WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Procter & Gamble Co., Great Dancer

Members:

A cute young guy at a club tries dancing with two sexy women, who snub him and walk away.

Then another sexy gal (Los Angeles drag queen Karen Dior, former Miss Gay United States) beckons him to come closer, as she wiggles her bosom and his eyes bulge at her beauty. He starts dancing with her and then she says in a deep, male voice, "You're a great dancer."

He turns with the most frightened face when he hears the voice. She flips her hair and there is a closeup on her oversized adam's apple.

He reaches out to rub her face -- checking for stubble, but feeling none -- then smiles in relief. They then move in for a kiss.

The tagline: "Designed to perform better."

This could be looked at in two different ways -- either the guy decided she was in fact a woman with a deep voice and big Adam's apple (which would make for a more negative reaction to his discovery of her masculine traits) or he decides that despite her maleness he can live with the voice and Adam's apple, so long as there's no facial stubble.

This ad is a difficult one to categorize, thus a wash into neutral.

User Comments
Ricky
I think actually it's about sexual discovery. He'd been snubbed by girls so much that a beautiful thing in front of him attracted him. He saw the adam's apple and the voice and noticed it was a guy. [there's NO mistaking that for a women's voice.. no matter how much you say so] - but upon looking at the drag queen again AND feeling her, it felt good.. so he dove in for a kiss, realizing his bisexuality.

Lori Buckwalter
The valence of this ad depends on to whom it is intended to be directed. If this were an ad for queer guys, it would be positive. I might believe the 'guy's' response at the end. If this is an ad for straight guys, it just plays on the "eek-a-man" ploy, with the twist that the guy is finally seduced. This refers to the phobic scenario whereby straight men are tempted into gay sex by the lure of a 'seductive she-male'. People get killed this way when the seduced turn bigoted again.

KS
This ad is clearly negative. It relies on the tired "surprise, she's a he" gimmick with the twist that this new razor gets a face so smooth that you can fool a straight guy twice.

The ad seems to be targeted at straight guys. I went frame by frame through the quicktime and the club crowd didn't look like a gay or lesbian scene. It's possible that all the women in the ad were supposed to be drag queens, but there's no basis for that. Instead, we have the same horrified look on the guy's face when he thinks he's dancing with a guy.

With the recent horrific events surrounding Calpernia Addams and her murdered boyfriend, I would think it would be clear to everyone that this ad is negative in all respects.

Dru Robertson
I think this ad is great. Braun's shave is so close and clean that it transcends homophobia.

Brenda Jean Louise
At the onset, I thought it humorus. But then I started to think about it. It plays on the image that transvestite (TV) "girls" like to trick straight male dates into believing that they are genetic woman. In reality, only a few TV "girls" engage in such dangerous activity. The problem here is that straight viewers are left with the negative connotation that all TV's engage in this type of fraudulant activity. TV's have enough negative image that they have to put up with less there be more to goade the straight public into further persecuting TV's. Transsexuals on the other hand have changed their gender to acomodate
a hetero relationship. Most have spent great amounts of money to have their former beards removed by electrolysis or laser. TS'es wish to be totally accepted as females, not some guy in a dress. I say this is a negative ad.

Marty
You need to stay a little more even handed on your evaluations of these ads. This one is for sure a negative ad. Deception of people should not be considered positive or neutral.

Andrea James
They always love the rug pull with the deep voice. It usually comes down to the response of the other person.

Nathan
This commercial can only be categorized as Neutral to Gay Vague. The argument made that perhaps the guy was bi is a legitimate one. My only problem with it is that it suggests that only guys have big Adam's apples. Sorry, but I've been around long enough to know that is rubbish.

John
One would think that it would be a negative thing, for the guy feeling around for stubble to find none and "breathe a sigh of relief," as he'd be thinking that the person he's about to kiss is indeed female and not male. From the judgement I've seen on this site so far, this one should fall right into the negative bin.

Travis
Obviously it's a positive ad. The guy wasn't straight, but bi, and terribly afraid of whisker burn!