Friday, January 09, 2009
Pretty and witty and gay
Behold this brilliantly ambiguous ad from Virgin Atlantic, which -- though it is two years old -- I had not seen before. Is it a casual, hip endorsement of gay marriage, or a subversive appeal to homophobia in straight men who have to travel too much? Maybe it is both!
From AdFreak, which also features a palpably straight Virgin ad.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Jan 09, 11:28:00 PM:
As a woman, I look forward to gay marriage bringing us many images of sexy men together. I think I understand men's fascination with lesbians -- twice the goodies to look at.
But this ad -- well, one guy was sexy.
By , at
Sun Jan 11, 08:41:00 PM:
Only a straight man could possibly think this was meant to be an endorsement of gay marriage. Or that it is "hip" with respect to homosexuality at all.
Clearly the attractive guy is having a bad dream because a "gross" guy's head was touching his when they both fell asleep on the plane. The problems of being next to a fat person on a plane are a travel cliche, and this does a nice twist on that.
Does the attractive guy look remotely happy anywhere in this sequence? No. He looks slightly relieved when he wakes up.
The ad could be the same with 2 women, or a man & woman, one attractive, one less so. And, because of the specific cliche, the big-ness is also an essential part of the gag.
