And yes, I reserve the right to obsess for four months about Dreamgirls’ Oscar prospects and still be offended at the assumption that I’ll identify with some self-loathing queen’s ruby slipper refrigerator magnet.

Thanks for writing.

You are absolutely correct that running a blog called The PEN15 Club which runs stereotypical advertising might seem hypocritical when criticizing Pepsi for running a stereotypical ad.

Let me, again, try to justify it. As for the content of this blog (its title, topics, photos, etc.), it is very different from advertising. It’s content. It’s a product in and of itself. A gay-related product. Something very different from selling sugar water to gays.

As for the ads, you got me there. Two things: first, I have no control over the ads that appear on the site. They’re part of a service - that space is reserved for whomever buys a placement through the service, and the ad appears. And I do roll my eyes every time another nude male appears there. But again, those ads are selling gaycations, underwear that makes your package look bigger, and gay-themed jewelry. It’s not Pepsi. So I (maybe hypocritically) give them a pass.

Finally, the more I think about this the more I realize that the real reason the Pepsi ad upset me so much was its lack of creativity or anything clever. Pepsi took the lowest common denominator when trying to speak to gays: ruby slippers, body image issues, and straight worship, among others. It wasn’t the lack of sensitivity that bothered me - it was the fact that someone in an ad agency thought by sprinkling in the two or three most common gay stereotypes, they’d somehow be more “relevant” to a huge, rich portion of the population.

You might argue that the same goes for this blog, but I’d counter that we’re not selling Pepsi. We’re “selling” gay-themed content, which often includes a great ass fucking reference and a shameful scowl in the direction of JHud.

Your post was great. I read the whole thing, and every single comment taboot. However, when another poster pointed out that your blog has very stereotypical advertising, I almost didn’t believe it. I scrolled up, and as I took in the whole contents of the page, your credibility tanked. If you look at your blog page, it’s very reminiscient of the collage on the refrigerator in the Diet Pepsi ad. There is A. The title of your website, which alludes not only to the male anatomy, but even uses the word “club”. Subtle nod to night life, perhaps? B. Tags about Beyonce, Jennifer Hudon, Felattio (need I say more…) and C. Perhaps the most damning of all to your credibility are the ads on your very site. I know you’ve tried to explain above, but I think it’s a complete copout. You say Diet Pepsi’s ads are insulting when they drop the “time share” bomb on the to-do list, yet your site has the exact same thing.

I like your writing, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the clearest examples of rejecting something that absolutely resembles who you are. It’s invasive targeted advertising; that’s why it sucks, because they nailed your personality to the wall (as far as I can tell, that is).

For me, the issue is in the sum of this ad’s parts. I would have been fine with the straight worship. Or the inch-deep to-do list. Or the magnets. But the fact that this ad incorporates all of those things without a single, intelligible, respectful nod to the gay community concerns me.

This is hardly pandering. And don’t compare it to an ad pointed at the African American community. If that were true, the compared ad would be equally as offensive. Imagine, if you will, a refrigerator. And on the refrigerator is a skinny white girl in a bikini. And she’s being held there with magnets in the shape of diamond-covered money symbols, another magnet saying, “It ain’t easy bein’ a pimp,” and a third saying “HOTT!!” Then, a to-do list above it, with three items: 1) pick up grape kool-aid, 2) meet Jamal at KFC, 3) TiVo “Live at the Apollo.”

There are millions of ads out there that manage to respect the gay community. www.commercialcloset.com features many of the best ones. It’s not hard to do.

Kudos to Pepsi for recognizing the gay community and advertising to them in the first person. Where is the outrage when companies pander to the latino, african american, or women’s market.
If you don’t advertise to gays the community is up in arms. You advertise to gays and the community doesn’t think it is good enough. The gay community has to stop eating its own and have some self-pride. Stop being the victim. It is no wonder that gay advertising and the gay media remains in the bowels of Madison Ave.

Tubecam,
Don’t be an ass. Everyone else manages to make their point while including a case to back it up and without making personal attacks. Really, most people here were discussing (as well as making light of) a pertinent social justice issue. I’m sure everyone welcomes your comments, but next time, please make sure you understand both the post and what you’re saying.

I know it’s not exactly pc to say someone “looks” a certain way - gay, straight, whathaveyou.

But when you’re doing an advertisment, and you’re trying to convey a not-so-subtle idea, you do so by dropping clues. Are we to assume he’s gay because he’s appearing in a gay-themed ad? Keep in mind that nothing in the ad-within-the-ad suggests he’s gay. The original ad could have just as easily appeared in Maxim or Men’s Health, right? Now, the mere fact that some overweight, time-share owning homo actually cut out the picture and plastered it to his fridge is a bit more suggestive that he’s actually into the guy.

Now, I’m all for acknowledging that gays can come in all sorts of packages, but sometime you have to read into the advertiser’s/agency’s intent. And in this case, by casting a guy who looks stereotypically straight and doing a stereotypically straight activity, they’ve made it clear what’s going on here.

If soda ads start to be evolved social statements, whatever will politicians have to work with come election season?

Thank you x 100 for writing this.

There are tons of good points in this post. One important message deals with the underlying hatred of feminine qualities possessed by guys, held by gays and straights alike. I totally understand the offense of this ad. But I should question what makes me the most angry about it - is it that Pepsi considers gay culture to be superficial and simple-minded? or that gay men such as myself are thought of as promiscuous Dorthy-loving bottoms. Both innuendoes kinda suck. But it’s got to be pretty shitty for overtly gay men to keep being reminded that they’re living cliches when all they want is to sing show-tunes and wear muscle shirts. I’m not making any new points here, especially since you, Jordan, clued me into this thought process several years ago.

There’s no doubt I feel better about my recent Diet Coke purchase. Still, keeping in mind what makes us angry about ads like this might keep our own self-deprication in check.

Also, that guy looks like a less ape-like version of Joe Millionaire.

I don’t think that makes the ad any less offensive. I just that that although PepsiCo may have figured out that they need to respect the value of the pink dollar, they haven’t quite figured out that being a good ally doesn’t give one the permission to make faggot jokes. If that makes any sense.