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April 7, 2006

Before & After

It's advising season, and that means that my office is a mess as masses of undergrads clamor for my time and attention as they try to decide what classes they need and want to take next semester.

In the meantime, here's something to ponder. Dodge has a new series of television and print ads hawking their new X-Treme! Station Wagon, the Caliber. The ads, subtitled "Anything But Cute," attempt to show how attitudinous this wild wagon is.

In this ad, a Tinkerbell-like figure flies around transforming grimy parts of the city into magical pixie things. Transforming, that is, until she sets her sights on a shiny new Caliber. The result isn't pretty. Or cute. A passer-by gets caught in the action, and this is where things get... "interesting."

Here he is before:

And here he is after:

What do you think happened?

Would you change your opinion if you knew that just before his transformation, he taunted Tinkerbell with "Silly little fairy"?

Gay media watchdog groups are, predictably, upset. But Dodge spokeswoman Suraya Bliss had this to say:

"We're kind of surprised that people are making a conclusion about someone's sexual orientation based on the clothes they're wearing."

Now I can rest easy, secure in the knowledge that Dodge isn't homophobic, but rather it's the gays who are homophobic for noticing the punchline to the commercial. Classic. And classy, Ms. Bliss.

Posted by reparent at April 7, 2006 7:49 AM