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According to Dulux, two women don’t go togetherI like to keep an eye on what the boys over at AfterElton are doing — and they’ve been raving about Ugly Betty for so long now, as one of the gay-friendliest shows on U.S. TV, that I figured I should check it out when it came over to the U.K. last year. While I can’t say I completely share their enthusiasm — the main gay character, Marc St. James, seems way too much like Jack from Will & Grace to me, and as such he isn’t exactly breaking any new ground — the show itself is fun, and quite sweet, and I would probably watch it quite happily, if it were not for one thing.
That one thing is Dulux, the international paint company that sponsors Ugly Betty in the U.K. Before every episode starts, and at the beginning and end of each advertising break, I have to watch another Dulux commercial. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a big deal — after all, you can just press the mute button and think about something else for five minutes — and perhaps I shouldn’t even be calling attention to this. But here’s an example of the Dulux ads that have been running recently in the U.K., on the theme of paint colors that are a “perfect match”: So, all the couples featured in the ad are heterosexual. That’s no big deal, right? After all — as Cashmere Mafia’s Alicia pointed out in relation to white women and makeup — there are a lot of those people, and they do buy the product. I’m aware of the ridiculousness inherent in reading too much into ads (in searching for clips for this post, I actually came across several morons on the internet who have been making the claim that the ad is somehow racist against white men, because it features a white woman dumping a white man for a black one, on the grounds that he’s better in the bedroom). The thing that gets to me, though, is that one of these ads actually does feature a pair of women. But this time, it’s as an example of colors that don’t match. The two pull each other’s hair and scratch at each other’s eyes, as the voiceover smoothly tells us “Dulux: We also know the colors that don’t go.” Am I paranoid if I say that — in the context of the ads’ otherwise ubiquitous heterosexuality — this comes across as a tiny bit homophobic? Or at least as bizarrely homo-oblivious. The creators of the commercials have obviously gone out of their way to make them racially diverse — would it kill them to include at least one gay couple as an example of “colors that do go”? I know in the U.S. they’d be risking a boycott from “pro-family” groups — but come on, these ads are showing in the U.K. Two men or two women can form a legal partnership here. What’s wrong with reflecting that in the ads we watch? Feel free to post below telling me why I’m overreacting. Or, if you want to see examples of ads that do feature gay or gay-suggestive themes, try heading over to the website CommercialCloset.org — a fascinating archive of LGBT visibility, both positive and negative, in advertising. Submitted by on January 29, 2008 - 1:59pm. |
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News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
I agree!
I thought I was the only one in the UK who noticed that.
It would be brilliant if they could at least recognise the fact that legal partnerships exist in the UK.... It would only need to be a little thing.. not over the top, trying to be too politically correct... but something..
<>Love, Crayon <>
Too many cooks....
By the time you've added a lesbian couple, a gay male couple, an Asian couple, a Middle-Eastern couple, a black couple, a white couple, etc etc etc you would either have A LOT of different ads to fit in, or a VERY cramped 10 second Dulux ad segment at the intro and outro of each Ugly Betty part!
It would be reeeeeally lovely if we were ALL included in everything, but alas, the world is a big place and TV runs in tight seconds, not hours of time.
Personally, I like those adverts. Myself and my girlfriend have adapted the "we also know the colours that DON'T go" part to fit almost anything we see on the street: e.g. *spies an icky guy with a HUGE beer belly* - "M&S - we ALSO sell that trousers that DON'T fit..."
It makes snarking way more fun ;-)
The Sci-Fi Bard (loving series 2 of Ugly Betty!)
To be honest I only sorta
To be honest I only sorta noticed. Most of the sqeezed in ads are like that anyway - advitising fashoin perfume and all that - his and hers, have this fragrance and you'll have someone falling off you in no time. I guess maybe it's just their target demographic ? Or perhaps just what sells, which is a shame I guess...but then again so is the sexism in most cleaning commercials (women keep the home, men are hopeless at cleaning).
The dulux ads seemed pretty innocent to me - and I kinda interpreted the two women fighting as just like friends fighing over shopping or whatever (naive of me?).
I guess the only other trouble is that when two lesbian women DO get used in ads its for all the wrong reasons.
*Sigh* ... *switches to BBC*
"Hatred is blind, as well as love." - Oscar Wilde
I too...
..noticed this! It's been irritating me for months so I'm glad somebody actually brought it up.
I don't think that it is neccessarily homophobic.. just homo-oblivious perhaps. It's just annoying that in ads before a supposedly gay-friendly show (although like Browne I do kinda question this on occasion.), there are no gay couples on the advert.
Granted, the stats could argue over-representation (there are only...4 couples? something like that), but Ugly Betty is known to be watched by a large number of gay men and lesbians. I thought ad designers payed attention to demographics these days.
Ditto
I thought the same thing. But most adverts are full of dirty breeders. Guess adverts are aimed at the majorities. I always think it would be cool if a gay couple were subtly added into an advert, but so that only gay people would really notice. The only gay advert I can think of off the top of my head is the french connection: fashion vs style one. http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=beI04e9Vwqw cool advert i thought.
Maybe the paint advert will add a gay/lesbian couple at some point. I didn't take the 2 women fighting as homophobic because they seemed like straight women fighting, prolly over a man.
"My life's like a romantic comedy that's never romantic! Or comedic! My life is nothing like a romantic comedy!" - Caitlin (Cashmere Mafia)
Another Gay advert
The Dolci and Gabbana http://youtube.com/watch?v=uPx72eXTuUE has been showing in the uk for a while.
-*Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat.*
Probably on Purpose
Frankly, the only lesbian