Zoe Archer was kind enough to forward me a link to this article: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Getting Dressed. Seems Levi Strauss has crafted two versions of a recent jeans commercial, one featuring a heterosexual couple, and another featuring a gay couple.
My first reactions: Why is this “Ads of the Weird?” Are gay folks not supposed to wear jeans? And, what’s the big deal? Seems like wise marketing to me – last I wandered through the Village, plenty of denim adorned the folks who lived there, gay or not. Color me clueless indeed, but this is weird? News? Remarkable?
Yes, it seems.
Robert Cameron, the jeans maker’s vice president of marketing, said he’s actually struck by the fact that the apparel company didn’t make a bigger effort, like this one, sooner.
“I think what’s surprising is how long it’s taken us to get there,†Cameron said. “Just to put (a commercial) on a gay-targeted channel like Logo that actually reflects the people who are watching it shouldn’t be such a radical notion. It really shouldn’t be.â€
It is surprising that, in 2007, there are still so few mainstream companies making commercials specifically aimed at a demographic—gay men—that is known to have significant discretionary spending power. But even as gay TV characters and public figures have gained more acceptance, plenty of companies have faced considerable backlash for supporting gay causes.
Backlash? What backl- oh, my, the comments. The hateration, while nothing new, is what’s remarkable to me:
“Looks like Levi’s has just lost a customer… Yet another chip taken out of the cement holding this country together.”
“It is amazing what industries will do for a buck. The promotion of homosexuality is against nature and against God. No more Levi’s for me!”
“And, if people are born gay then the ocean is made up of kool aid!”
“As a shareholder I’m sure this will be discussed at the next SH meeting. Very poor decision to pander to immoral behavior.”
Alllrighty then. I stopped reading about halfway down. I can’t even wear Levis, unless they make some with waistlines that can hold me plus a jumbo watermelon, but I’m much in favor of their ad campaign as much as I am in favor of gay romance. Sadly, I’m more surprised by the anti-gay comments more than I am that Levi’s would create a gay-centered ad.
“Sadly, I’m more surprised by the anti-gay comments more than I am that Levi’s would create a gay-centered ad.”
Don’t be, my friend. Hateration, I’ve noticed, tends to be en vogue these days. Just heard a story about a segregated Louisiana high school where a group of white students hung nooses from a tree to discourage black students from sitting in the white student’s spot. The fight was on for the white students to be expelled, but they ended up with a two-day, in-school suspension. I have no idea when this event took place and it could be that you’ll read this and say, “Dude, that happened last year,” but still…
Good news…not everyone is like that. Last month Amber Quill Press opened a new imprint for gay/lesbian stories. If authors were so closed minded they wouldn’t have stories to publish.
Brit
Yay! Now if only I had a computer capable of sound!
Advertising is a great way to imprint things into the societal consciousness. Witness all those @#$% ads that have women doing all the cleaning/cooking/laundry.
Shaunee—
That WAS last year.
The story gets worse, too. The racial tensions at the school finally erupted into all-out fights. One (black) kid got beat up at a mostly-white party. At school on Monday, one of the (white) kids was bragging about it, and got beat up by a group of (black) kids.
The black kids are on trial for attempted murder. The white kids? Got off.
The frustrating thing about this is that polls find fewer people have problems accepting queer folk these days, but those who don’t are awful vocal about it.
It might be worth it, for those who saw the ad, to write a letter commending Levi’s…although, really, why commend them when they are going to see an increase from their profit line.
Thanks snarkhunter.
I’m always so behind on the news or is it that that particular story got little front page coverage?
With respect to the gays, I’ve seen interesting commercials from Chemistry.com. A cute guy reads the terms/conditions from EHarmony.com then tears them up (or something) as they don’t apply to gay folk, but Chemistry.com accepts everyone, so come join our online dating extravaganza. This was not on the Logo channel, but I think it was some cable something…TNT or FX or some such.
I live in an area with a large gay male population.
This summer, I saw a bus shelter ad for bronzing lotion. It featured a picture of a handsome, well-tanned man, and read: “Take the W out of GWM”.
Loved it.
I couldn’t have made it as far as you did in the comments. I get too upset. In fact, I made it to the second and my lip started curling.
I just love how so many feel superior, don’t you?
Grr.
Good for Levis!
Sheesh. All the hateration and Levis was running that ads on bloody Logo, a station the haters are surely not even watching!
At least that forces them to openly reveal their hate, instead of being able to fall back on claims that they’re being ambushed by something they find objectionable.
For a smile, here is that Chemistry.com ad Shaunee brought up.
Narrow-minded people like those commenters just irritate the bejesus out of me. While I’ve never found a pair of Levis that fit this body, this makes me want to go out and buy some. Hmmm…you know, I haven’t taken the kidlet shopping for school clothes yet. I bet he’d like *lots* of Levis…seems like the thing for the well-dressed third grader.
I have never liked Levi’s, but maybe I will give them a chance from now on.
My Levi’s don’t fit my current, two-months-post baby body. (Nothing really does lately.) But I think I’ll be wearing them with a lil’ bit of a smile come Casual Friday.
IMO, only thing hotter than a cute gay couple in nice fitting jeans is a cute gay couple in nothing.
Honestly, I think all Levi’s ads are weird. I guess they’re aspirational, which rarely moves me.
What I think is interesting about the comments is how revealing they are about a person’s world view. Like the woman who said that she thought it would be okay if the ads only aired in the gay channel for the gays, but if it aired on any other channel the rest of population would be offended. She actually believes that all heteros think the way she does. That we’re offended by gay. That her views are appropriate and valid and normal and it would be normal to be offended. Which is just staggering to me.
I guess she’d be shocked by what I think is normal, appropriate and valid, too.
I have a couple pair of old, wonderfully broken in Levi’s. I guess I gotta order me some new ones, just because.
One thing I always wonder re: the ‘not born gay’ argument is exactly what the motivation for choosing to be gay is? The fashion?
Try writing gay romance manga using your real name. 0_0 The sentiments just come flying at you like mom-killing cutlery sent by Carrie.
The sad truth is, for many people, gays and lesbians are not human beings. A gay man or woman is nothing more than ‘how they have sex’—they don’t have lives, children, heartaches, triumphs, debt, windfalls, or emotions. It’s very easy to hate “a thing”, and so when you see that form of text-tourettes come out on the internet, these people feel ZERO sense that they’re doing anything wrong.
Personally, I think it’s sad. 🙁
A couple thoughts to share:
1. The gay version was hot. Very hot. I played it numerous times.
2. Why doesn’t the rest of the world acknowledge that Bravo, not Logo, is the gay network?
3. Does anyone else remember “Wear jeans on Thursday if you’re gay”? It was right up there with “Wear green if you’re gay.”
The idea in HS and college was to show that “normal” people could be gay, or that gay people were just like the rest of us. That was 35 years ago. I’d kind of hoped things had improved since then.
But I still wear jeans on Thursday, or Sunday, or Tuesday, and now I’ll make it a point to look for Levis that fit old broads.
veinglory – you choose to be gay so you can be fabulous, of course!
My favorite idiotic argument about the “gay lifestyle” is how it’s against “family values.”
Yup, because The Gays don’t have families, don’tcha know? They hatch from eggs deposited here by aliens.
Kudos to Levi’s! Of course, I always thought their “normal” commercials were kinda gay.
Oh, wait, that’s Wrangler!
I think the ads are adorable, and its hardly like Levis is the first company to do this. There are a ton of ads on Logo, and in gay mags that have been “gayified.” It is simple marketing, and it earns my gay dollars!
As for gays not having families, don’t tell that to my poor wife who is suffering through morning sickness! She’ll be disappointed if its for nothing! Ha!
And lastly, I hate the whole gay choice not a choice thing. Since being gay is just as faboo as being straight, who cares if its a choice! It just is what it is. 🙂
*off soap box*
~D
As I said to Sarah when I pointed out the article, this quote from the comments in particular got me: “The promotion of homosexuality is against nature and against God. No more Levi’s for me!” Yes, because you know what God does want? Jeans for straight people. Especially those Citizens of Humanity jeans, that fit so nicely in the tush. The *straight* tush.
Levi’s 501 are a standard apparel for gay men. They really do not have to advertise to us but the recognition that we have continued to buy them despite all the other jeans out there is nice.
Plus they are a San Francisco company.
Seems to me these are clearly bisexual ads. The same pants-puller-upper appears in both.
Now…ahem…what does THAT say about Levi’s? That “eviL’s” spread both ways?
Shit, guess we can’t escape it and might as well surrender!
The local OffRamp Leather shop here has 501’s with leather back pockets and Leather inseams.
James Dean wore em.
They are that iconic.
I almost wish I could buy Levis, just to make up for all of the homophobic snivellers out there.
Unfortunately, Levis has yet to make a pair of jeans that fits my body. I’m too short and too curvy, I think. (And I’m not even THAT curvy!)
I’ve come to expect the usual “I dislike the queer life because it’s HORRIBLY immoral!” responses, but the comment that ruffled my feathers (not because it’s hateful or anything like that) was this one:
“Airing this Ad on the Gay/Lesbian channel…no problem whosoever. Exposing our children to the gay version on other (straight) channels is completely inappropriate and a very slippery slope. What’s next, gay commercials during Saturday morning cartoons on ABC? Come to think of it, maybe during Teletubbies after Tinky Winky is on.. “
I think what got me was the fact that the commenter is clearly okay with Levi Strauss marketing to queers, and is also okay with people who ARE queer going about their gay little lives, but is adamantly against kids being exposed to any of it. I’m all for saving the children, but what would denying the existence of homosexuals be saving them from? There is this idea out there that homosexuality/bisexuality is this coercive, infectious lifestyle that will rot the souls of children.
It doesn’t seem so terrible to me that children should be exposed to alternate lifestyles, and even accept the fact that people will love whomever they love, and that loving, wonderful relationships can be had by all. God forbid (as I guess that he has, apparently) that a child should grow up believing that he/she isn’t some shameful freak, but rather a spectacular kid who is just as important as anyone else. Yeah… that would be aweful.
If we’re going to SAVE OF THE CHILDREN!, how about we save them from years of isolation, self-doubt, and shame.
*end rant*
P.S. My verification code is held91, and no, this wasn’t a big unloading of my own psychological baggage, and YES I was held as child. I’ve been raised since I was a gayby with a lesbian mother, a gay-loving father, and a gay godfather. I just enjoy a good rant.
“Yup, because The Gays don’t have families, don’tcha know? They hatch from eggs deposited here by aliens.”
Dude! I always freaking knew the story Mom told me about me being a month over due and 10lbs 2oz was bull! It’s not like I’m incredibly stubborn or somewhat chubby now. . . Now I must journey forth and find my true, alien parentage.
Now that you mention it, I was “two months premature” in the late ‘70s and managed to grow up fine—if more than a bit bisexual.
I bet Mom and Pop are still keeping the eggshell pieces in the basement!
If we’re supposed to “save the children” from the evils of homosexuality, what exactly are we supposed to do with the children that are queer? Hunh. Maybe that’s what Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” was REALLY about?
It doesn’t seem so terrible to me that children should be exposed to alternate lifestyles, and even accept the fact that people will love whomever they love, and that loving, wonderful relationships can be had by all.
I so agree. When I pick Freebird up and see other parents, gay and heterosexual, picking up their children as well, I wonder what he’s going to think of our generation attempting to pass amendments to outlaw his friends’ parents’ right to a legal, tax-code-supported, bonafide marriage. He’s going to wonder what the hell the fuss was about. It’s totally normal to him that his one friend has two dads, and his other friend has two moms.
Maybe that’s the solution – the insane haters will die off and their children will wonder what the fuss is about.
Gay romance book covers (and more):
http://www.gayontherange.com
and
http://www.strangesisters.com
Don’t these people know what they sound like?!? Do they get their opinions from anywhere else other than FOX News?
Unfortunately, the insane haters usually pass on their bigotry to their offspring before dying off.
I’ve seen bigotry from kids under the age of 10 and I always wonder what wonderful people their parents must be like.
I had a boss who was absolutely horrific in all respects. She could be so dreadfully racist and narrow-minded (the way she spoke of people of Middle-Eastern descent made me cringe), but she said something so smart one day, I’ve never forgotten it. Regarding her children (in their 30s now) and how to help them understand when they were confronted by some sort of sexuality, i.e. the television or school, etc, she said, “Naturally I tried to supervise the things they watched on TV, but if they happened to see something—a sex scene or whatever, I didn’t sweat it too much. It’s easier to explain sex and lust and love to an 8 year old. Explaining violence is next to impossible.”
Genius, no?
“Unfortunately, the insane haters usually pass on their bigotry to their offspring before dying off.”
Ya know, to an extent. My in-laws still talk about the “dark” part of town and make nasty comments about “wetbacks taking all the jobs”. Before they met my mom and her wife there was some anti-gay as well. (Now they love my step-mom though not my mom, but that’s more about personalities). By the time I came along, my husband had figured out that there’s no difference between races and “if people want to be gay, that’s their right to choose”. Naturally I had to educate him on the fact that it’s not a choice, but he’d really managed to shuck off a lot of those prejudices on his own. My teenage SILs are pretty much the same. My adult SIL married a Cuban guy. I think we’re headed in the right direction. It’s slow, there’s a lot more work to be done, but we’re getting there.
If we’re going to restrict the gay ads just to gay channels, can we also restrict the ads for diapers and baby wipes and formula to breeder channels? I don’t want to be infected by any virulent pro-baby rhetoric. Boo, babies!
Except gay babies. As monimala mentioned, they are delicious.