2010 seems to be the year of the homophobic commercial. Why is it that so many companies feel that it’s necessary to sell their products in the name of shoring up traditional masculinity? The recent call for a boycott of Target, due to the corporation’s support of a right wing political candidate who may or may not have made homophobic comments, resulted in Target’s CEO issuing a letter of apology to his employees and customers. Target does not, after all, hate the queers who love to shop there.
With the recent success of the Target “boycott,” do you think that the LGBTQ community and its allies should boycott companies that employ homophobic ad campaigns? Do boycotts even work? I’d love to get your take.
I find the light beer commercials interesting, since they have traditionally been marketed to women, just as diet soft drinks have. So culturally, light beer has become a ‘woman’s drink’ and to market it to men, they need to counter this with over the top masculinity. Really, if they had just marketed it for everyone to begin with, we wouldn’t be seeing these homophobic commercials.