Chris Votaw posted this image of a new Gap billboard on his Twitter feed, indicating the clothing chain is joining retailers like J. Crew, Macy’s, JC Penney’s and (sorta) Abercrombie + Fitch in giving a nod to the gay community.
Maybe Gap felt bad about renting space in its corporate headquarters to GOP bigwig Paul Ryan? Regardless, we’ll take one in every color.
J
Another a-hole company exploiting us.I’m not impressed.
Chris
The message I get from this is “Our clothes fit really loose.”
Aric
Progress.
Christopher
I think it is wonderful that a company is willing to acknowledge our orientation. It is is bound to cost them as much, or more, than they will gain. BRAVO!!
This is yet another step toward the “normalizing” (as far as the perspective of those unenlightened people who view us as other than normal) of same-sex relationships.
EVERY little bit helps. We ARE getting there, so let’s embrace any and all who show an open mind.
steve
I applaud the advertising.. but what a shame their stuff is such crap…. made in vietnam.
Oh, ok
1) It’s in LA so it’s worthless.
2) Big deal advertisers pander to anyone as long as they make money from it.
Why is it so hard to get gays to focus on government? Wake up. This will not get us anywhere, it’ll get the Gap more money in West Hollywood…and?
Larkin
@steve: vietnamese children need jobs too! It’s about the economy stupid!
MACDONALDBANK
Being left-handed or being gay is just as natural.
Charli
…acknowledging us! Smile my brothas m sistas, it’s progress
Ragmatical
exploiting? That’s not the sense that I got at all. I don’t think that they’ll be making any more money off of this then usual….
Spike
1) It’s in LA so it’s worthless – And it would be worthwhile if it were in Oklahoma?
2) Big deal advertisers pander to anyone as long as they make money from it. – Isn’t that the point of advertising, making money from it?
Why is it so hard to get gays to focus on government? Wake up. This will not get us anywhere, it’ll get the Gap more money in West Hollywood…and? – Please reference the address of the GAP store located in West Hollywood.
FAIL X 3
Adam A Karu
VIVA GaYP`E the only place I shop!!.
J.o.s.h
@steve: made in vietnam is better than made in china!
MikeNYC
GAP makes ALL of their clothing in sweatshops! Yes I agree that GAP wants to exploit LGBT people. Of course they had to use twinks in the article.
1equalityUSA
Two heads are better than one
Oh, ok
@Spike: Next time you reply try formatting it in a way that’s easily read, idiot.
1) Yes it would be more worthwhile in places that do not see these kinds of images. Are you dense or what?
2) Again you’re showing just how thick your skull is. My point in saying that was advertisers target EVERYONE of all demographics especially places like the Gap and Old Navy. You are really coming off totally moronic.
ROBERTSON
Gap
1969
109 South Robertson Blvd
LOS ANGELES, CA 90048
(310) 275-1390
Which is a mere mile away from me. You’ve failed 3 times in your rage-filled comeback. Next time try finding a store before telling me there isn’t one, took all of 5 seconds for me to find it and I don’t even shop there.
Evan
when would 2 gay guys be in ONE shirt together wtf? What does this mean? lol.
1equalityUSA
Evan–Stretching boundaries???
Bipolar Bear
Obviously their imperative is to make money, but the impact of little things like this on our wellbeing is huge over time. We become so used to not seeing images that relate to our lives that we don’t realise that it contributes to our feeling isolated. Time and again, when you speak to men and women who have come out, they say one of the hardest things about their youth was the fact that they never saw any images of people like them in their environment.
Oh, ok
@Bipolar Bear: Except Los Angeles is very accustomed to gays and images of us living our lives are seen in flesh and blood reality every single day.
Small towns and bigoted areas need the imagery…not us. We already had it.
These places aren’t trying to change anything, they just want trendy shopping dollars from yuppies. If they wanted to promote change they would take their “show” on the road to other areas which have the Gap but also have a ton of bigots.
The idea that putting up a gay ad in a gay area is helping promote gay equality is rather silly. Teens and adults in areas where coming out is currently not an option won’t see this ad or ads like it.
FunMe
The Gap hey days are way over. Has been that way for at least 10 years. I doubt this will help them, as nice as it is.
mike
I agree, the Gap should put those signs of two men together in places like, Topeka, Kansas,Oklahoma City, and all over the southeastern U.S. Of course a lots of hillbillies would start to use the signs as target practice, because as we all know they aren’t to bright.
jason
I think this is nice because it could be two straight male friends, and not just two men who are sexually into each other. It’s basically a form of male-male sensuality that is so sorely missing in our male-sensuality-phobic society.
Alexi3
I find it amazing how short-sighted so many people seem to be. Things like this are a big deal. They reinforce, the admittedly slow, but forward march toward being viewed as just another group of folks living in America. Even the possiblity was barely conceivable within living memory. Of course, the Gap is trying to make money. What could anyone possibly find extraordinary about that as a marketing ploy?
LaTeesha
Why do people assume this isn’t a big deal because it’s in LA? Have y’all forgotten the mess that occurred in LA last December over a gay themed billboard?
http://studiocity.patch.com/articles/mom-s-talk-questionable-billboards-near-the-school
jason
LaTeesha,
In fact, that ManHunt ad was quite tacky in my view. It was unnecessarily soft porn-like. This Gap ad is much nicer.
Belize
@Oh, ok: “Small towns and bigoted areas need the imagery…not us.”
If those small towns and bigoted areas are capable of mutilating an actual human being for being LGBT, what makes you so sure that the ad, which costs a lot by the way, would even be put up?
“Teens and adults in areas where coming out is currently not an option won’t see this ad or ads like it.”
So basically, you’re suggesting that all of the people that visit this website alone are ALL out and are residing in areas where coming out is an option. And here I was thinking that a bunch of bitter queens only visit this place to project the bitchiness they can’t in real life. Excuse me…
Belize
@jason: “It’s basically a form of male-male sensuality that is so sorely missing in our male-sensuality-phobic society.”
Imagining how much effort it took for you to type the period at the end of that sentence without typing “…because of women” first.
jason
Belize,
Well, actually, I was going to write “because of women” at the end but I knew it would distract from my main point. I’ll keep my powder dry for the next post.
Oh, ok
@Belize: Were you making a point?
Have you even seen the ad in real life? I see it everyday…and there are tons of gay men and gay couples all over the place. Living breathing men.
An ad is not needed in that spot for anything more than advertising dollars.
My post was about the article and commenters making it out to be something it’s not. You’re just missing my point.
That manhunt ad you linked was borderline pornographic and had no place at all anywhere near an elementary school. Are you serious right now or trolling?
They put the ad in a high traffic openly gay area to attract customers not to make a difference so why then turn around and pretend this ad is making a difference?
Ads like this have been around for a very long time now.
Are ads featuring a black family at McDonalds making a difference too? Because that’s literally what you’re saying.
Kcsierra
That’s my friend Tony Award Nominee Rory O’Malley and he’s beautiful partner! Rory’s biggest accomplishment to date is not his amazing role in Book or Mormon but being a co-founder for Broadway Impact, a non-profit that fighting for equal rights for same-sex couples. So no matter what you think about The Gap look at the people in the ads and think about what THEY are doing to help our community!
BlogShag
Nice concept, strange ad. They look like siamese twins. And that part of Los Angeles is notorioius for racy billboard ads like that. It’s a very liberal/progressive area.
kendoll
They’re pandering to us, just like Democrats needing our money.
Valeria Mariscal
J idk why you say that. There not exploting us,ok!! All there doing is sending a possitive message,that it’s ok to be Gay,Lesbian,Bisexual or Transsexual,ok. To me as a Transsexual,is great:)
LaTeesha
@jason: I’ll take soft porn over this ad. This ad looks like something for a Saturday Night Live skit about conjoined twins.
takakupo
Los Angeles voted YES on 8 by a noticeable margin. It’s one the busiest and most populas cities in the country/world so this sign, however you may think of it, is quite a milestone in our journey :]
Veritable Virgo
@Oh, ok: THANK YOU! I couldn’t agree more with your post. If the gay community wants real, substantive, meaningful and enduring change and positive growth we must stop wasting time with retailers who will make a buck anyway they can and start focusing on the White House and the Halls of Congress. From my POV, tossing up a billboard of two handsome guys in a t-shirt does not necessarily make a positive statement about same-sex or LGBT Equality. The “Be Bright Be One” slogan doesn’t tell my brain to connect anything with LGBT issues so I’m at a loss as to why others have read that into this advertising campaign. Wishful thinking, perhaps? IDK.
RLS
I try not to be too cynical, but I’m kind of past the point of thinking that a billboard with two perfect looking, non threatening white guys placed in a gay neighborhood is really doing anything for gay equality. If anything, it’s reinforcing the idea that we are a group to be pandered and marketed to.
Whoever made that McDonald’s analogy is spot on. It’s not a big deal to see black people in a McDonalds commercial because everyone knows blacks are who they primarily market that poison to nowadays.
And Gap could do an ad campaign with diverse gay people and donate a million bucks to the Ali Forney Center and it still wouldn’t make me buy their shitty clothes.
NovaNardis
Specifically replying to @RLS, but also just in general.
This same ad is up in a couple stations on the Philadelphia Broad Street Subway line. That’s not just ‘a billboard with two perfect looking, non threatening white guys placed in a gay neighborhood’. It doesn’t have to make you like the Gap (and I don’t), and it isn’t going to create equality tomorrow.
But I’ve always felt that when companies or artists (think Katy Perry) blatantly go fishing for gay dollars, its a tacit statement that we’ve becoming ‘normal’. What’s more normal in America than being shamelessly marketed to?
Randy
By “Be One” do they mean be gay … or be a couple … or do they mean share you clothes with your friend?
queertyluvr
randy, i think they mean ‘buy our clothes, or at the very least talk about our provocative billboard ads with other people — you’ll get them thinking about the GAP, and maybe some of *them* will buy our clothes too.’
the length and vigor of this discussion shows how effective such advertising is. ditto the MANHUNT ad referred-to above.
Larry
MEOW…these comments are soooooooo gay and that is not a compliment
Dirty Ole Man
@Larry: Not all of em Larry. Some of them get it. I get it. Thirty years ago we were all hiding in a gay bar on Ventura Blvd. Hardly on a billboard!
BlogShag
@RLS: What is it about perfect looking that bothers some of you, or many of you I should say? Not everyone has such blatant disregard for their health and looks by eating tons of crap they shouldn’t be eating and not exercising, ingesting poisons otherwise known as “drugs” and alcohol to oblivion…
David Ehrenstein
http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2012/05/04/the-shirt-off-my-back/
ChrisC
No wonder it’s taken us so long to achieve equality. We are not nearly as monolithic as we should be. Seriously, stop grasping at straws. Stop asking WHY it is and just be thankful that it is. This is progress, and all progress is good.
Such bitchy bitter queens here. Wow!
Ronnie Veliz
I’m thankful for its visibility. The ONLY critique: White is NOT the only beautiful…try interracial couples or queer people of color as models. Thank you GAP.
J
@Valeria Mariscal: I say so because they’re only doing this now.They’re jumping on the bandwagon.
FishTool
Who is the model on the billboard?
porgi amor
imho i think the toronto canada ads are better but maybe i’m biased cuz i live there. check out my pics…
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150882097938394.434854.535133393&type=3&l=02e11d728b