Is American Advertising Homophobic?
It seems Americans really are a bunch of hypocrites. It's OK to be gay in movies and on TV. In fact, it's OK to have a gay character on almost every single show and movie. So much so that you'd think everyone in America was gay. Except if you watch American advertising.
When it come to advertising, as Bill Green points out, American advertising is still in the closet. He points to a Hyundai commercial which allows us to observe a potential rendezvous between two women. There's no sex. There's no kissing. There's no touching. The two woman aren't even in a scene together. But...the implication is they will, of course, be together in, perhaps, the biblical sense later on.
And that's why, it seems, this ad ran in Canada during the Olympics and not in America. Green argues homophobia is to blame and proof of its existence in in the lack of gay-themed advertising in mainstream programming.
While Hyundai's marketing efforts in Canada are certainly different than American efforts and it's likely this commercial was never intended to air in America, Green's points is that it wouldn't. It wouldn't be created. It wouldn't be aired. The country isn't ready for complete, unfettered acceptance of the gay and lesbian lifestyle. What do you think?
