WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Polaroid Corp., Spin

Members:

A group of young people killing time at an airport are playing a variation of the kissing game "Spin the Bottle" with the Polaroid JoyCam camera.

An updated version of the song "Joy to the World" plays, mentioning "all the boys and girls."

As the camera spins within the circle of friends, the girls and boys eagerly kiss each other and they look at the pictures from it. As one guy spins the camera, it points to another guy, whom he "kisses" through his hand -- a standard straight male joke.

On another spin, it ends up pointing at a frumpy janitor who stops to watch what they're doing. The mouths of a few in the group fall open, as the janitor puckers up for his kiss from the man. The guy supposed to kiss him jumps up in an unhappy surprise, silently mouthing the word "What??"

The tagline is: "Whatever brings you joy." Clearly, men kissing other men isn't something that brings joy here and, conveniently, no women are set up to kiss another woman.

Polaroid, which has since entered bankruptcy, has referenced homosexuality four times in its commercials, once implying a violent response from an old fisherman, another time suggesting a lesbian kiss.

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User Comments
Gary Caplan
Maybe I have a twisted sense of humor, but I found that Polaroid ad quite funny. The homophobic reaction was hilarious! :-)