And Now, A Six-Minute Underwear Ad

As a publicity gimmick, this six-minute oh-so-artsy and dramatique Thierry Mugler ad debuted on the homemade porn site, X-Tube. Totally NSFW.

Spirit Airlines On Weinergate

Copyranter notes: "Spirit once again tries to prove that, creatively, it's better to be fast than good."

Toronto Pride Promo Raises Eyebrows

The below promotional clip from Pride Toronto and Tourism Toronto has some complaining that it reinforces gay stereotypes.

In the video, instructor Brody wears skintight shorts to show off his glistening oil-rubbed skin, promoting a gym lifestyle centred on the fact that all gay men and women want is “the best chest.” Amid “sparkle crunches,” a “disco break,” a requisite “bear” appearance and a lesbian who is grossed out by a penis (some may be surprised to note that this woman has a deep voice), we can’t help but wonder how out of touch (or straight?) the person who cooked up Pride Toronto’s painful-to-watch and setting-back-the-movement promotional video was. If gay activism is on the rise, how will the community be taken seriously if the organization that fronts the city’s largest gay celebration backs these old-hat, shouldn’t-be jokes? If they were looking to shoot fish in a barrel, why didn’t the Pride committee just hire Big Gay Al?

Some folks need to lighten up, but it just wouldn't be Pride season without some controversy out of Toronto. Remember all the hoopla about Queers United Against Israeli Apartheid last year?

AUSTRALIA: Safer Sex Activists Act Out Actual Anti-Gay Letters To The Editor

Billboard Of The Day

Steve Barnes at the Albany Times-Union reports:

A prominent billboard urging a local politician to vote for same-sex marriage has a restaurant source: Bombers Burrito Bar. The billboard, on I-787 south between I-90 and the Clinton Avenue exit, is addressed to Republican Roy McDonald, who voted against gay marriage while in the Assembly and, in 2009, as a state senator representing parts of Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. As my colleague Jimmy Vielkind reported last week, McDonald, who has been mum on the issue lately, is one of a handful of senators of both parties whose votes are uncertain.

Bombers Burrito Bar is owned by Matt Baumgartner, who owns several other restaurants across New York state.

AUSTRALIA: Safer-Sex Campaign Reinstated After Ad Company Relents

Brisbane's safer-sex ad campaign has been reinstated after widespread outrage across Australia. The campaign had been yanked after complaints from an anti-gay Christian group.

Announcing their backflip this afternoon, the company said it had changed its mind because it did not realise it had been subjected to a campaign from the Australian Christian Lobby to remove the posters. “Following ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis’ acknowledgement that the complaints received by Adshel, Brisbane City Council and the Advertising Standards Bureau regarding QAHC’s campaign have been orchestrated by the Australian Christian Lobby, Adshel is reinstating the ‘Rip and Roll’ campaign," a company press release said. "Adshel earlier responded to a series of complaints by removing the campaign from its media panels yesterday. None of the complaints indicated any liaison with the ACL, so Adshel was made to believe that they originated from individual members of the public.”

Randall Sells Out

Shades of the Sassy Best Friend. Randall's YouTube fans are split on this development, of course.

AUSTRALIA: Christianist Group Forces Removal Of Safer Sex Campaign

An anti-gay Christian group in Brisbane, Australia has forced an outdoor advertising company to yank a just-launched safer sex campaign. The ads featured a fully-clothed gay couple holding an unopened condom.

Adshel, the company that provides advertising for Brisbane's bus shelters; Goa Billboards; and the Advertising Standards Bureau were targeted in an orchestrated campaign by the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL). Healthy Communities executive director Paul Martin said it was extremely disheartening that Adshel had buckled. "Those of us who have been around fighting HIV in Queensland for a while will remember this kind of reaction from days gone by," he told AAP. "We certainly don't expect it in 2011."

ACL was trying to have gay people "erased from the public sphere", Mr Martin said. "It's an extreme minority of people who are very well organised and are able to launch this kind of action," he said. "The vast majority of Queenslanders support gay and lesbian rights." ACL Queensland director Wendy Francis said she objected to the sexual nature of the ads, not the fact the couple pictured were gay. Ms Francis was last year forced to apologise publicly after a Tweet likening gay marriage to legalising child abuse.

Concerned Women Are Concernstipated About The It Gets Better Project

"Thank you for cleaning up the Viagra commercials Fox, but PLEASE what’s with the new tolerance for homosexuals campaign disguised as anti-bullying? Bullying is wrong. It is wrong for any reason. Apparently, American Idol with the help of Woody from Disney’s Toy Story, thinks that my 4th grader needs to be fully aware of the plight of teens who view themselves as 'gay.' I am sorry, but he doesn’t even know about heterosexual sex yet. Can you give me some room here? I am ticked because I feel tricked. Fox blew it last night. The point is parents felt secure in allowing our entire families watch this show. They lured us into a false sense of security and broke trust with us last night." - Concerned Women president Penny Nance, angry about this week's airing of Google's It Gets Better ad during American Idol.

Gay-Friendly Ad Rejected By Supposedly Gay-Friendly Religious Website

An ad from the gay Christian group Believe Out Loud has been rejected by Sojourners, the supposedly progressive and gay-friendly Christian website. Read the rant of actual progressive Christian writer John Shore here. The ad is below.

(Via - Dan Savage)

Safer Sex Park

Copyranter tips us to this possibly NSFW animated safer sex clip from France's AIDES.

Google Airs Fantastic "It Gets Better Project" Ad During Glee

Major whopping props to Google for airing this amazing ad during tonight's episode of Glee. Somebody hand me a tissue.

Homophobia From Klondike

The new Klondike commercial feature two grimacing bikers that must endure a "moment of intimacy" by holding hands long enough to win some ice cream.

Billboard Of The Day

Today In Ambiguously Gay Advertising

Dozens of you have sent in the below Budweister ad in which some are seeing a gay subtext to a soldier's coming home story. I'm not seeing it.

Church Sign Of The Day

The above message is being displayed on an electronic billboard in Toledo, Ohio. The church has issued the below statement in support of their campaign.

This simple statement is intended to be a gift to those who have experienced hurt and discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. The Church seeks nothing less than the healing of the world, and Central UMC wants to offer words and acts of healing to those hurt and marginalized. Also, declaring that being gay is a gift from God is a prophetic call to the Church to get out of the business of marginalizing gay and lesbian persons from the Church, and to welcome them as full members.

Refreshing and positive religious news! On JMG!

ITALY: Cell Phone Ad Riles Catholics

Some Italians Catholics are incensed over the below 10-second cell phone ad in which a man resembling Jesus asks "Dad" for help in escaping a dominatrix.

"It's a sordid concept and incredibly insulting to those who believe in Jesus Christ," said an editorial in Avvenire, a daily newspaper owned by the Catholic Bishops Conference. The newspaper's editor, Marco Tarquinio, said the commercial should never have been made. He suggested that Catholics offended by the ad should stop watching the channel and boycott the company's products. An association of Catholic television viewers, Aiart, made a formal protest over the commercial. "The reference to Christ is explicit and deeply offensive to religious sentiment," it said in a statement.

Royal Wedding

The Verizon Guy Comes Out

Now that the long run of Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now?" campaign is over, actor Paul Marcarelli has come out and is talking about the anti-gay abuse he endured while playing the character known as Test Man.

Marcarelli has a home in Guilford, Connecticut, and five summers ago, kids in an SUV began driving past at night, yelling, “Can you hear me now?” Later, says Marcarelli, “they started screaming ‘faggot’ up at my house. It got progressively more profane as the years went by.” One night, it happened while some friends were over, and he decided to call the police. “As soon as I hung up the phone,” he says, “I realized that in order for them to do anything about it, it would have to become a report that would go into a police log.” Worried about the publicity—and the questions that might ensue if it came out that the actor playing Test Man was gay—he declined to file a report.

Marcarelli has produced and written a film titled The Green, which "centers on how a small town slowly turns against a gay couple when one of the men, a schoolteacher, gets ensnared in scandal." His movie is currently being pitched to film festivals.

On Those Banner Ads

Several times a day I get emails objecting to some of the banner ads here on JMG, which as I always explain are often triggered by the content of my posts. For example, if I mock Crazy Eyes, there's a good chance you'll see an ad for her reelection campaign or whatever. If it makes you feel any better, the same thing happens on wingnut blogs, where you're just as likely to see an ad for the ACLU or whomever. So please, enough with the screen shots, folks.