WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Daily Soup, Park Bench

Members:

Set in New York's Central Park, the commercial starts off with audio from an answering machine message: "So, today's the day for the blind date. I'll meet you on the park bench at noon. Okay, bye."

An attractive woman with long, wavy hair sits down on the bench and then, two men simultaneously sit down on either side of her -- a good looking, preppy guy and a nerdy man in glasses. The preppy guy is clearly looking around for someone and, just as she's about to introduce herself, another man walks up to him and says, "Hey, what's up, baby?"

The preppy guy stands as the other man -- muscular, with tattoos and a shaved head -- firmly squeezes the preppy's butt and plants a big kiss on his lips as they walk away. The muscle man adds, "Damn, you look good today!"

The woman looks onto this with confusion and disappointed surprise.

Collecting herself, she accepts that maybe it is the nerd whom she's meeting. She turns to him and introduces herself as he's met by two sexy women, one of whom also squeezes his butt.

She has another look of disbelief on her face and, at that moment, a mugger runs up and grabs her purse.

She chases after him as the commercial closes with the tagline: "Every day's an adventure."

This gay-inclusive ad is outrageous and over the top. It comes from a small retail soup chain that sought to make a mark for itself with alternative-type people who would appreciate it.

User Comments
Simon
I don't know why it was marked "neutral" and not positive. The gay couple seems realistic, there's few stereotypes, and why should the woman win every time? Everyone had a bad day, today was her turn.

Darus
Well, everyone else is having something positive happen to them and she was determined that it would happen for her as well. It didn't. That was laugh out loud funny and of course adventurous.

Corey Powell
I totally thought it was fun and effective. All of a sudden I felt like having my buttocks squeezed while enjoying a hot cup of minestrone.

Geoff
I liked the ad but really couldn't see the correlation between the subject and the product. What was it trying to say?

Leslie
The point of this ad was simply product placement in a humorous video. Two outstanding points were missed in the summary: the woman disregarded the geek as her potential blind date until the handsome preppie turned out to be gay. Then, when she finally gives the geek her attention, he tells her what he's eating ("Mulligatawny") and she replies ("Sally Anne Shapiro") as though he had introduced himself! Then, to add further insult, she incongruously loses even the anonymous geek!