WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

ViaVia, Where is Your Wedding Ring?

Members:

An old fashioned couple lay in bed together, about to go to sleep. As the wife curls up to her husband, she suddenly notices he's missing his ring and asks, "Honey, where is your wedding ring?"

His face suddenly goes cold as the scene changes to a toilet stall in a dance club, where a leatherman sits on a stool. He grunts as he attempts to do his business and then, after some effort, the ring is discovered as it clinks into the toilet bowl! (Obviously lodged in the man's anus by the husband's extra-marital sex act.)

The announcer at the end says the newspaper can help people find secondhand jewelers and new partners in its classified ads sections.

A shocking ad that could only come from a progressive country like the Netherlands. Despite the ad's daring, neither the stereotyped leatherman nor the closeted husband are especially groundbreaking portrayals.

User Comments
Pierre J Bedard
WOW, what a great commercial. Now that's originality for you. What a TWIST. This should win awards !!! They should have had a younger muscle stud slave in full leather on the bowl to help differentiate the two men. Great job. This ad's rating should be changed to positive. It represents gays as "just day to day, real life NORMAL." (Imagine a sexy girl, it would have been just as funny). No insults and no negativity. SO CHANGE THE RATING to positive !!!

Stuart Carroll
I would have given this one a positive rating, no question. So what if the "closeted husband" is cliched, and the leatherman kind of stereotypical. Gays are being shown as natural people -- we're not all gorgeous, rich, well-adjusted New Yorkers. And the premise is just soooooo jaw-droppingly outrageous, only the Dutch would produce or show something like this. Besides, it's hysterical.

Michele Trudu
Wow, a leatherman and a married man that loses his wedding band in the other's anus are "not especially groundbreaking portrayals," the reviewer comments.They are pretty groundbreaking to me! Especially when you see them on a TV commercial. Viva the Netherlands!

anonymous
Hurray for The Netherlands. Sure there may be some cliches involved, but ultimately how delightfully sophisticated, sexy and fun. I don't know what the product is, but I'd consider buying it thanks to the outrageousness of its advertising.

Terrence
What is "real life normal" about the behaviour of the gay men in this commercial? I'd much rather be represented by "well-adjusted" gay men. I have a problem with those who happen to have fetishes, gay or straight, who feel a need to take their fetishes out of the bedroom or dungeon and foist it upon others in public. This does nothing for our cause. If such representations are held out as representative of gay culture; it only serves to validate that gay behaviours, and gay people in general, are on the fringes of mainstream society and should remain there. I have never seen a portrayal of a fetish heterosexual couple as representative of straight "real life normal" culture in advertising, even if there is a heterosexual kink subculture. There is no way that this commercial should be rated as positive. Even the symbolism of flushing a wedding ring down a toilet is off putting. Far from "winning awards", this toilet humour should stay in the bathroom, and off television.