The 90s Were More Progressive Than We Thought: Gay Guinness Ad

Queerty unearthed this Guinness ad from 1995 featuring a gay twist at the end. This was pretty progressive for the time. The only other gay ad from the 90s that we can recall was the IKEA one. But IKEA is already Gay Furniture Central so that wasn’t a huge jump showcasing one of their key demographics. Even back then. But this is a beer ad!

“There was a desire by the agency and Guinness to have a certain ambiguity about it,” advertising pro Tony Kaye said about the 1995 spot. “So that when you watch the spot, you said, ‘Well are these guys gay or not?’ These guys are gay—the storytelling, to me, needed him to give the other guy a little peck on the cheek.”

Before you admire the spot too much, it was never aired on television. We can imagine why. They wouldn’t even show a gay kiss on Melrose Place! The fight for equal rights and visibility continues, but we’ve definitely made some strides.

4 thoughts on “The 90s Were More Progressive Than We Thought: Gay Guinness Ad

  1. Honestly, I think one of the reasons it never aired was that it essentially contradicted itself. “Men and women shouldn’t live together — they’re totally different animals.” It goes through that whole set up for most of the commercial. Then at the end they swap a housewife staying home to clean up after her slob of a husband with a guy (complete with rubber gloves) staying home to clean up after his slob of a partner. So the only point to the commercial really seemed to be the “surprise” moment.

  2. This has been one of my favorite commercials for ages! I love the look of the guy in white as he watches his partner drive off with the coffee mug on the roof. You know he’s thinking, “How in the world did I wind up with this guy?!?” 🙂

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