Channel surfing the other night I came across something that I hadn't seen for quite awhile. No not Mexican midget wrestling, you can catch that on LA cable access Fridays at 2AM. I saw a Bowflex ad and I was a little shocked. This ad was well … I don’t quite no how to say this…straight. This made me more than a little nostalgic for those good ‘ol man on man soft core commercials from the 80’s and 90’s. Now those of you old enough to remember "Frankie Say.." t-shirts surely also remember these spots . The young fair haired man-child clad only in a headband, red gym shorts, tennis shoes and baby oil goes through a series of muscle flexing exercises while an announcer extols the virtues of the machine in his best Barry White basso. Then after nearly ten minutes of slow pans across taught glistening man flesh some sweaty girl enters holding a towel to frighten all the gay away. I’m sure that for 10 or 12 people this ad was an informative pitch for an expensive pie...
Art and culture from the end of America