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I don't think commercials are pushing an agenda. They're pushing to expand their market share. Acknowledging that gay people buy stuff is being smart.
Exactly!
Similarly, TV commercials over the past five years or so have begun to include a lot more people of color.
Recognizing that people of all races, all ethnicities, and all sexual orientations might be induced to buy one's product or service by acknowledging the existence of their group is simply a case of smart marketing.
I don't think commercials are pushing an agenda. They're pushing to expand their market share. Acknowledging that gay people buy stuff is being smart.
It's not just smart...it's brilliant to use gay couples in marketing because it appeals not only to gay folks, but to the larger majority: people who have gay friends, family members and colleagues who appreciate inclusion and will buy products because of it--and that's way more people than will boycott the company.
I also think its brilliant to use mixed race couples, because you are capturing both demographics at once, and the people offended by interracial relationships are so tiny as to be a meaningless blip these days.
In the past 60 years the homo issue has been anything but stationary - particularly with regard to men.. So the age group you're talking about is important.
In the era before the word "gay" was coined and in general use, there were far less homo men identifiable as such; actively bisexual men outside of prisons (15 - 18% in the 1950's studies) were extremely discreet about it, and in those days, one's sexuality was neither a topic of concern in most all instances and except in a vanishingly few, was never a person's outward identity. And, believe me...there was a good deal of homo and bi activity (it was not invented yesterday) - and far more ostensibly anonymous outlets for it existed than there are now. And it was kept very secret - i.e., nobody's business except the two guys involved. Coincidentely, well into the seventies a man who remained single beyond 30 was not typically stigmatized - he was known as a "bachelor," if anything, not otherwise specified unless he was effeminate or indiscreet with his choice of sex partners, male or female. With the public gay liberation, (mal-timed with the coincident AIDS epidemic) came increased and specific homophobia in men, (and, in many women where the questioning of even married men first emerged on any serious level). That phenomenon accelerated with the "too much information" era and its outright publicity of what goes on in people's underpants. In more recent times, the social/legal pressure to be accommodating to people with alternate sexual ilks has increased markedly - regardless of whether or not it induced a sense of nausea.
So, to address the OP's point, today, more than ever I'd say, men who are not married with children are excluded from the company of men who are.
Younger people today seem relatively neutral about males' sexual preference whereas many boomer-aged men continue to at least distance themselves from any guy they consider "suspicious" more than they ever did. The former sites appropriate for discreet bi-meetups are largely no longer in existence. That's good & bad, I guess. Bad for the homo man with a largely "passing thru" approach and not really interested in a lifetime bedmate (common in males). Good for the gal who has a traveling salesman or trucker hubbie and assumes he's 100% hetero.
The recent LSMFT (or whatever it is) agglomeration of types is a myth, far as I can tell, for entertainment purposes only, aimed at a very miniscule few. Homosexual men are not interested in a man clad in women's clothes and rarely strike up friendships with lesbians. They're interested in men, period. (Something that leaves women out)...and, hence, I s'pose it's primarily women pushing that LSMFT stuff.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 08-24-2022 at 02:06 PM..
It's not just smart...it's brilliant to use gay couples in marketing because it appeals not only to gay folks, but to the larger majority: people who have gay friends, family members and colleagues who appreciate inclusion and will buy products because of it--and that's way more people than will boycott the company.
I also think its brilliant to use mixed race couples, because you are capturing both demographics at once, and the people offended by interracial relationships are so tiny as to be a meaningless blip these days.
It's not just smart...it's brilliant to use gay couples in marketing because it appeals not only to gay folks, but to the larger majority: people who have gay friends, family members and colleagues who appreciate inclusion and will buy products because of it--and that's way more people than will boycott the company.
I also think its brilliant to use mixed race couples, because you are capturing both demographics at once, and the people offended by interracial relationships are so tiny as to be a meaningless blip these days.
I agree. Advertising is specifically aimed at the potential consumer of that product.
I think it's fascinating to look back into the history of male+male sexuality. I've read memoirs from the 30s and 40s where young, single men would frequently have sexual encounters with other men (and boys) because of the lack of sexually available women (because of course women could not risk premarital sex because of crippling social stigma and fear of pregnancy). Interestingly, these men did not consider themselves gay, bi, or anything but horny.
I think it's fascinating to look back into the history of male+male sexuality. I've read memoirs from the 30s and 40s where young, single men would frequently have sexual encounters with other men (and boys) because of the lack of sexually available women (because of course women could not risk premarital sex because of crippling social stigma and fear of pregnancy). Interestingly, these men did not consider themselves gay, bi, or anything but horny.
Which is the attitude in prison.
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