Yes, the Opie and Anthony show on SiriusXM radio is not exactly most gay people’s go-to for some quality lowbrow talk radio. But you’d think they’d at least have our back when it comes to accepting gay ads… especially when the gay owner of Boy Butter has regularly advertised his product, which is intended for use in anal sex, on their and many other SiriusXM shows.
Said the hosts: “Believe it or not, it shocks a lot of people, but we support the gays. But the Boy Butter thing is, just… come on. What are we doing? How do you not have a beer company on this show? But Boy Butter?”
That’s a real great argument there, when you can’t even finish your sentence with a supporting reason.
Then, at 3:19, is that a “faggot”-bomb tossed from a caller or is it just us? Naturally, when Eyal Feldman, the owner of Boy Butter, found out, he was enraged.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Feldman writes on the Boy Butter blog, after being unceremoniously informed by an ad sales rep that he could no longer advertise with Sirius:
Opie and Anthony bill their show as being “edgy and uncensored” except they chose to take a product that was helping pay the bills and not only ridicule it, but the person behind the brand and maybe gay people in general with their senseless seventh grade “humor.” They then censored me by banning my sponsorship from that point forward and refused to return my calls and emails to get a simple explanation. It would be awesome to have the opportunity to go on Opie and Anthony to defend myself and present a rebuttal, since they had attacked my product unfairly in a most unprofessional manner.
They owe me a public apology and a proper explanation, devoid of stereotypical gay lisps, for why this issue ever came up in the first place. It would be one thing if this was a show of religious conviction or one that did not have a history of sexualized advertising (i.e., Adam & Eve) – I’m keenly aware that advertising needs to be targeted at an audience that is best suited to receive but my ads were no different than Adam Eve, except my product is apparently for people with lisps. This is the perfect example of this endemic trend of bullying gay people cause it is the last acceptable discriminatory practice.
So, in addition to being the type of straight guys who are okay with gay guys until they have to confront the reality that gay sex exists, Opie and Anthony are cowards. At least own up to your bullshit, kids, and let your advertiser on your show to defend his product.
They say at the end of the show, after thinking about other more mainstream advertisers they could attract, like Dove Soap: “This is the company I’d rather deal with than Dove Soap. How are we going to offend the Boy Butter people? They’re not pulling their sponsorship.”
Right, because the gay dollar doesn’t count. And how unprofessional, to take public shots at their ads sales department. That’s something you do off-air.
Here they’re talking about “stooping low” to take gay ads. That they lose respect by doing so. They should be lucky to have our gay sex pay the bills, because clearly their show is not good enough to do so on its own.
Eyal Feldman
It’s like i paid for my own gay bashing
QUINTessential
Anyone who honestly takes seriously the ramblings of a couple of shock jocks is overly sensitive to the point of being unreasonable. Don’t like the show? Then turn it off. Hey, problem solved!
Jasun Mark
@Eyal Feldman: It’s pretty shocking how straight guys are just fine with the fey, asexual gays that litter straight-aimed TV shows… the hair dressers and interior decorators and wedding planners and gay BFFs.. but the moment they have to think of us as human and sexual or masculine… wow… they drop the “faggot” bombs on us pretty quickly.
I learned that the mainstream media will only use the word “gay” if they can tear someone down with it or laugh at someone with it but never use it in a positive way. When I worked for Fratmen and we had two straight male wrestlers do solo videos for us, the mainstream media just couldn’t WAIT to use the word “gay” as much as possible as they ruined the athletic careers of two young men whose only crime was jerking off on camera. But the same year Matthew Mitcham won the Gold Medal at the Olympics and his very-out status wasn’t mentioned once because, as the news said, “his sexual orientation is a private matter.”
But Eyal… my suggestion is to drop mainstream advertising altogether and follow the model of Str8Cam and FleshJack… take your marketing to the place where your audience is. Opie and Andy can suck it. (and they probably do… poorly)
Jasun Mark
@QUINTessential: I don’t think anyone takes it seriously… but if you’re going to take advertising money and then make homophobic jokes about your sponsors, that’s pretty fucked up.
Eyal Feldman
@QUINTessential: The problem is that they gay bashed their own sponsor. No one should pay for their own gay bashing, its insult to injury.
John Doe
I’m gay and I’m an Opie & Anthony fan so let me weigh in on this.
1) O&A didn’t take ad money from Boy Butter; SiriusXM did. O&A know that their core audience is comprised of straight guys who might be a bit put off by the ads. However, that’s not their main concern. Their main concern is that being sponsored by a lube company will make the show seem like a niche show instead the mainstream show they want it to be.
2) Opie, Anthony, and Jim Norton are all on record as both supporting gay marriage and despising genuinely homophobic people. Those views should be more important than comments made in humor.
3) As QUINTessential said, you have the option to stop listen if something offends you.
4) Stop complaining about gay bashing when it comes to humor. Your time would be much better spent going after Barack Obama for not supporting gay marriage and Mitt Romney for doing a 180-degree turn on gay issues.
Tom
Take no note of Opie. Anthony and Jim didn’t mind but Opie thinks he is still a 22 year old disc jockey thinking about the young audience he is trying be cool for.
It’s never really impressed anyone.
Tony
If you give a shit, buy more boy butter. It’s a great product and it will stick it to the assholes at Sirius.
Evan Mulvihill
@John Doe: I go on a SiriusXM Show tomorrow, the Derek and Romaine Show on OutQ, and will likely discuss this further. Stay tuned.
Sozo
These Stern bootlickers should be thrilled anyone would advertise on their show but do they really think major advertisers would waste their time getting over-billed to place ads on a show no one cares about?
Fuck O&A
QUINTessential
@John Doe: Amen, brother, a-fucking-men. You, sir, are apparently the smartest man in the room.
TurkFebruary
@Evan Mulvihill:
Awesome, rather than address the totally valid points John Doe made here, you’ll wait until you are on a platform where you can say whatever you want without needing to back yourself up. BTW, this bit was on O&A almost two weeks ago. Someone had to tell you about it so you could be “outraged”
Hyhybt
@John Doe: Taking all you said for granted, why did they 1) allow advertising the product until now and then 2) reject it once this happened?
@TurkFebruary: Why would you expect anyone to know the content of their show without being told of it? Nobody can watch, listen to, and read everything that’s published just in case something like this comes up.
@Sozo: Without Boy Butter?
TurkFebruary
@Hyhybt:
The point is, why do you care what is said on programs you don’t listen to? Evan and most people on this thread are going out of their way to be “outraged”. It’s really stupid. Mind you own business and you’ll be far happier.
Daez
@QUINTessential: It is not as simple as just turn it off when you are the one paying for it to be on. I think the right thing was done in this case. However, I am disappointed that Boy Butter will pull their advertising from all of Sirius. Sirius offers a lot of good leftist themed and gay friendly programming as well.
Hyhybt
@TurkFebruary: I’m not outraged. I’m curious about what appears to be a contradiction… and yes, I do see reason to care what’s said on shows I don’t listen to. Not that much in this particular case, because they don’t sound like folks anybody would take seriously and this incident seems more silly and stupid than malicious.
But as a general principle, the idea that you shouldn’t care what people you’re not listening to say doesn’t work. That depends very much on what they’re saying and whether others take them seriously… but even something relatively harmless done in a joking manner reveals something about the person who says it, and usually their audience as well.
TurkFebruary
@Hyhybt:
“But as a general principle, the idea that you shouldn’t care what people you’re not listening to say doesn’t work. That depends very much on what they’re saying and whether others take them seriously… but even something relatively harmless done in a joking manner reveals something about the person who says it, and usually their audience as well.”
This is the excuse people use for wanting things they don’t like removed. Some people enjoy gallows humor, some don’t.
You’d be upset if some Christian group took pieces of a gay radio broadcast and tried to have it banned.
LaTeesha
Didn’t listen to their trashy show before this and don’t plan to now.
Jabaroo
How can you say you’re ‘cool with the gays’ in one sentence and then in the next bash a product that is marketed towards gay men? Perhaps they’re not so cool with it.
Hyhybt
@TurkFebruary: That’s a big leap you’re making, from caring what people say to trying to stop their saying it. The one does NOT in any way require the other.
TitsyMcgee
@John Doe: Since when hasn’t Obama supported Gay Marriage? Just because it isn’t legal yet doesn’t mean he isn’t supportive you sick twisted piece of shit.
Stop Whining
They would have ragged on this same product if it were advertised as for men to lube their women’s asses. It’s not about the gays. That was just the angle they took for the jokes since that’s how it’s marketed.
There’s been a longstanding issue between O&A and management about the company taking the show more seriously. When your sales department buys buttsex cream ads, regardless of the intended audience, that’s not “taking the show more seriously.”
Maybe this Feldman guy could look into the kind of show he’s buying spots on before whining about “bullying.” No wonder people stereotype gays as sissies. Look at the lot of you crybabies. You’re embarrassing yourselves. Go on OutQ tomorrow and shed a tear for the 5 people that listen to that channel. It’ll be a hoot.
Daez
@Stop Whining: I can totally see how going on homophobic rants and bashing your advertisers is going to make you get taken more seriously by the company you work for. By more seriously, I mean more seriously examining the bottom line and figuring out if you are actually worth what you are paid or not.
Patrick Kelley
Really, I sell boy butter and yes gay do buy lube lots of lube.. Don’t blame a company for selling and marketing to gays… Then why do we see so call gay friendly straight company’s going o gay pride??? Get over it…
Jonathonz
I don’t know anything about that show but the name of that lube has always skeezed me out. I like butter on my bread, not on my boy. It sounds kind of gross.
Jonathonz
@Jabaroo: How does bashing a product marketed towards gays have ANYTHING to do with bashing gays in general? I fail to see the connection.
Allnighter
Okay fine, but how is running ads on this idiotic show an effective use of marketing dollars, if indeed the show is “not exactly most gay people’s go-to” program?
Jabaroo
@Jonathonz: My interpretation of the comment was “were cool with gays, but this is just TOO faggy”
Hyhybt
@Jonathonz: Neither half of the name is all that great, really. But the name is *memorable,* and that’s what counts.
Shannon1981
1. Last I checked, most gay people are not into obnoxious shock jocks in the vein of Opie and Anthony, so, what a waste of ad dollars here.
2. Evan, when you talk to these two yahoos, ask them what their problem is, will ya?
TedSheckler
@Tony:
“If you give a shit, buy more boy butter. It’s a great product and it will stick it to the assholes at Sirius.”
Heh..I thought Boy Butter wasn’t supposed to stick to assholes….but hey, you’re the experts…
TedSheckler
@Shannon1981:
O&A don’t work for OutQ…so he wont be talking to them. He’ll be busy talking on a pro-gay channel where his “rage” won’t be challenged or questioned.
John Doe
@TitsyMcgee:
Why am I a sick, twisted piece of shit? Because I don’t agree with Obama? Because I’m not a liberal-by-default gay guy? (For the record, I’m a libertarian; vote for Gary Johnson.) Here’s your boy saying that “marriage is the union between a man and a woman”. Think before type (and vote).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K9dS9wl7U
John Doe
Everyone needs to just calm the fuck down and stop complaining. So they made homophobic jokes while bashing a product marketed toward gays. So what? I fail to see how that does any harm to us. GLAAD does way more harm to the cause of gay rights than O&A (who aren’t even part of the problem)ever could. Here’s an interesting fact about GLAAD: Like a lot of liberal groups, they support the Palestinian cause (we all know how Radical Islam views homosexuality). They may not seem like a big deal, but consider how gays are treated in Palestinian-controlled areas and think it over.
Another thing I’d like to point out is the unspoken prejudice many bisexuals face from the gay community. There’s a widespread (but thankfully contracting) belief that bisexuals are just cowardly homosexuals (or rebellious heterosexuals). That issue is way more problematic that straight guys saying “faggot” (which is an awesome word. So is “queer”). Just think about that next time you decide to get “outraged” over jokes.
Love,
your grandson Frank
Shannon1981
@TedSheckler: ahhh,ok, thanks. I really hope another channel picks up Boy Butter.
Shannon1981
@John Doe: Gary Johnson is awesome, but doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning. You are handing the election to Mittens by voting third party.
Fred Bimmel
Way to break the stereotype of the gay community being politically and culturally closed-minded, guys. Why don’t you go put on dresses and wigs and sing show tunes? Might as well play up to every ugly stereotype society has about gays while you’re at it.
Has it ever occurred to any of you that some gay folks might actually LIKE shock jockery on the radio? Or that they might WANT to vote for Gary Johnson, or as (one poster disparagingly called him) “Mittens”?
Some people who prefer the company of the other sex aren’t sheltered, thin skinned, whiny little…well, you can figure out the word I’d use next. And I don’t mean it as a sexual slur. I mean it as a slur to your over sensitivity to EVERYTHING. STOP BEING OFFENDED AT EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DON’T LIKE. People might take you more seriously.
Fred Bimmel
Correction: I meant to say “people who prefer the company of the same sex”
Although there are a fair number of breeders that are thin skinned F-words too.
Hyhybt
@Fred Bimmel: Of course it’s occurred to people “that some gay folks might actually LIKE… ” etc. Why would Queerty readers say unkind things about people they think don’t exist? That’s Linda Harvey’s job.
John Doe
@Shannon1981: I’d rather hand Mittens a victory by voted for Gary Johnson – a guy whose political views I actually share and believe in – than vote for Barack Obama.
Hyhybt
@John Doe: Good; and I hope 20 million who voted Republican in the last election make the same choice.
Uncle Paul
The Opie and Anthony show is the greatest show on radio. These guys are straight and would never try and stop gay people from getting married or any real issues like that. They joke about gays, straights, sick people, healthy people, fat people, skinny people, and themselves. This is a comedy show!! You are taking this meaningless joke way to hard (no pun intended).
John Doe
@Uncle Paul: Oh, Uncle Paul.
jimall3
As a gay man I’ll say Opie and Anthony actually stumbled upon something they don’t know how to articulate; but the ads and packaging are gross. This boy butter crap and it’s commercials make fun of us. It’s like a straight man’s view – like Adam Sandler’s view of us as depraved in that crap movie he did or stupid Borat. Is this assi Feldman even gay? He sure doesn’t seem like he is; I don’t mean this as any sort of compliment. He makes my homophobic bully-dar go up. I know when someone’s making fun of us. We portrayed as a gross crude, sex addicts by him.
jimall3
@Jasun Mark: I’m gay and I make fun of these ads. Only a person with a one dimensional understanding would make these gross ads about us and sell it to us like this. Is Assi feldman even gay?
jimall3
@Eyal Feldman: are you even f*&^ing gay? ‘Cuz if not that’s like me saying I am a victim of anti-antisemitism when I’m not Jewish.