Meter poll.
Subway's ad was not mentioned among top spots, but ranked 24th on the USA Today list.
Despite the mass audience and high prices of being on the Super Bowl, such purchases can be good targeting for advertisers. According to a study by Carat Insight, 45% of Subway eaters and 38.7% of Pepsi drinkers would be tuned into the game, compared to 35% of all adults in general.
Separately last year, Pepsi began reaching out directly to the gay and lesbian market, though Subway has not, and more gay media presence is expected in 2005.
All of Pepsi's brands combined made it the second largest advertiser in the game, after Anheuser-Busch for Bud Light, once again the most visible at the Super Bowl for the eighth straight year with nine ads.
Past Super Bowls Included Gay Ads
While 2004's Super Bowl was an exception, a number of past Super Bowls have carried gay, lesbian and transgender themes.
In the 2003 Super Bowl, Bud Light featured a tasteless spot featuring a guy in an upside-down clown suit drinking beer through the clown's 'rear,' then asked for a hotdog. ( www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html )
Diageo carried an ad for Smirnoff Triple Black Ice, where a beautiful woman named Alex meets a blind date but introduces herself to the wrong fellow. When the right guy shows up, the other moves in to keep the girl and introduces himself as Alex—the man flees.
Saving a couple million dollars, advertisers ran stealth ads with gay themes before and after the Super Bowl in 2003 as well. Miller Brewing Co. made a media sensation with its 'Catfight' ad, where two women tear each other's clothes off in a battle reviving the old 'Taste great/Less filling' debate. At the end, the two end up in a pool of wet cement and one says, 'Let's make out.'
Mobile phone company Nextel also ran a commercial featuring TV personality George Lopez, who must drive his daughter's pink Volkswagen Bug bearing the license plate 'Boycrazy' and is eyeballed by others.
A year earlier in 2002, Levi Strauss carried an ad for Dockers where men all wear black dresses at a party. One man wears Dockers and the announcer says, 'Finally guys have an answer to the little black dress.' www.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html And E*TRADE carried an offbeat spot featuring football players acting flamboyant and dressed as cats and fairies, as a sponsor of the halftime show.
In the 1997 Super Bowl, Holiday Inn carried a spot that only ran once. It was set at a high school reunion, where a man comes back as a sexy woman, bringing horror to someone who recognized the former 'Bob Johnson.'
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