1978 Ad for a “Cologne Exclively For Gay Men” - Soclogil Imag

Contents:

• BT FRAGRANC FOR GAY MEN?
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• GAY COLOGNE · HOTELS

BT FRAGRANC FOR GAY MEN?

I thk 's surprisg bee 's an ad validatg the existence of gay men, om 1978. Nevermd how stupid the ia that gay men need their own scent is.

Bee they hope the gay men intify wh the prodt and buy if is advertised as a product for them.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

I agree wh Sadie - on one level, 's surprisg jt to see gay men as a targeted marketg group (although I don't know where the ad me om - 'd be more surprisg a mastream magaze than a specifilly gay-oriented one). So I have to wonr if the advertisers thought gay men were more likely to buy logne than straight men, and that ma them a viable target group.

It uld be a really subtle way of broadstg that you're gay to other gay people whout straight people necsarily noticg. I agree wh Sadie: I thk what's surprisng to someone 2010 (apart om the weirdns of a logne "exclively" for gay men) is the ia that such an ad, and ed product, was around 1978.

It was the year that Saturday Night Fever brought dis culture to the mastream, and dis had a strong gay affiliatn. Okay, so a lot of the parents and grandparents who liked them may have been unaware they were gay, as were those of who were still junr high, but most everybody else got .

GAY COLOGNE · HOTELS

I'm sure that if this ad appeared a magaze not specifilly aimed at a gay dience ed que a stir--but let's face , would do that now. I found a lol gay publitn the other day, and was leafg through and showg the ads to my partner.

He was pretty startled by the obv homoeroticism a lot of the ads (and he had an tertg observatn about one ad for a legal firm that seemed specifilly aimed at gay Asian-Amerins. I gus when you nsir the average gay man (at least the stereotype -- I'd be cur if statistics support this) you thk of someone very vted their own appearance, often sgle, wh no children and therefore a lot more disposable e than the average heterosexual man of parable age and salary. I n't see why more advertisers -don't- market products to gay men (though given that a "gay" logne like the one pictured above is very unlikely to be bought by straight men, I n image that advertisers ually make their ads a ltle ls "foced", orr to ga tert om people of eher orientatn.