Lube Ad 'Banned' In Chicago By Comcast Due To Its 'Level Of Gayness,' Says Company Founder
By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 7, 2017 9:26PM
Just when you thought you couldn't be more irritated with Comcast, the founder of a personal lube company has charged that the telecom monolith "banned" his company's advertisement from running in Chicago during RuPaul's Drag Race because Comcast "did not think viewers could handle the level of gayness." Comcast, on the other hand, claims the conflict stems from a request to air an ad on a separate network.
The offending ad (which is in no way offensive), for Boy Butter, features buff ginger Seth Fornea churning butter, wearing only a yellow apron and intermittently mugging for the camera with knowingly ironic sexy face. A stadium-sized rawk soundtrack blasts in the background. Eyal Feldman, the founder of Boy Butter, said on the company's blog that the ad (see above) was meant to work as "a gay version of the sexy Super Bowl ads and tame it down to be as “PG” as possible, so as to avoid this type of ban." So if the ridiculous irony of not airing an ad for its high level of "gayness" during a drag-competition show wasn't rich enough, compound it with the fact that it plays expressly as a satire of the double standard to which it allegedly fell.
The ad was permitted to air in other markets, including Los Angeles, New York City and San Diego, but not here, Feldman wrote.
"One would think that in the Midwest the sight of a butter churn would bring back nostalgic feelings of nearby dairy farms, but alas, if a gay man is churning that butter, not so much. One of the best things about owning a personal lubricant company is the marketing, creating fun, tongue-in-cheek ads that push my products as well as my own gay point of view. If you take this case of blatant censorship in Chicago it smacks of nothing more than a sexist and homophobic double standard."
For their part, Comcast insists there's nothing so nefarious at play, telling Chicagoist that the dispute stems from the advertiser's desire to have a commercial run on a station other than VH1, which airs Drag Race.
Comcast Spotlight told Chicagoist in a statement:
"Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, received a request from the advertiser to air a spot on The Logo Network in Chicago. We informed them that we do not insert ads on that network in the local Chicago market. We recently connected with the advertiser, and we are working together to revisit their campaign needs based on what is available in the local Chicago market."
Lets hope that "connection" bears fruit, because it's a pretty brilliant ad, and Chicago can most assuredly handle and appreciate it.
[H/T Elite Daily]