The Mr. Sub and Bos Fracas

Link to the Marketing Magazine article here.

I meant to blog about this last week when it was actually topical, but never got around to it. Then South Park aired an episode about the usage of the word “fag” (gay slur versus schoolyard taunt) and it got me to typing again.

For those of you too lazy to click on the link, Mr. Sub recently fired their ad agency Bos for creating an online ad that depicted a middle-aged man coming out to his wife and eight or so children. "I'm gay!" he tells them smarmily, at the dinner table. His daughter looks at him dubiously. "As in, gay-gay?" she asks. "As in Super Gay!" he assures her, ruffling her hair. For me, the funniest part about the ad was the fact that the guy had not one or two expected children, but EIGHT.

I have no idea how this is supposed to sell subs, but it's was, in tone, clearly intended to be a funny, light-hearted spot, with the tag line "Nobody likes surprises". It was one ad among many and none of the other ads brought up this issue.

Many members of the gay community freaked out, complained to Mr. Sub and this ended in the firing of Bos. Bos issued a statement saying they never intended to offend anyone - my interpretation of their reasoning is that being made fun of is something that is okay if you're a part of the mainstream. Being gay is now mainstream, thus the gay community must take their share of non-maliciously intended teasing.

Point for this argument: there are countless "funny" ads depicting women in a derogatory manner (I’m looking at you, Axe) and there ain't much I can do about that, other than not buy the product.

Point against this argument: you'd never dare try this sort of thing using minorities or a religious group, so what does that say?

I cruised around a bunch of forums to get a sense of what the gay community is thinking and it seems pretty evenly split between “who cares” and “those responsible should be put to death”.

So what do I think?

Obviously I’m a little biased because I’ve worked with a lot of ad agencies before. I don't know how I feel about this other than to say that the outright firing of Bos, if it was supposed to be a public relations gesture missed its mark. Someone at Mr. Sub had to sign off on that ad. Firing your agency just makes you look like a buck-passing hypocrite. I will henceforth eat at Subway. Or whatever sub shop is closest, because really, who cares. It’s just sandwiches.

The gay issue aside, I have to say I don’t really like what I call ‘non-sequitur advertising’:

SHOCKING/FUNNY SKIT + COMPLETELY UNRELATED PRODUCT PLUG
= MASS AD CAMPAIGN.

Boo! Boo, I say!

But I guess that’s why I’m writing this goofy little blog and not running a big whomping agency like Bos.