After a breakthrough of gay-vague commercials and print ads, it seems like more and more ads are fitting what I’d call post-gay-vague: that is, their intention is not to use a subtext to coyly address a gay spectator but rather to use an overt gay text as a means to speak to a straight, even homophobic, spectator and secondarily to a gay or homophilic spectator. The smartest (smart from a marketing perspective) instances have been able to do the balancing act between gay and homophobic humor. The recent Dorito’s ad, for instance, can be funny because the viewer identifies with the scariness of being sung to by a male singer, or it can be funny for its sly reference to certain Latin pop stars’ sexuality (If Marxists for Keynes had a lawyer, they’d advise to choose our words carefully here). Or, there’s the Miller ad, in which women at a bar make eyes a cute man who turns out to be gay. Again, the source of humor could be homophobic (and I’m sure is for many viewers), but it also is delightful to see the conventions of the beer commercial subverted. Maybe I should take more humbrage at these commercials, but they’re positively enlightened compared to the latest Southwest Airlines ad strikes me as crude homophobia: a guy is checking his reflection in a car window only to have the window roll down and two flaming Hispanic queens inside blow him a kiss. No real ambiguity of humor here - I can’t even imagine a way the commercial would make sense without a homophobic interepretation. I have checked both Southwest Airlines website and The Commercial Closet, but neither has the ad or even mentions it.
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