Manhunt’s Times Square Billboard: Appropriate or Not?

Though you may not have seen it on television, Manhunt had an extremely prominent ad running for New Year’s Eve in Times Square… Beautiful, ain’t it? Of course, in the event that you somehow missed this, our very own J. Harvey was brave enough to attend the NYC festivities, in order to film the billboard and ask a handful of random citizens how they felt about the previously controversial (and oh-so-newsworthy) imagery.

Attendees were asked a very simple question: “Do you think this is appropriate or not?” Not so surprisingly, more than half of the respondents answered “appropriate” with no hesitation whatsoever… So can we finally put a lid on this being a controversy? Clearly, most people don’t mind seeing a billboard with two men (almost) kissing.

Photographer JP Santamaria, the photographer responsible for the original shot, had similar feelings on this matter.

– Dewitt

Click through to watch the video and see all the responses:

Somewhat related:

38 thoughts on “Manhunt’s Times Square Billboard: Appropriate or Not?

  1. Not everyone who finds it inappropriate is a Republican or even straight.  I’m a Manhunt user, and I also think that doing a big billboard encouraging casual sex, gay or straight, is going too far.  Politicians and regular people complain about teen sex, the resurgence of AIDS, loss of morals, etc., but we think sex on TV, on billboards, etc., is OK.  No reason, other than money and greed, Manhunt needs to advertise on Times Square … and I would say the same about Plentyoffish or an “Asian massage” shop.  I just think policing ourselves sometimes isn’t a bad thing.

  2. BTW, two men almost kissing?  Get over it.  Two men hooking up — that’s where it becomes highly questionable for me.

  3. Nothing about the billboard specifically encourages casual sex. This has more to do with your own personal perception of Manhunt, which seems to ignore that people use the site for purposes beyond hooking up.

  4. the more straight people see men being affectionate(in print, on TV, in films) the less weird it will seem to them and in time, someday…will seem normal

  5. h6666 has it right—-live in denver and tebow just gets more queer the more i see of him—the guys who said inappropriate were probably concerned about the arousal it created in their pants 

  6. tebow looks like he’s about to kiss that other guy—-body language/the look in his eyes—bet he wishes that was eric decker or tom brady

  7.  Not really. I wouldn’t want to see straight people doing it either. It’s deliberately provocative. When you make something deliberately provocative, you can’t get mad about some people finding it to be in bad taste.

  8. Just like google allows you to search for any kind porn you can imagine.  We should abolish tools just because people use them differently then ourselves?

  9. I agree. A lot of things such as ads are overly sexualized nowadays.
    It doesn’t really matter if it’s gay straight or anything in between. I really don’t want to walk around while seeing people banging everywhere.

  10. Google doesn’t autotype ‘Hot Chocolate Bitches 3’ when you log onto it. Billboards kinda do that when you see them.

  11. Any ad with slight sexual implications will do that.  Frankly I’ve seen more provocative Calvin Klein ads than this.  If this needs to be taken down, then a lot of other ads should come down as well for the same reason.  Specifically erectile dysfunction ads.  There’s only reason to use the medication which would be sex.

  12. That’s what I’m trying to say too. I don’t care who or what it’s for. Tone it down sometimes. I don’t think the MH Billboard is atrocious, and MH is a hookup site so how the hell else are they supposed to advertise. It’s just annoying that pretty much everything gets sexualized somehow today (e.g. ED ads).

  13. Not appropriate? It’s an advertisement for a sex site. It’s doing it’s job. And could have done so with less tact (read: Spearmint Rhino)…I hate tacky blatant sex and violent ads as much as the next guy. That said, too bad for me. It’s not the job of Rest Of The World to do our parenting for us. Sorry if it makes doing that difficult but, such is life. Find a way, talk it out. Do your best to raise your kids how you want in your own home. But this is out in the public and therefore (in my book) it’s off limits. Essentially, censorship is a bad move and the wrong lesson.

  14. I consider to be in the very left of the social spectrum, and I think that billboard is very inappropiate.

    I don’t want to have to explain my 7 year old daughter what zero feet away means, even though me and my boyfriend use Manhunt together and separately.

  15. “Nothing about the billboard specifically encourages casual sex.” uhm… are you fucking kidding us?

    “This has more to do with your own personal perception of Manhunt, which seems to ignore that people use the site for purposes beyond hooking up.” Gee, I’d really love to hear some of these noble purposes! LOL

  16. would have been much cooler and equally sexy had they been wearing t-shirts. as it is, it looks a bit dire

  17. Two men (not even) kissing encourages CASUAL SEX? Who’s to say they’re not boyfriends in a monogamous relationship, husbands who met on the site, etc?

    Some people use Manhunt for dating or making friends. It’s understood that the primary purpose might be for hooking up, but the overall purpose is for men to meet other men… What they do once they meet is entirely up to them.

  18. nice try, DeWitt… your company’s motto is/was “Get On, Get Off” That, and billboards featuring topless men (almost) kissing, doesn’t conjure images of baking cookies or meeting for coffee. LOL

  19. Is that slogan on this particular billboard? If not, what about THIS billboard is indecent, aside from what you may know based on your preconceived notions (such as knowing our slogan) about Manhunt?

  20. After having to look at all the straight public displays of affection over the years, it’s about time we get even!

  21. ugh, I hate my voice but bravo to our editor for coming up with this because I returned with some tragic footage…

  22. In 10 years, I have been in a 3 year committed relationship and a 4 year committed relationship.  Both of those started on ManHunt.  Maybe it’s you posting shit.

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