Canadian cell phone commercial depicts man switching teams

It hasn’t been that long since we posted an MTV-Canada anti-pot smoking advertisement which depicted brothers kissing after smoking up, but another Canadian commercial is stirring up some more gay controversy. Fido, a subsidiary of Rogers Wireless, released a series of ads this year that star people and their similar looking dogs. This recent ad, featuring a wiener dog and his owner has a gay twist. The announcer reads “Life changes. With Fido, change your monthly package without charge whenever you want”. During this, the owner is seen first kissing a blond girl, the scene then morphs to show him with another girl and a baby. This then changes to the owner romantically hugging another man on a couch. The only constant is the wiener dog by his side.

This has rubbed a number of people the wrong way. It’s often risky for a large company to include gay content in their mainstream advertisements as there straights and gay folks who might take offense. IMHO, I think the ad isn't offensive by any means and just depicts a young man coming to terms with his sexuality as often happens. Some have said that the ad tries to say that sexual orientation is a choice since he switches so quickly. I think for that argument to be taken seriously, we have to forget the fact that the commercial is fifteen seconds long.

We've tried to contact the advertising firm behind the campaign and hope to hear back from them soon in regards to how this commercial came to be. I’m also interested in what our AfterElton readers have to say about it!