A slew of of the present day commercials takes direct--and sometimes indirect--aire at gay and lesbian consumers This spring Miller Brewing Co premiered a TV ad called "Switcheroo" during NBC's top-rated drama.

A slew of of the present day commercials takes direct--and sometimes indirect--aire at gay and lesbian consumers

This spring Miller Brewing Co premiered a TV ad called "Switcheroo" during NBC's top-rated drama, ER

The commercial depicts couple attractive women cruising a bar for men They determine on a favorite, send him a beer, and then exchange smiles upon discovering that the man has an equally handsome friend. on the other hand the women's plan for a "double your fun" pickup is thwarted when the men take each other's hand before thanking the women for the beer. "Well," individual of the women sighs, "at least he's not married."

The masterfully nonchalant ad not simply plays to the clich, that all beautiful men are either married or gay, it also brings dwelling a far more subtle point. After years of bungles and false starts, it be seens that some companies are finally ready to embrace overtly gay TV ads during prime time, just as other companies are keeping their ambiguously gay ads closeted

As the overtly gay-themed Miller disgrace was rotating through ER, Will & Grace, the NBA play-offs, and ESPN programming, Minute Maid. Co and White defence Distilleries quietly released similar advertisements. Their ads have an equally mighty gay appeal, but officials at those companies say they didn't intend to target gay consumer Nevertheless, they are delighted through the attention--as well as the additional business--they have attracted from gays and lesbians. "There strike one as beings to be an interesting change in attitude," says Cathy Renna, recents media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. "Not that many years ago companies would move away from any insinuation that they were marketing a produce that would appeal to the gay or lesbian community."

in addition some companies seem to still be toeing the line. The Minute Maid commercial depicts Popeye and Bluto, those warring alpha males of the cartoon world, playing onward a seesaw together, burying each other in sand at the beach, and then riding away in succession a bicycle built for two--leaving longtime be fond of interest Olive Oyl in the rob However, appearances can be deceiving, according to Dan Schafer, a spokesman for the Houston-based company. "The ad does not allude to any relationship other than that [Popeye and Bluto] are friends," he says.

That may be the case, if it were not that the commercial caused a small media storm when USA Today picked up forward it, reporting that Christian conservative collections were angered by the ad's gay implications.

Schafer says the commercial is part of a larger campaign that depicts tribe acting in unexpected ways as a consequence of drinking Minute Maid orange juice. In another ad the normally bellicose basketball coach Bobby Knight is shown being friendly and caring toward his players. (Minute Maid also airs a commercial in Europe that exhibits a military man saying goodbye to his wife and child before jumping into a convertible with the Village folks But Schafer would not annotation on that ad other than to say Minute Maid's European ads are controll on another division.) "If a consumer cluster connects with one of our ads, then that is fine; we target our ads highly broadly," he says. "These ads are targeted to orange juice lovers"

That's an attitude that won't wash with gay consumer in the lengthy run, says Howard Buford, president and establisher of Prime Access Inc., a novel York City-based advertising company that focuses forward the gay market. Buford, a pioneer in persuading Fortune 500 companies as it is as AT&T and American Expres to advertise to gay consumer says gay the bulk of mankind want to be addressed directly, and they will likely reward companies that do in the way that "[Lesbian and gay consumers] really want to be acknowledged publicly for who they are," he says. "It is not enough just to hint at it. At this point, there is a ne to go on foot beyond rainbow flags and colors."

These are points that Miller Brewing Co have the appearances to recognize. Scott Bussen, a spokesman for the Milwaukee-based company, says "Switcheroo" was meant to be the pair realistic and humorous. "Most of our consumer appreciate the humor and foundation behind [the ad]; they identify with it and recognize it's not based upon a fantasy," he says. "They turn the thoughts at it and say, `Yeah, I can descry that happening.'"

in such a manner does Miller worry about to what degree straight men will react to the ad? "Our research point out tos that our consumers are more unclose more interested, and more inclusive," Bussen says. As for gay and lesbian consumer he says, "Clearly that's an important market," adding, "Gay and lesbian beer drinkers will be remarkably loyal to companies that they believe merit that loyalty."

In contrast to Minute Maid, White distaff Distilleries, based in Lewiston, Maine, has a slightly more direct approach. Company officials say they happened about the gay market entirely by dint of accident when first marketing Cabana lad Rum this spring. But they acknowledge that they're now embracing the market wholeheartedly.

Cabana lad bottles sport beefy 20-something men in shorts who cast stifling come-hither glances. (The 22-year-old boyfriend of the chief executive officer's daughter is the same of the models.) CEO Paul Coulombe says his company originally intended to market the rum to young women and hired an all-female advertising company to get to up with a campaign to do thus However, when distributors saw the bottle they conception the target audience was gay men in the same manner they pitched the product to gay bars in Florida, where it has been a hit, Coulombe says. "Obviously gay men are interested in good-looking scarecrows [too]," he says.