Chemistry.com: "Nope, still gay"

If you watched Heroes last night (yes, I'm still obsessed -- and yes, last night's "five years in the future" episode held about as much water as a hammock, but that discussion's for another site), you might have been taken by surprise by an ad that ran in the first 20 minutes that featured a man reading a Penthouse magazine.

The ad isn't shocking because it features Penthouse (which is kind of shocking in and of itself, I guess -- this is a major show on a major network), but because of what happens next: after looking at the centerfold and smiling to himself, the guy closes the magazine, looks at the camera, and says, "Nope -- still gay".

The ad is for online dating site Chemistry.com, which it turns out is a site owned by dating monolith Match.com. And as the voiceover notes at the end of the commercial, the gag here is a reference to the fact that while other "spiritual" dating sites (i.e., ones that aren't just troughs filled with pictures but that do an in-depth personality profile and are geared toward more "serious" singles) like eHarmony don't allow same sex daters to apply, Chemistry.com does.

I took a look at the site and while it doesn't have any mention anywhere of this defining characteristic, I did take a shot at starting a profile and it does allow you to be a "man seeking man" (the language for the most part is also decidedly pronoun-agnostic -- but then again, there are both men and women in their target audience). Other than that, the only other suggestion that the site is sexuality-inclusive is that the logo features two linked circles -- not male/female symbols, just plain circles (which could therefore represent either gender).

Kind of interesting that they would do an entire television spot in what must be pretty expensive ad space to tout their gay-inclusiveness and not even mention it on their entire website, right?

And am I the only on that finds the placement of this ad during Heroes more than just a teeny bit ironic? "Nope -- still gay!"