Sony Corp., Twins
In a clever commercial about the uniqueness of identical twins, the ad shows the similarities of two young men as they get ready in the morning.
As if in the military, Erik and Derek get ready together in the morning, shaving and even showering together. They wear the same clothes and each makes his own music mix for their MiniDisc players. They both leave their apartment together and wait to be picked up.
One is picked up by a sexy woman in a slinky outfit, and the other is picked up by a rather unlikely, not-so-attractive (by idealistic advertising standards), goateed wrestler. The ad agency, which clearly intended for somewhat of a shock effect with the wrestler, purposely picked someone who does not reflect society's general view of "beauty" and absurdly put him in a wrestler's outfit.
The commercial's smart idea with a neutral treatment nonetheless loses points for the gay twin's stereotyped driver in its effort for an easy laugh. The overall effect is a wash and neither fully negative nor completely neutral.
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User Comments
Jeff
The big critique seems to be that they went for an easy laugh. Well of course. You have a 30 second spot to tell a story and you want it to be memorable to advertise your product. And they succeeded. If you want the cute guy to get a perfect husband, wait for it on a soap opera -- they have more time for "real life" situations.
Troy Forbes
As a gay identical twin with a straight brother, I got a total kick out of this ad (and I usually hate advertising). I must say that I found your review a bit puzzling, in that you didn't get the point of one guy getting picked up by "a sexy woman in a slinky outfit", and the other being picked up by a sexy man in a slinky outfit (that is, the MASCULINIZED VERSION of the sexy lady image). If anything, I was a bit more annoyed by the stereotypical look of the hairless, gym-bunnified, hair-product-saturated, wealthy prettyboy look of the twins (more banal than inclusive), not to mention the cliched use of the twins as being (albeit superficially) creepily the same. Clones everywhere! A cute ad, nevertheless. Loved the exchanged expressions at the end, very witty. Too bad the ad's for SONY; they make shoddy stereo equipment.
Allen Bagwell
I think the intention was not to be negative, but it came off leaning that way for me. And all of it was in the presentation of the boyfriend. Not that he isn't hot. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I could definitely find some appeal in the boyfriend. It's the fact that he showed up in the expensive car wearing that get up. Who in their right mind would pick someone up for a date dressed in a wrestling uniform? The gay twin is presented one way, the boyfriend simply looks *weird* by comparison to the other three actors in the commericial. So the commerical is going for shock value and a cheap laugh when the boyfriend could have been, for instance, the same actor fully clothed and maybe driving a pickup with country music playing instead of disco.
Quincy Brown
This is a great ad! It shows that even twins can have very different tastes in life. Your comments about the wrestler are very un-becoming! Not everyone in the gay community lives in Bally's Gym and wears designer clothing. The ad clearly depicts that our community is very diverse, leave YOUR stereo-typing comments out of it thank you!
åsk
Sheesh, so old. "that joke isn't funny anymore" and the connection to the product was really thin.
Rourke
I loved the bear/wrestler guy much better than the boys! A real man not afraid to show the world what he likes or who he is a step forward for all gays. This commercial shows what a great diversity we as gays have and we should be proud of it!!! Great job SONY !!!!
Michele Trudu
The boyfriend is hot! An excellent and fun ad made by people that finally have a grip on the diverse looks of the men that make our community.
Gordon
Once again your reviewer has put his own bias on view against the non-twink.. the wrestler IS attractive and I applaud his use as an alternative model for gay men. Your reviewer should perhaps try to get beyond his own sterotypes.
Simon
For some viewers homosexuality itself is shocking, no matter what role models you use. For others, fat people are shocking. For some, it's just funny, and for me, I'm glad that two identical twins are different in one area, and that they're both happy to be picked up by whoever picked them up. Maybe the reason you got so many negative comments is because for husky guys, that ad represents our dream, a lot of us want a skinny/lean men that likes us just the way we are. And that ad mades us feel cool. Sure, I would have preffered the fat guy not to be dressed like a wrestler but to me that is better than nothing. The advertiser's intent is always the same, to sell more products, to break through the clutter, to get people to say "what an original brand," and maybe, just maybe, they wanted to please straights and gays alike instead of choosing one over the other. That to me is much better than having two dykes kiss each other to fullfill the sexual fantasies of a mostly heterosexual audience. In fact, gay kisses have more value than lesbian kisses because male homosexuality is treated with disgust by the society at large while female homosexuality is almost encouraged.
Thom Lambing
This is a cute commercial and I applaud the company for using the wrestler as the boyfriend instead of a young, plastic twinkie we always see that is supposed to represent the "gay community." Personally, the wrestler was quite yummy.
John
I don't care about who ends up with who -- what I found interesting was that as soon as both respective partners pulled up in their Mercedes, both twins put ON their headphones to listen to their music, rather than to have to talk and listen to their partners!
Michael
Hey, if Sony had done great commercials like this in the USA, Minidisc would be more popular than it currently is!
Frederick Wright
Finally -- a company brave enough to flout the stereotype of gay men as prettyboy twinkies!!
Bo Arfai
I think it was important that the boyfriend fit a more common "prettyboy" stereotype. Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the majority of viewers would not have found the boyfriend beautiful or sexy. Take as evidence the extensive use of butch characters in advertising to make fun of gays. With this in mind, I'm sure the ad will leave a bad taste in most viewer's mouths. Whatever you think, the ad was clearly intended to be negative.
Tim
You might think the wrestler is unattractive -- but I'd much rather be picked up by him ANY DAY than most of the clean-cut Gilette 'boyz' that are just as much a stereotype, in fact more...! Inclusivity and acceptance do NOT mean homogeny and blandness...as accepted and courted under 30's gay men (usually) are nowadays, there are massive barriers to be broached around inter-generational relationships (like in this ad), multiple relationships, bisexuality, and true transgender (rather than the really stereotypical drag queens :-( which I don't see adverts reflecting. That would be true acceptance and truly radical.
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