New Boyfriend
April 27, 2005
No, not me. Orbitz is running a new commercial for its gay travel segment called New Boyfriend. It’s cool that Orbitz advertises to the gay & lesbian set like this. You can see ads for just about any major company with a product to sell in Out or The Advocate, but there are few companies using mainstream media to target specifically target a gay audience.
The commercial is funny, though, because it’s so bad. The gay couple is so incredibly over-the-top gay that you expect them to start making out right on stage. The flamboyant queer “travel agent” is a stereotype of a stereotype, such a bitchy queen that he’d make Ru Paul look like James Earl Jones.
All the funny overacting aside, though, the best part of the ad is Wink Martindale. Ol’ Wink, who’s got to be pushing 115, emcees the game show-themed ad like he never left the set of Tic Tac Dough. This is a guy whose web site extolls the virtues of prayer in public schools, and who writes at length about his downright adoration of the armed forces. The way he stares off-camera when saying the phrase “gay-friendly hotel” just gives off this “what the hell am I doing” vibe that cracks me up so bad.
Yet there ol’ Wink is, telling us the best way to find a gay-friendly hotel with a gym and a mini bar. I gotta hand it to him—whether he’s just hard up for cash or really is that “gay-friendly” himself, he jumped right in to his first gay-themed TV ad.
The only part that I couldn’t get behind? The gay couple chooses a two-star hotel out of all the options in San Francisco. As if.