Congrats to Harrah's for coming even that close in the first year that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation gave out such awards. They were up against Macy's, Kenneth Cole, Absolut and, uh, Swanson, in the Outstanding Advertising (Print) category. Yes, the soup company. If you want to see what they were nominated for, you can review all the nominees and winners' work on GLAAD's site.
What beat out gay Paris and lesbolicious soup? Why...
...gay vodka, of course! Which is almost like giving the Cy Young award to Cy Young. Absolut has been doing groundbreaking gay-specific print ads for decades, they virtually invented the craft. Maybe they should consider naming the honor for them and give someone else a chance. You know, like the company that decided to actually take a serious, calculated risk and intensively brand a billion-dollar resort as "the gay casino," a notion that not long ago would have been a kiss of death in heterosexist Vegas.
You may be wondering, if you're not gay, why it's necessary to honor such work at all. But to give you some idea of how far we still have to go before gay people will be present in advertising that appears in the mainstream media -- the two ads above were placed strictly in GLBT publications -- take a look at this brief spot. It's the best GLAAD could come up with to honor "Outstanding TV, Mainstream Market."
Any straight people out there know why it's even considered a "gay" ad? There is an answer but it's so minute, it's so coded and stealthy that when Miles and I saw it on TV once, we thought it could be a coincidence. Not exactly the definition of out and proud, but this is, evidently, the best we got these days.
