The Viva Las Vegas ad campaign from R&R Partners in Las Vegas has some new promotional images for you. You might notice that the tagline is “Everyone’s welcome, even straight people.” You might also notice that the gay and lesbian scene in Vegas is surprisingly good looking and the edges of their pools are invisible.
I don’t understand what’s going on with this pool.
via {Buzzfeed}
Honestly, I think they’re funny. Because as gay travellers, we’re so accustomed to being the minority, this campaign pokes fun at the idea that Las Vegas was specifically designed for just us, where we can enjoy being the majority. Where this campaign fails is the photoshop. I mean, really.
Yes, yes, I know you’re going to say it doesn’t represent the entire queer woman spectrum, and you know what? It doesn’t have to. It’s advertising. They’re selling a dream, not reality. Doesn’t that perfectly fit the notion of Las Vegas, too? In my imagination, I am in Vegas winning mad monies and having pretty ladies blow on my dice at a craps table and riding limos down the strip, and in reality, I’m probably hanging at the penny slots or lying in bed watching PBS at 8pm after getting sick from eating In-N-Out (true story from my last Vegas experience, but I still love the place). Vegas and especially the Viva Las Vegas campaign has always made fun of itself and been over the top (“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” was from an advert, after all), and these ads fit into that proven method perfectly.
I really do wish they’d added in some identities other than femme, though. I’d be much more likely to book a flight right now if there were more Alternative Lifestyle Haircuts up in there.
via {Buzzfeed}
Check out a few more images from the campaign including some with attractive shirtless men over at Buzzfeed.
It’s all bit too Girls Gone Wild for me!
The photo editing is just cringeworthy though. Id get if they were trying to go for something like the opening credits of The L Word, but on the one with the lady pool party, the straight man has a shadow but his lady friend doesn’t? is she a demon? is this some sort of subliminal message? the world may never know.
I presume as soon as she saw the ladies making out she immediately donated her soul to the devil of lesbianism, thus forsaking her shadow.
Notice how in both photos it’s the “straight” women looking on with salacious intrigue at all the girls? While the dudes are completely uninterested? I wish someone could photoshop that into real life.
Ya know. I understand everyone’s concerns with these- I think Riley is right on with the tone of the opening credits of the L Word (ARUGH) feel- and they all are mostly femme, which is not realistic. However! Whenever I see Girls Like Us portrayed as sexy, fun, and into each other- as opposed to, say, getting freaky for the benefit of the straight couple here- I am happy. Or shall I say, happier than I am with most ads. And we are shown as the majority! ‘Everyone’s welcome- even straight people’ – hah! That’s cool.
I’ve got exactly zero problem with femmes being over represented for once #femmesupremacy
Anyway, having lived in Vegas for quite some time I’ve witnessed individual casinos and eventually the town as a whole begin to court gay money, which is interesting considering that we can’t even run Zumanity with a gay sex scene and that we vote down the majority of queer related issues that even make it to ballots. Frankly, that Vegas is being marketed as queer friendly makes me feel fucking dirty.
Okay, I just saw Zumanity two weeks ago, believing it would be A LOT more progressive than it actually was, but it played in stereotype after stereotype of gender and sexuality, to the point that I wondered if the entire show was a parody.
There were 2, maybe 3 black people in the show, and they, of course, had them only interact with each other. And one of the black guys was an animal for the entire show and he was even on a leash at one point.
Then there was the football watching scene, which lost me. A woman dances on a TV, vying for a guy’s attention who is just trying to watch the game. The first number including a man taking his clothes off was equally as absurd. Unlike the woman who had to dance and actually perform, he literally just stood there and flexed the entire number and had women fawning all over him. The overweight women were the “comedic relief” and not treated like a serious part of the show. And the gay scene was two men fighting over a woman and unless you’re really paying attention, you don’t realize they are gay until the last 2 seconds, so if you don’t have to feel uncomfortable for long.
I even did some research online beforehand because I was worried the show would get it wrong (and in this case, horribly so). Does no one else on the internet share some of these major criticisms of the show?
I also think it’s positive to have the gay presence in the ad, but the gender representation is skewed to say the least. I’m 5 years out of college and we used to painstakingly discuss the media’s misrepresentation of gay/lesbian culture or over-representation of one gender stereotype in ads/movies/tv/etc. It’s kind of disheartening to STILL be able to make these claims. But, kudos for a GAY shout out!
Howdy, good site you have got going here.
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