I am Matt Thomas.

Know Your Audience

March 8, 2005

Now that a few days have gone by since PlanetOut/Gay.com announced their new ad campaign, the fallout is beginning. But the most vocal criticism isn’t coming from where they were expecting. In fact, PlanetOut has proven themselves to be as out of touch with the gay community as any right-wing hate group around.

For those of you who haven’t yet had the displeasure of becoming acquainted with it, the campaign, titled “Come Together” (get it? you get it?), purports to show “two men who overcome their political division by finding a personal connection as they debate their passionate viewpoints.” The concept reminds me too much of the boring dreck we’d toss out during brainstorming in advertising classes in college. But it doesn’t matter; that’s not really the problem.

The problem, which PlanetOut wasn’t really expecting, is that gay people hate it.

It’s not difficult to imagine that the campaign was created to elicit controversy. That would be good for PlanetOut. What’s bad for PlanetOut is when the campaign is nearly universally despised by every gay man and woman that’s weighed in on it. And by depicting Gay America as practically the Aryan ideal, they’ve managed to do just that. Gene Cowan writes:

What they’re really doing is playing right into the hands of the fundamentalist right wing, who will simply send this imagery unedited to their intolerant base, asserting that gay people only think of sex, igniting more hatred… and probably generating another wave of “flag protection” legislation.

Not hard to imagine in the least. I’m all for controversy, but only when the controversy serves some purpose. Making a stand for equal rights, advancing political activism, enhancing gay visibility, all good things. But using the flag to sell what, as basically any gay man knows, is little more than a hook-up site isn’t going to impress anyone, gay, straight, republican or democratic. QueerDay writes:

Our emotional response is outrage. With a government set on eliminating our rights, not to even mention all the blood on our flag these days, we now have reasons to hate Gay.com beyond their continuing visual homage to body fascism.

Them’s strong words directed from one highly-visible gay web site to another. But nobody hates Gay.com’s campaign more than Gay.com users themselves.

All of us have to take so much crap because people have the wrong impression of who we are, and when I [first] saw this ad, I was hurt to see that gay people were contributing to this false image of ourselves too.

There is no clear message, but the ad seems to advocate that sex can solve political differences; how bizarre and unrealistic.

Thanks for perpetuating the myth that one has to look like a model to engage and enjoy gay life. I know my shrink thanks you.

When the gay rights movement is able to identify itself away from a sexual message … then maybe some legitimacy can actually be interjected into what gay rights should really mean.

It’s cheap and stupid. It certainly doesn’t represent me or the gay men I know.

What an absolutely HORRIBLE campaign. I agree with others that the flag belongs on a flagpole and not wrapped around two circuit party boys engaged in a cat fight. This is a BIG MISTAKE!!!! Shame on you.

This is an insult to gays everywhere. So two hot, hard body, “perfect” gay men represent the gay population? We are a powerful political community and I’m horrified that GAY.com would put this out to represent our views… This is such a fucking joke.

In fact, as of my writing this, there was not a single positive comment on Gay.com’s own web site regarding the campaign. PlanetOut went looking for controversy, and the found it in their own back yard. They’ve offended their own core audience, by depicting them exactly the same way the right wing does: as sex-crazed, utterly vapid and Un-American—as illustrated by the use of the American flag as a dreamcatcher. If your goal was to attract gay men to Gay.com, you might want to rethink that strategy, fellas.