# Is this Yoplait commercial the first one to feature a possibly gay couple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518 "2009-07-10T01:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518/41 "2009-07-11T16:19:36Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I may be misremembering this, but the idea that the two guys in that commercial are gay didn’t come from the gay community, it came from anti-gay rights activists who suddenly started protesting VW over that commercial for having a gay couple in it. As I recall, the universal reaction from the non-idiot bigot public, gay and straight alike, was, “What the hell are you people smoking?” That’s not exactly how I remember it. I recall there being both gay and gay-friendly people wondering if VW was subtly suggesting these guys were a couple. This was heavily influenced by the fact that the commercial premiered during the coming out episode of _Ellen_. In another context everyone probably would have figured the guys in the ad were just two college dudes wasting time, but the association with a major gay-themed media event put things in a different light – one not intended by VW, but one that the company didn’t object to either. I was pretty confident of my memory here, but also managed to dig up a couple of cites: see the entry for the Volkswagen ad at [Commercial Closet](http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/adlibrarydetails.cfm?QID=43&clientID=11064) and the last section of [this article](http://www.thegully.com/essays/gay_mundo2/wilke/021111_commercial_closet.html). I suspect there were probably some wacko anti-gay groups that protested ALL the companies that advertised during the coming out episode of _Ellen_, and the VW ad was likely the only one that featured anything resembling a same-sex couple so it would have attracted special scorn. But it definitely wasn’t only anti-gay people who thought those guys might be more than just buddies. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518/42 "2009-07-11T16:54:44Z")
> [@NoCoolUserName](#): > > Thanks! VeryCoolSpouse and I saw this when it aired, and I turned and said “Did I just see that?!?” Yup. > > The punch line, not mentioned in the link, was, IIRC “We really ARE a family.” I loved it! > > We never saw it again. I’d be eternally grateful if someone could find a link to the actual commercial. The GLAAD site has a link: [http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/adlibrarydetails.cfm?QID=216&clientID=11064](http://www.commercialcloset.org/common/adlibrary/adlibrarydetails.cfm?QID=216&clientID=11064) I did a search on “John Hancock” (in quotes to get rid of the extraneous hits). ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518/43 "2009-07-13T03:04:21Z")
I think this was one of the first openly gay commercials to be broadcast on national television: [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1019365/](http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/1019365/) ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518/44 "2009-07-13T03:27:37Z")
[The guys in the Progressive commercial weren’t actually intended to be gay, even though they’re frequently interpreted that way](http://www.slate.com/id/2219871/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-yoplait-commercial-the-first-one-to-feature-a-possibly-gay-couple/502518.md?page=2)