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| A Bravo spokesperson said some content on MyGaydar.com was ‘borderline pornographic,’ so the network decided against running ads for the site during the network’s gay hit ‘Boy Meets Boy.’ (Photo courtesy of MyGaydar.com) |
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HOME > VIEWPOINT > ACTION! ALERT
By: CHRISTOPHER SEELY
COMMENTS
 
The services that a gay Web site provides could be too real for reality television.
Officials at Bravo and Bravo’s parent company, NBC, recently rejected an ad
for MyGaydar.com to appear
on the summer hit “Boy Meets Boy,” television’s first gay dating reality show.
The site contains “borderline pornography,” according to a Bravo spokesperson
who agreed to be interviewed only if his name was not reported.
“Had the site been a regular dating site without pornographic content, it
would be fine,” the spokesperson said.
Bravo decided against airing the commercial after reviewing an informational
packet about MyGaydar.com. The 30-second television commercial contained some “borderline
inappropriate content” as well, the spokesperson said.
But the opportunity to advertise a service for gay men on a national level
has never been better, said David Muniz, founder of MyGaydar.com.
“There is a plethora of gay programming coming out on cable and it looked
like the perfect marriage — a venue where we could promote our products as
we had all along with television,” Muniz said. “If the program itself is controversial,
why not take controversial advertising?”
The MyGaydar.com spot opens with a lone man sipping a bright orange beverage
next to a pool. A bikini-clad woman attempts to grab his attention by shaking
her breasts, but the man doesn’t notice, causing the woman to exchange a baffled
look with her female friend. Then a muscular blonde man appears and sits down
next to the other man to share his drink, while house music starts thumping.
“MyGaydar.com — what you want, when you want it,” an announcer says as the
commercial ends.
The Web site launched in 2000 and now serves 450,000 U.S. residents and 1.2
million members worldwide, according to the company.
Bravo’s decision not to air the spot is a “double standard,” according to
Muniz.
“If you look at the other advertising out there, they will take advertising
geared toward gay men, but they won’t take something that is truly a gay product
for gay men,” he said.
But the Web site runs afoul of the agreement that contestants on “Boy Meets
Boy” signed with Bravo banning sexual content on the show, the Bravo spokesperson
said.
“That show was not about sex,” the spokesperson said.
Still, the ads for MyGaydar.com do meet content standards for Time Warner,
a leading cable television provider in the New York region, which has aired
MyGaydar.com ads since October during late-night episodes of “Oprah,” Muniz
said.
“We were allowed to be on after midnight on cable programming,” he said. “It
was a hard marriage to figure out what gay people are watching.”
Muniz said airing the spots on “Boy Meets Boy” seemed a natural fit after
he viewed the show’s first episode. MyGaydar.com was going to pay $10,000 for
each 30-second spot that Bravo ran nationally, an increase from the $1,200
per spot the Internet company paid Time Warner for regional advertising, according
to Muniz.
Chisholm Properties, which owns and operates two gay nightclubs in Atlanta
and other gay clubs in Pensacola, Fla. and New Orleans, also saw the marketing
potential during Bravo’s gay summer hits, said Terri Bottom, a spokesperson
for the company.
“We all love that show, ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,’” Bottom said. “It’s
a good value too.”
Chisholm Properties runs ads during the show in all three markets — Atlanta,
Pensacola and New Orleans.
3000 W Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA 91523-0001
818-840-3333
www.bravotv.com
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
212-664-4444
www.nbc.com
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