American Airlines finally decided to jump on the gay marketing train.

While competitors have courted the queers for years, American Airlines has preferred sponsoring gay friendly events. Their new nostalgic ad campaign changes all that:

Recalling when travel was considered glamorous, new print ads in The Advocate and online look like vintage, 50s-era illustrated posters, but with the twist of two carefree men stepping off the plane together. The tagline is "Fly forward" and was created by American's longtime ad agency, TM Advertising, of Dallas, and Washington, D.C.-based gay marketing firm Witeck-Combs Communications.

"There's a sameness to travel ads, the same faces and couples in stock photography, we thought we'd like to try something more imaginative," explains American Airlines spokesman Tim Kincaid.

The ads sure are imaginative: what gay man wears Hawaiian shirts? Not to mention socks with loafers…

For those of you who like useless information, here's a little tidbit for you:

Seven out of ten (71%) Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) adults say that they own pets, compared with 63 percent of heterosexual adults, according to the results of a new US survey.

The same survey also shows that nine in ten (90%) GLBT pet owners say their pet is a member of their family and 64 percent also add that they have bought their pet a holiday present.
…
"Americans have well deserved reputations as animal lovers and pet owners, and our latest findings underscore that GLBT Americans are among the most avid," said Wesley Combs, President of Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc.

Another groundbreaking find from market researchers!

Marketing executives have long held the homo dollar in high regard. Their male-centric ways, however, often lesbians out in the advertising cold. Journo Eric Newman gives readers the lowdown in an exhaustive - but hardly exhausting - piece over at Brandweek:

That lesbians have lingered in the economic shadows even as homoerotic-male imagery has become a marketing norm in some sectors may be due to fear on the part of some brands that too much gay-directed marketing may rouse the ire of conservative social groups (more on that later). However, according to Blackwood, much of the ignorance concerning lesbian consumers has come from mistaken presumptions about their economic muscle.

For starters, lesbians represent a little less than half of the estimated $690 billion buying power of the homosexual population in America, a number that's expected to reach $835 billion by 2011, according to New York research firm Packaged Facts…. A 2007 study conducted by Community Marketing, San Francisco, revealed that single lesbians averaged annual incomes of $52,000, and that lesbian couples living together brought in just under $100,000 annually.

Whoa. Maybe we should become lesbians.

British model David Gandy gets the work over in Sunday's edition of The Times.

Currently the face of Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue Pour Homme cologne, Gandy and his package can be seen on billboards, magazine ads and commercials the world over. His masculinity represents a sea change in the industry, says Lisa Armstrong.

Despite the the lusty zeitgeist, don't hold your breath for any gay adverts - the fashion world ain't ready.

CONTINUED »

PlanetOut Inc's finally addressing its financial woes. In a piece over at The Advocate - one of PlanetOut's many fag rags - sappho-journo Kerry Eleveld informs us that while things are looking grim - falling stock prices, the albatross called RSVP cruises - the company may bounce back. If it can secure $7 million, of course.

PlanetOut Inc.’s first major hurdle in its uphill climb toward fiscal solvency is just days away. After posting a $6.9 million loss the first quarter of this year, the company’s lender set June 30 as the date by which it must raise at least $7 million—with another $8 million to come by August 31.

As a means toward this life-saving end, the once might media giant's shedding its "adult-entertainment" division, SpecPub. The sale, of course, will help wrangle in some of the more pornphobic advertisers, like Lexus, which will soon be returning to the company's pink pages.

CONTINUED »

Hallmark did right by the gays this week when they pulled a homophobic Father's Day card from their roster of greetings. The card in question featured the works for a picnic with the message, "Dad, how about a Father's Day picnic?" The punchline inside read, "Too Queer? Yeah, I thought so, too".

Gay.com reports that an insulted homo pressed Hallmark to pull the card and the company agreed. Hallmark flack Deidre Parkes released the following statement:

[Hallmark's business unit] reviewed it today and did all agree that it was in poor judgment to include the card in the line. We are stopping the shipping of the card, and we will not produce it again. Hallmark's intent is never to offend, and we're truly sorry if that is the case here.

Do they have a card for that?

The Conservative Voice may want to rethink their contextual advertising format. But, then again, so should we - a reader pointed out that an eHarmony ad found its way on our site yesterday.

The advertising gods must be crazy!

The best, most thought provoking, socially conscious and sweetest alcohol commercial in the history of the universe. It very nearly makes us want a heart, soul and/or drink…

• We're not sure if you've heard, but pseudo-celebrity and professional fuck-up Paris Hilton went to prison today. The hotel heiress must complete a mandatory sentecen after driving under the influence of alcohol and stupidity on a suspended license. Sarah Silverman gave her a fitting send-off at the MTV Movie Awards and New York's Madame Tussaud's gave Hilton's wax replica a timely make-over. We've never heard of the fames wax museum changing a figure's costume to fit their incarceration status. 'Tis the inexplicable power of Paris Hilton…

• It's anti-gay Bingo! Brought to you by Willie Hewes!

• London has unveiled the fucking radical Olympics 2012 logo.

• One hit from Hostel director Eli Roth's penis and you're a goner.

• Jackson Heights, Queens' Gay Pride needs to seen to be believed.

• George Clooney would help save Laguna Beach's gay bar, the Boom Boom Room, but he doesn't want anyone to think he's gay. Brad Pitt would, too, but he's too busy sucking George Clooney's dick.

• Ad sales in gay media grow faster than their straight counterparts, but can they last?

• The Fragrance Awards - the best smelling awards show this side of the awards show calendar. Now in video form.

• Tory politico, Sir Simon Milton, has come out of the closet and will be marrying his long-time lover, Robert Davis. Of coming out, Milton remarks: "The time was right…We’re happy and excited. I would rather tell people myself than be the subject of rumour.”

• The murder rate for trans California women just keeps on rising

• Despite activist pressure, the FDA won't be lifting its "gay blood" ban.

• PlanetOut Inc's stock continues to fall.

• Kurt Cobain, Joey Ramone, other dead rock stars live! Wear Doc Martens!

• Ahhhh! It's Kylie Minogue's head! And it's floating!

• Lesbian alleges shelter left her out in the cold: "It was pretty clear the reason she put me on hold is because I said I was a lesbian."

• Did Dick Cheney hire hookers? From Roll Call: "Vice President Cheney isn’t not on the phone records of the alleged D.C. Madam, who is accused of running a high-price call-girl ring in Washington, the accused madam’s lawyer said on Tuesday."

Commercial Closet - the non-profit "non-watchdog" group dedicated to celebrating and chastising pro and anti-gay ads, respectively - has announced their nominees for the 2007 Images in Advertising Awards.

Among the nominees, concerned consumers will find ads from, yes, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs' bear-y friendly bear hug adverts, and the always gay friendly.

Meanwhile, Holiday Inn, NBC Universal and Sony Playstation have all been nominated for the dreaded "clean-up your act warning" - um - award.

Ball Park Franks has a new advertising campaign - "Hunger Gets What Hunger Wants" - in which burly arms rip through young boys' stomachs, pick up a nice, long dog and cram it down their throats. They're downright freaky.

Of the campaign, homo-journo Dan Avery pleads, "Think of the children!" It seems to us Ball Park may have been thinking about the children a little too much.

Experience another horrific video, after the jump…

CONTINUED »

In the second part of our morning kiss trilogy, we again turn our eyes to that damn Snickers commercial. We'll spare you the overblown details, because by now you know that daddy corporation, Masterfoods pulled the adverts. Accompanying news reports focussed on outcry from gay mega groups like HRC and GLAAD - the two groups credited with forcing the retraction - thus the debate swirled around the plug's alleged homophobia. As any good homo knows, he who blows hardest, blows loudest.

At the height of the hysteria, homos were plotting boycotts against the no longer satisfying candy bar. The queers weren't the only ones offended by the accidental gay kiss. Another group raised their voices, but for different reasons all together. The screeches of anti-gay conservatives got drowned out by the squeals of the sissy set.

Actually, we never would have discovered this divergent displeasure had it not been for that Trebay piece…

CONTINUED »

• Watching those Snickers commercials? No. Masterfoods yanked 'em, issuing the world's most flippant, indifferent statement in history: "We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent. As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer."

• Heading to rehab after admitting to fucking you former campaign manager's wife? No, that's pretty much San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's territory. (What's up with everyone going to rehab. Party poopers.)

• Going to Best Week Ever's "The First (and Possibly Last) Annual ZARFCON 2007"? Only if you join them in DC for All My Children actor Jeffrey Carlson's performance in Hamlet.

• Being named Human Rights Campaign's new chief diversity officer? Only if your name's Cuc Vu. (And, yes, they work "the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization" into the first sentence".)

• Blaming your divorce from Nick Lachey on The Notebook? Yes. That is, if you're name's Jessica Simpson, who says, "I just figured out the statement." Yeah, that's how we read it, too.

• Barring The New York Times from your fashion show over a bad Cathy Horyn review? Only if you're Carolina Herrera. Well, she sure showed that bitch Cathy, now didn't she? Only if Horyn cares, which we doubt she does.

• Announcing your official presidential bid on February 13th? That's what Mitt Romney's reportedly doing. Happy fucking Valentine's.