Lucho Bender | Uno de cada diez hombres es gay (One in Ten Argentine Men Are Gay) / 2004 [commercial advertisement]

a gay ad that doesn’t seem to understand who gay men are

by Douglas Messerli

 

Lucho Bender (director) Uno de cada diez hombres es gay (One in Ten Argentine Men Are Gay) / 2004 [50 seconds] [commercial advertisement]

 

This Argentina commercial, directed by Lucho Bender, is actually quite obnoxious to the gay community even if attempts to connects the brand of Fernet Cinzano with the gay community. It plays on the notion of masculinity and gay stereotypes to get there.

     There are ten men socializing at a house party, when one of the, reading evidently a newspaper article, notes that “One in Ten Argentine Men Are Gay,” the usual 10% quoted for representing gay behavior, although even that is today under question.

      Suddenly this group of presumably straight men, counting down the number of men in their group, begin to readjust their behavior, the first man quickly hiding up his pink-striped socks. A second man immediately removes his arm from behind his friend.

      A third man quickly uncrosses his legs, the fourth covers over his golden bracelet. A another covers up the necklace he wears, while a sixth takes the earring from his left ear.

      But finally, one of their friends, an ice cube in the front of his mouth, moves forward without any regret, a Cinzano in hand while the announce shows its product and suggests, “You can call me Fernet.”

      Strangely, it is the last man whom these scared, maybe gay boys, suddenly identify as the gay man in their midst, presuming that the Cinzano itself may be associated with the gay experience.

      Yes, there is indeed a strange irony to this short ad, and a willingness to fully identify with the gay experience, but to have to play it out through fear and all the stereotypical gay tropes is truly mind-boggling. What are they trying to say, that these men might as well just relax and drink their gay Cinzano or that all of them are already gay?

      The ad is so confused, between its bordering homophobia and its readiness to announce itself as something perfectly comfortable with being the one-in-ten, that the power that any ad might have had to embrace the gay community is completely lost.

      Perhaps this work might be described as making fun of heteronormative views of the gay world, but we are totally unsure of its own point-of-view, and the ad stands on very shaky ground.

       But I guess that if Fernet promises to suddenly turn me into a gay person, I will be happy to drink it.

 

Los Angeles, August 10, 2026

Reprinted from My Gay Cinema blog (August 2026).