Claxson, Kisses

Portuguese-language Web portal O Site (at www.osite.com.br) ran a nationwide campaign in Brazil that attempts to show revealing scenes from day-to-day life by inquiring what people do in ordinary situations.

It begins by asking, "How do you spend your time in the bathroom?" and "How do you kiss? Each person has his own way but only O Site understands all of them. O Site is so interactive that it can help to do everything. Click on O Site immediately, because now it's even going to help us make our new commercial. Click, tell us your way, and take part."

The images originally showed a variety of people kissing, including a shot of two masculine men and another of two feminine women -- a rarity, since gay-themed ads usually show just male or just female couples. But a series of modifications have obscured the commercial.

The ad has been airing on national Brazilian TV networks, including Globo, SBT, Bandeirantes and on cable, but with restrictions. "Given their wide audience, Globo recommended that we air Kisses only after 10 p.m.," says client services director Rogerio Campos at O Site's ad agency DenisonBrasil, located in Sao Paulo, the country's largest city with 16 million dwellers.

"To avoid any friction with the general population, which is not our intention or target group, we accepted their suggestion and extended a late night placement to all TV networks in our media schedule," says Campos.

Even though the ad aired at night, complaints from viewers to the advertising regulatory agency CONAR still came in and quickly convinced DenisonBrasil to make changes to the same-sex kissing couples.

In a twist, the agency teasingly covered up the imagery and invites viewers to the Web site for a full view. Says Campos, "We arranged a special version of Beijos with a black strip over the scenes with girl-girl and boy-boy, yet superimposed copy that invites viewers willing or curious to watch those scenes on the O site."

Those strips are a unique approach that hasn't been tried before in gay-themed ads, since they are more often just pulled from airing. While they are a bit playful and practical -- to draw viewers to the company's Web site -- the black strip effect render the same-sex action unviewable.

"Our intention was not to shock people but to show diversity, differences among people and that O Site understands them," says Campos. "The brand proposition is to be interactive -- even in advertising that, in this specific case, adapted itself to the moment."

Late-night showings remain somewhat familiar terrain for advertisers with gay themes. In 1994, when IKEA ran its famous gay-couple-shopping commercial, it ran after 9:30 p.m. so as not to expose children -- despite a lack of physical interaction by the men. And an envelope pushing, 1998 British safer-sex commercial from the now-defunct Rubberstuffers organization showed two men kissing behind closed doors in an office and aired it only after 11 p.m.