Gay Commercial: Guinness

[reviews_and_ramblings]

A hunky, young guy gets ready for work, making a mess all along the way. After his bath, magazines and other articles float in the water. Selecting his clothes, he sniffs then rejects the shirt by tossing it onto the floor.

Meanwhile, a rubber-gloved hand picks up after him. As he runs out the front door, coffee cup in hand, he passes his boyfriend, whom we see for the first time, and the Tammy Wynette tune "Stand by Your Man" swells. He puts the mug atop his car and gets in as his boyfriend wearily waves goodbye, the mug clunks to the ground, and the ad closes with a glass of Guinness beer.

Artfully shot with the help of maverick California-based British producer Tony Kaye, the UK tabloid press widely reported the planned ad before it aired, to much scandal. Pubs and consumers were shocked that the traditional brand would air a gay ad.

Fearing greater backlash by straight consumers, the TV spot was ultimately dropped by Guinness. Later, the company tried to deny that this spot even existed.

"There was a desire by the agency and Guinness to have a certain ambiguity about it," Kaye told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in 1997 about the ad he created. "So that when you watch the spot, you said, 'Well are these guys gay or not?' These guys are gay -- the storytelling, to me, needed him to give the other guy a little peck on the cheek."

When asked why the company would deny the existence of the ad he shot, Kaye offered, "Most of them have the vision of a dead rat. I think it was charming and it was very funny and would sell a hell of a lot of beer."

It is deeply unfortunate that the spot never aired, as it regularly gets standing ovations at live Commercial Closet screenings to gay audiences.

Ironically, Guinness also markets Bass Ale in the U.S., a brand which is advertised in the gay press. Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing Co. have the distinction of being among the few companies that advertise in gay media and also has a mainstream media commercial with a gay theme.

Beer companies are well represented in The Commercial Closet, largely due to an effort in the mid-1990s to pull away from the industry's longterm sexist advertising themes that objectified women. Such commercials were summed up by the Swedish Bikini Team. Looking for new material to mine, brewers began extensively playing with gay and transgender themes in their advertising. However, because beer drinkers are stereotypically macho, the tone of many of the ads were more often negative.

Commercial Closet Association

Company: Diageo
Brand: Guinness
Ad Title: Mess
Business Category: Alcoholic Beverages
Media Outlets: Television (unaired)
Country: United Kingdom
Region: Europe
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
Year: 1995
Target: Mainstream
Ad Spotter: Anthony Vagnoni

Comments

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

I don't like the tag line as it could be read that being gay makes no sense, but I adore the ad and those two men to bits :-)

So damn sexy.

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

Yes, "Not all the black and white things make sense...". But in Italy we use BLACK and WHITE to describe something that it's standard and normal, without shades. So maybe, but it's only the tagline wants to say that have to consider not only het relationship, but all type of relationship.

Elisa