True love knows no bounds. So when Ari Davis told his parents he’s gay — for advertising — he knew he’d have to run away and take his portfolio with him. Before you knew it, he was turning tricks on the street. From director Mark Satterthwaite (and the advertising agency Young & Rubicam) comes this twisted coming out tale.
lols
Condenasty
Ridiculous…and the lead was poorly written and confusing. FAIL.
EdWoody
Yeah, I have no idea what this particular piece is saying. And that’s pretty much the definition of FAIL when it comes to writing.
KalperniaRena
um…..lol?
Shofixti
It’s like saying that when you are gay for men, you will have sex with women as long as they dress up as men and talk in a low voice B.S.
chpinnlr
not funny. And I laugh at almost anything.
Dean
Completely tasteless and insulting. When so many people struggle with coming out and with so much discrimination and hatred aimed at gay people in our culture, I don’t find this humorous at all. Just rude and insensitive.
justiceontherocks
Who thought this was a good idea and why?
BS
I couldnt even finish it.
CA
Uhhh
adman
Callow people are so blissful when they think they are inspired. The guy is convinced he’s onto some new brand of cunning new humor and it’s just fascinating, really. What people who reach meaningless conclusions for a living can lead themselves to think and do! He’ll probably get the job, though, with this “reel”. Well produced, (well enough anyway) and stupid is far more than you need in the ad biz. He can make up a bs pitch about cognitive dissonance and be pulling down six figures inside of two weeks, easy. I’ve worked in this business long enough not to know why people win popularity contests, and it’s not due to merit, FYI. He knows the market for say, MTV, or Prius autos, for instance.
eric ford
What the clip communicates is “Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you: There’s something worse than being gay, and you have to accept me for it.” Sadly, the logical foundation of the clip rests on the statement “Gay is bad.” Furthermore, to equate the pain of “coming to terms with sexual desire against a world denying that desire”– as this clip does– to “coming to terms with career desire inside a world wholeheartedly embracing that desire” is, frankly, reprehensible (the word “icky” didn’t seem intellectual enough). I suppose gay-friendly straight guys might watch this and think, “Fuck, yeah! Damn right! My gay guy friends are just like me!”, and then feel good about their liberal acceptance … except they’ve demonstrated no acceptance and their gay-guy friends are nothing at all like them. This clip simply uses the trope of LGBT marginalization (and the trope of marginalizing prostitutes) as a marketing tool. I don’t know who the filmmakers and actor are, or what they and he are trying to sell, but they’re doing it on the backs of gays and lesbians and prostitutes in a way that’s more insidious than right-wing FOX demagogues. At least with Glenn Beck I know what I’m getting.
David Gervais
to 10 Adman and 11 Eric Ford
Excellent analyses. I strongly endorse your points.
Eric: What they are selling is is themselves (the ad agencies) and their event that is basically a job fair. Note that we have all watched their clip and they haven’t had to pay for the advertising.
So even though it is ineptly executed, it still worked.
Regarding the social aspect of making a joke of the coming out to your parents speech: If you live in a large urban gay friendly place, (the event is in Toronto) it’s a sort of funny, but stale by now, gag. Other places, ‘too soon?’.
redball
The coming out scene gave me flashbacks to the coming out (as a mutant) scene in the X-Men movie. Can’t remember which X-Men movie…they all start to blend together at some point for me.
Kev C
It seemed unintentionally unfunny. It would be unfunnier if he made a parody of Schindler’s List.
JT
FAIL! The whole, “If you come out as GLBT your parents are going to disown you and kick you out and you’ll have to become a prostitute!” plot hits a little too close to home for me and other bisexual, gay, and trans people who had this happen to us.
David Gervais
@JT: It’s true, it’s true. Now to go watch my Kenan and Kel dvds….
kayla
Those skanks are way too clean…Roadside prostitutes don’t look like that…..
hmmm
@kayla:
Did you catch that one playing with his bouncy booty? Fun.
jamie
I don’t understand. How can you you be gay ‘for’ anything? this doesn’t compute in my uk brain.
smells of fail.
Mark
I too coud not finish watching this. I could not help but be reminded of white actors donning black face to amuse white audiences. I just didn’t see the humor or what the point was.
Kent M
Insulting (and I worked in advertising for 15 years). What were they thinking?
Francis
What a bunch of bullshit.
JT
@David Gervais:
Of course it’s a reality that gay, bisexual, and trans youth do get kicked out of home and become prostitutes.
If I want to watch about prostitution I’ll watch 101 rent boys, or Cycles of Porn 1 & 2, and not this crappy fictional film.
David Gervais
JT
Of course it’s a reality that gay, bisexual, and trans youth do get kicked out of home and become prostitutes.
Of course, it’s very real. But it’s not everyone. As I said, we have a dichotomy of expectations, some people are still stuck in bad situations.