I noticed this the other night and thought I’d share:
Verizon has this new ad campaign where the ENTIRE network (complete with the "can you hear me now?" guy) shows up when people whip out their Verizon phones. I'm sure you've all seen this right? Well, on one of them the dad comes into the kitchen pimpin' phones and gives one to his daughter and says, "you can call me when you go to the mall." and then turns to his son who's sporting Goth-wear and raccoon eye makeup, and dad says, "you can call me whenever you go…uh, where ever it is that you go." At which point the son and the entire Verizon network are transported to the dance club that I guess we're supposed to all assume is where the son "goes".
The funny part is that the son looks over at the network, and there's this cable guy (tool belt, hard hat, looking like a Village person) smiling back at the son and dancing, as if to say, "Join me on the dance floor sweetie?" But the "Can you hear me now?" guy (who's obviously a homophobe) delivers the cable guy an admonishing look as if to say, "No gay hook-ups on my watch, pal!" And cable guy ceases his dancing.
I'm not sure it that was all intentional or not, but it's sure funny as hell to me...especially the uh....*eager* look on cable guys face.
I never took the tool belt guy’s behavior to have any sexual undertones. I simply see it as his groovin’ out at the club, and “Can you hear me now?” guy simply saying (with his eyes, of course), “Act profession, man! You’re on the job.”
But then again, maybe Goth Boy is supposed to be a little hottie who would do anything to undercut the archetypal stability of his cookie-cutter, middle-class, suburban family. Homo-erotic undulations with a working stiff would work to that end.
That’s the way I always took it, too. It’s much more fun to hang out with the son at the club than following the daughter around the mall. Because you know the daughter is like the hyper chatty teenager in that other cell phone ad - “And he was like, whatever, and I was like, whatever, and I really like chewing gum, and I wanted to wear my white bathing suit…blah, blah, blah”
Good Lord, must you find sex everywhere? Get your mind outta the gutter!
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