Unlike most of my friends, I’m not a car guy. When they tell me about the newest hottest BMW, or whatever, my eyes glaze over. I can’t tell a Mercedes from a Mazda.
And that’s why I like Chrysler. I can recognize them on the street; they have unique styling and stand out from the generic boxes driving by them. When the LA Car Show comes, I head to the Chrysler section first.
Then the other day I saw a commercial for the DaimlerChrysler’s new Dodge Caliber. In the ad there’s a little fairy flying around turning everything “cute”. But when the fairy tries her magic on the Caliber the fairy dust bounces off because the Caliber is “too tough”. A large tough-looking guy walks buy with a big dog and says “Silly little fairy”. The fairy responds by turning him into an effeminately dressed man in white shorts with four little Pomeranians on pink leashes.
I cringed.
I live in Los Angeles and I’m not exposed to much open homophobia. And it has been a long time since corporate America – or the networks – displayed mocking imagery of gays. So the coupling of the image of an effeminate man and the term “silly little fairy” came as a shock.
Some gay groups have expressed concern about this ad and brought it to Chrysler’s attention. Chrysler makes no apology for the imagery and says, “We’re kind of surprised that people are making a conclusion about someone’s sexual orientation based on the clothes they’re wearing”.
They’re surprised? That’s odd.
Whether or not the character is gay is irrelevant. Chrysler has decided that effeminate men deserve ridicule. And this bothers me.
Any school administrator can tell you that whether or not they are gay, effeminate boys get beaten up, picked on, and bullied. Sometimes to the point where they kill themselves to get away from a life of daily misery.
Chrysler’s hoping their ad gets a lot of attention. And if some “silly little fairy” goes home from school and finds his mother’s sleeping pills, well they have no legal liability.
I wrote to Chrysler expressing my concern and got the vaguest canned response making it clear that though they “appreciate your insightful feedback” and my opinion is “very important and provides valuable input”, they have no intention of apologizing or pulling the ad. I believe in their appreciation of my opinion about as much as I believe in their surprise.
Although conservative Christian groups claim to show love and discourage mocking and derision, none have condemned the message in the ad. PFOX, who claims that stereotyping adds to a negative environment and pretends to oppose bullying, has said nothing. Exodus, with their parade of effeminate ex-gays has not said a word. Surely they realize that imagery of this sort impacts effeminate ex-gays as much as it does effeminate gays.
I don’t think there’s any point of boycotting or organizing a protest. But Chrysler’s message is clear: effeminate men should not buy Chryslers.
I don’t think I will either.
I do understand your concern, and the concern of others, but I tend to not be too bothered by something like that. I may be wrong, and I do understand your reasoning. I have watched and watched that ad trying to see what others are seeing, but I don’t see the man as effeminate. I see him as a yuppie, something the tough guy would hate. Then again, I am not too PC and not too easily offended–I am a South Park, Family Guy type of person. I also don’t think the ad is there to harm. Again, I could be wrong–my boyfriend thinks it is offensive too. I sometimes have a problem with GLADD because I think they are too sensitive. I think we might advance the gay rights cause more if we did not seem too sensitive–if a straight friend calls me fag or queer, I don’t care personally. I am not attacking your viewpoint Timothy, and you are not the only person to feel as such, but maybe the ad goes past my head.
I don’t quite understand why you’re complaining about the man saying “Silly little fairy” to, well, an actual fairy. Should we just expunge that word from our vocabulary because it has homophobic connotations in certain contexts?
Skemono, I think some people perceive a karma type thing going on. Rude tough guy makes fun of fairy and is turned into one. I don’t quite see it, but that is how others have explained it to me before.
You know, another interpretation of the ad is that the fairy is trying to make life a bit nicer all around, changing a dark world into something magical. The tough guy is turned into something nicer and better–if we assume he turns into a gay guy, then maybe we can see the ad as pro-gay actually? I still don’t see the controversy, but I think the ad can be read many different ways.
Since we are talking about homosexuality and media, I noticed a weird exgay thing in Hostel. I was watchng Hostel tonight, and there is this creepy older man, who turns out to be a villian, who hits on a young male. Later, the young male and him are talking and the older man sort of suggests that early on in life he could have followed his feelings (suggesting he was gay) but that he decided to put that behind himself and get married and have children. Yet it is still obvious this man is interested in men. He also is very evil and tortures young men for fun. Maybe I missed something in the movie, but I could swear the older man is suggesting he is exgay. There are homophobic things in the movie, but they did not really bother me–guys making fag jokes, etc. Has anybody seen the film? Am I totally off on this exgay thing?
Confirmation: My last post mentioned the exgay character in Hostel. In Fangoria, Eli Roth said he had seen in school really screwed up people who went through “reorientation” therapy, so he decided to make his villian out of one of them.
AdAge tore Daimler-Chrysler and its agency (BBDO) a new one over this spot.
Hey Timothy – It’s a Fairy! Please tell me where the ridicule is.
This may be hard, but try not to blame Chrysler for the problems effeminate boys have growing up. Chrysler is not the bully who stole your lunch money when you went to school. It’s a commercial. No gays were hurt in the making of this commercial. It’s about a fictitious fairy and a guy who found out the hard way it’s not smart to ridicule a fairy with a magic wand.
I think it’s one of the funniest commercials I’ve seen in a long while. But of course somebody without a sense of humor is offended by it. Waah wah.
Mark said:
I think it’s one of the funniest commercials I’ve seen in a long while. But of course somebody without a sense of humor is offended by it. Waah wah.
Is someone not permitted to another opinion without being ridiculed? Regardless, personal derision such as this is not appropriate.
David
Mark at May 1, 2006 03:41 AM
Yeah, I know that I have no sense of humor.
I never laugh at the jokes about how cheap Jews are, or how lazy latins are. I don’t mock the way asians talk or think stereotypes are fall-on-the-floor funny. And I don’t laugh when a commercial pairs the phrase “silly little fairy” with a guy walking four tiny dogs with pink leashes.
Sadly, I require cleverness or wit to make me laugh. Just poking fun at someone else’s differences doesn’t do it for me.
But I know that’s a flaw of mine. One of these days maybe I’ll get a “sense of humor” and think that comedy based on deriding and mocking others is hysterical.
I can hardly wait.
Well at least you admit you don’t have a sense of humor. I think that’s the difference between yourself and I. Oh..and that me mocking someone without a sense of humor is ‘inappropriate’. I never said you weren’t allowed your own opinion, and I’m sure you’re not going to change your mind based on my opinion.
I think it’s simply the word ‘fairy’ that ticks you off. Did the guy in the white shorts say he was gay? No, you assumed he was, so you can be conveniently offended.
The guy in the commercial clearly called a flying tinkerbell-like creature a silly little fairy. Because she was a fairy. Now if someone pointed at the guy and his Pomeranians and called him a silly little fairy, I’d say you have some gay-bashing going on here.
I wouldn’t be laughing at a commercial joking about cheap Jews or lazy Latins. Believe it or not. Neither of those subjects has anything to do with this commercial. Putting a tough guy in white shorts with a preppy sweater around his neck and 4 tiny Pomeranians is not gay-bashing, nor is it a stereotype. It’s poetic justice for someone who should have known better than to poke fun at a fairy with a magic wand. How is that not obvious???
Maybe Dodge will let GLADD re-write the commercial so as to remove any possibility of offending anyone sensitive to the word ‘fairy’ or depictions of effeminate males.
“A winged female creature goes flying into the wall and hits the ground. Emblazoned on her shirt are the words “I am NOT a fairy!”
A tough guy and his pit bull are walking along the street and see the winged female creature laying askew on the ground.
“Are you okay? I sure hope you weren’t injured,” he says.
“I’m a bit dazed, but thanks for asking!” she responds. “Would you like to help me remake the world in a refreshing but not-fairy-like way?”
“That would be splendid!” he cheers.
And the tough guy took the non-fairy and his bulldog to his car. They hopped in his Mazda Miata and everywhere they went they changed the scenery into breathtaking pastels and glittery dust, and made it safe to walk in the city wearing little white shorts and a sweater without ever being ridiculed by bigoted, narrow-minded gay-bashers again.
The End
Posted by: Mark at May 1, 2006 09:00 PM
This really bugs you doesn’t it. The thread is 2 weeks old and long out of the rotation, yet it’s the only one you can find to comment on?
Back to your original comment, “Waah wah” is absolutely inappropriate in that context, not that I can think of one which would be appropriate. Timothy had an opinion of the Dodge commercial when he first saw it and wrote about it. You could have disagreed with a lot less attitude. At any rate the topic is pretty well exhausted so please do try to get past it.
David
Let’s get all sensitive now! The first thing I thought of when the clothes were changed was a prep. Preps should be the ones offended. But I guess if you really go looking for trouble, the most innocent of situations can be turned into what you are looking for!
It’s a fairy for christ’s sake. This tough guy makes fun of an actual fairy so the fairy turns him into a cute and fluffy version of himself, as she did the rest of the things she touched. I think someone is a little oversensitive to anything that could possibly be construed as being anti gay.
I was doing a search on this commercial because I was trying to determine the accent of the gentleman. Never did I imagine that this was a gay innuendo until gay people decided it was. I guess if you turn over enough rocks you’ll find something to support your cause.
I was doing a search on this commercial because I was trying to determine the accent of the gentleman.
I don’t blame you, I’ve always had a thing for a Bronx accent myself 😉 If you will notice, most people here disagreed with the gay innuendo interpretation.
David Roberts
If you want equality, stop trying to make yourself special. If you want better treatment than everyone else, you’re not getting there by whining about things like this.
Ok…well, it seems that most of us agree! It is a fairy! Silly? Maybe, but that’s not the question. Is it a gay fairy? I’d bet not, unless it’s a lesbian. As far as the guy on the street goes, his dog has nothing to do with gay! But the whole transformation, including his dog, is from street stud, to preppy! Nothing more! Being the owner of a gay bar, I hear it all! And so far, I’ve heard nothing about anything being “anti” anything. Give it a break. I’m still laughing at it even though they took out that line “silly little fairy”! I say put it back!