April 7, 2006, - 4:52 pm
Is This Gay?: New Chrysler Dodge Caliber Ads Feature Fairy, Pink
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**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
Yesterday’s Detroit Spews had an interesting article about the Dodge Caliber’s “Anything But Cute” commercials. The gay community is very upset about them.
Some viewers and gay rights supporters have complained the Chrysler Group commercial — dubbed “Too Tough” and featuring a fluttering fairy zapping buildings and trains into cuter-looking gingerbread houses and toy trains — is offensive and borders on homophobic.
The fairy is unsuccessful at transforming a black Caliber and is mocked by a male passer-by walking a dog. “Silly little fairy,” he says.
As retribution, the fairy turns the pedestrian’s button-down shirt and jeans attire into white shorts and a polo shirt draped with a preppy sweater. His black dog leash becomes four pink ones connected to Pomeranians. The suggestion, some say, is the man was turned into a homosexual.
“It directly finds humor with the term fairy, referring not just to the type that flies around with a magic wand, but also the universally recognizable gay stereotype of an effeminate gay man,” the Commercial Closet said in an online review of the ad. The non-profit organizationmonitors marketing tactics that could be offensive to gays and lesbians.
This raises these questions: Are all fairies gay? Even though the word is often used as a derogatory term for gays, probably not. If so, someone ought to tell Disney and children’s authors, so they can censor them out of kids movies and books. Do all gay men dress preppy and use pink leashes? And are all gay men effeminate?
It will be interesting to see whether or not Chrysler drops the ads.
****UPDATE, 04/10/06: Watch the video of the ad here. After seeing it, the 30 second ad is really not the big deal the gay community is claiming. It’s actually fairly innocent, and funny, too. As for the fairy, she’s a glamorous woman, not a gay caricature.
Tags: Chrysler Group, Debbie Schlussel, Dodge Caliber, online review
I’m going to vote for “Not Gay”. It’s an innocent commercial, and I didn’t even cross my mind that the guy at the end was supposed to be gay. Mainly I was focused on the woman that plays the fairy, though. She’s a total fox.
Manatoch on April 7, 2006 at 7:50 pm