Selling Homophobia to Gay Men

This post was submitted by "AMERIWIRE", a new TNG reader who says he is often accused of "thinking too much," although he denies that there is any such thing. He enjoys recreational cuddling, and wants to see it become more popular as a competitive sport.

While demographic-specific targeted marketing is hardly unique to the gay community, the means used by marketers to sell to gay men certainly are.

Much of the advertising targeting the gay community appears in publications widely read by non-gays too. Overt gay-targeted advertising would have the potential to 'scare away' or 'turn off' certain non-gay customers who, whether homophobic or not, would prefer not to purchase goods or services they associate with homosexual identity.

So the challenge for marketers wishing to target a gay audience is that they need to communicate a gay-specific, seemingly-"pro-gay" message to the gay consumer, while not alienating non-gay consumers with varying degrees of homophobia. So companies like Abercrombie & Fitch (among many others), include intensely homoerotic scenes in their advertising, clearly hoping to garner the attention of trend-setting American homosexuals. And at the same time, the things that are most intensely homoerotic are also ostensibly ambiguous. In fact, it may be precisely because the nearly-naked (or entirely naked) group of young, muscular men frolicking on the beach are playing football and making out with girls that gay men are so intrigued. This isn't a pornographic fantasy; this is, we are to believe, really what straight, attractive, American guys DO when nobody's looking. They frolic. They touch each other. They fondly laugh and grin at each other, comfortable with their bodies and their sexuality, delighted with their maleness.

Of course, this is all fantasy, concocted by marketing visionaries who are clearly in touch with the sexual sensitivities of their target audience. But it's supposed to be just ambiguous enough to be believable. I mean, these guys who are depicted fondly tossling each other’s hair aren’t supposed to be gay, after all. They're playing an aggressive, fraternal game of football! They're paying occasional romantic and erotic attention to females in various degrees of undress! The gay guys I know don't do that. So gay-coded advertisements sell a homoerotic-but-not-gay-cuz-overtly-gay-sucks fantasy to young gay men who wish they could be there too.

I’d argue that this clever marketing technique produces serious, negative, secondary effects for the gay male community.

First, and most obviously, there is the problem of commoditizing the gay identity, such that one's gay identity—if it is to be accepted as true and legitimate—must be purchased, often in the form of designer clothing. But this problem arguably exists for all market-worthy communities.

The more unusual and virulent byproduct of gay-coded ads is the implicit message that the reason the ads are coded rather than overt is that gay identity should be hidden. Make no mistake: gay-coded ads are as heteronormative as overtly homophobic ads are. The difference? Rather than being rejected and boycotted by the gay community, the products in gay-coded advertisements are celebrated, devoured, and espoused by gays. If branding sells an image and not just a product (as is often said), then gay-coded ads are an ingenious, if sinister, invention. It is one truly ballsy genius who dreamt up the idea of selling homophobia to gay men.