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Stockholm is currently party-town with Stockholm Pride festival in full swing. Sweden's Channel five are tagging along by showing pride-related films like Transamerica, and TV shows like "Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World". Absolut Vodka have released a rainbow colored bottle which is prominently displayed in the Swedish state operated liquor stores - but that isn't due to the Prideparty in Stockholm, instead the rainbow bottle is to celebrate that it is 30 years ago that Gilbert Baker of San Francisco designed a flag with six stripes representing the six colours of the rainbow as a symbol of gay and lesbian community pride.


Meanwhile, lots of ads are being pulled due to homophobia or offending homosexual people.


First there was that Heinz "New York deli mom" ad kiss. Or rather - peck. Mom of the house - as always making lunch bags for the kids and the hubby in the kitchen where else would mom be? - has been replaced by a stereotypical Noo Yawka deli man. When Dad is about to rush off to work without kissing the missus, Noo Yawka Deliman says "hey, aren't you forgetting something?" and there is the kiss. 200 people missed the joke and reported the "gay kiss" as offensive and "inappropriate to see two men kissing". Heinz withdrew the ad and and apologised to viewers.

At least eightynine people complained about the gay kiss in the Dolce & Gabbana advert which super adgrunts can see here. However, this is not a good enough reason to ban it, says the ASA :
"We did not consider that a kiss between two men automatically made an ad unacceptable for broadcast or that the kiss was in itself grounds for imposing a stricter timing restriction," it said in its ruling.

Saatchi and Saatchi, Stockholm has done an almost global commercial for Sony Ericsson which will be aired in "twenty to thirty" different countries. In the ad, several people sing Depeche Mode's song "enjoy the silence", and it's the first time this song has been used in an advertisment.
The most interesting feature of this mood-ad is that there's a transvestite in it. At least I think this lass is born a lad. Sony Ericsson - Enjoy the silence - (2008) :60 (Sweden)

Saatchi is also aiming for a world record in the amount of people who sing the same song and with the site Jointhesong.com created by B-Reel, Sony fans can upload themselves singing along to the same song. If the campaign works, a Guiness book of records place might be in order.

"I think that the current record is 275 000 [people singing the same song], so it won't be easy to beat. Be we're officially aiming for it."

said Stefan Bergström Sony Ericsson's Nordic communication manager to Resumé

Panos swimwear catalog used Swedens popular drag show artist Richard Engfors as their swimsuit model.
The collections concept is Unlimited Love, inside the swimwear there's a poem written by the designer, it refers to Sappho, one of the earliest writers about female homosexuality, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
This bold move got plenty of press attention, the newspaper aftonbladet reported that the catalogue has been rejected in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, and now Finland. The catalog was sent out to 17 out of 25 target countries but has now been recalled. Panos has chosen to reshoot with the greek athlete Aleka instead.

After passing on a link to the first Sims commercial (2001) and its variation (2001), somehow someone pointed me to an Orbitz commercial (2003) and its unlabeled variation (2003).

The Sims commercial follows a guy who walks up to two beautiful women and then gets slapped so hard that his green diamond (play the game and you'll understand) goes flying and is picked up by another gent. This new gent then leads a beautiful woman out of the bar......

An appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that the city of San Francisco did not trample on religious freedoms or First Amendment rights when it urged a local boycott of an anti-gay advertising campaign backed by conservative Christian groups.