Although we at the Spoke don’t have a clue about how football works, watching Superbowl commercials helps us keep our fingers on the pulse of the American psyche. And we are so proud of our country because we as a society are ready to see queer representation on the screen! That’s right, in a daring new multimillion dollar ad, Subaru has worked hard to highlight authentic queer love while showcasing their SUV safety features.
The commercial opens with a policeman waiting at a highway speed trap, about to nod off when a car blurs past. The cop looks down to his radar gun but on-screen is just a large rainbow.
We cut to the interior of the car. In the driver’s seat is an impossibly skinny man in a tank top, one hand on the wheel of the car and the other clutching a cup of iced coffee by the lid. Across from him is a slightly more muscular man, who the undiscerning viewer might mistake for a straight man if not for the spiked dog collar around his neck and crop in hand. Both have thick and bushy pornstaches ripped straight from the upper lips of the Village People.
The two seem to be engaged in a vigorous discussion since the twink’s hand gestures keep sloshing caramel frap onto the console, but the audience is unable to make out any words over the radio, which is blaring Chromatica. We see the car swerve as the driver takes his other hand off the wheel to reapply bronzer but by then it is too late. The fragile compact crumples against a silver Subaru SUV, which contains – according to the stick figure stickers on the back window – a mother, father, and two boys.
The Subaru is completely intact and the parents step out. The wife speaks first. “Harold, we’re going to be late to Danny’s soccer practice.” The husband surveys the scene and frowns to himself before scribbling some contact info on a Denny’s napkin as the family files back into the car and drives off.
In the reflection of one of the Subaru’s pristine windows we see one of the victims stare abjectly into the sky, his once-perfectly threaded eyebrows now marred with blood. He takes one last hit of poppers before his hand falls to the ground and he breathes his last breath.
Wow. It really is refreshing to see queer representation in something as boldly American as a Superbowl commercial. Even ten years ago, it would have been almost impossible for the gay youth of the U.S. of A. to really picture themselves splattered amongst a heap of jagged metal in the middle of the highway, but it just goes to show how far we’ve come!
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