Does This Budweiser Military Ad Have a Gay Vibe?

When AE reader Dane H. first tipped me off to this military-themed Budweiser commercial and asked me if I thought it had an ambiguously gay feel to it, I thought he was reading into it. But then I watched again and suddenly I wasn't so sure. Actually, upon a second viewing it did read pretty gay. Check it out for yourself.

So the first person our soldier calls is this other guy. Let's call him PB for Potential Boyfriend. Clearly the solider isn't married or in a serious relationship with the girl we later see him hugging. Otherwise he surely would've called her first. So the possibilities are that either that PB is a brother, best friend or ... a boyfriend. Hmm, would a soldier coming home really call his best friend or his brother before his parents?

If PB is his brother, the brother clearly doesn't live at home as we see the solider also call his parents, while PB is driving away from his house to start getting the party ready. And PB sure seems to be much of the focus of the commercial as he prepares for the party. And then who is the first person to greet and hug our soldier? It's PB of course. And it's a fairly intense hug.

So is the commercial intentionally gay or not? Well, only Budweiser knows for sure, but if you substituted a woman for PB, it would read pretty much exactly like a heterosexual relationship. And while it's possible that an ad could inadvertently read gay, Budweiser has a pretty slick advertising arm so that at least seems somewhat unlikely.

What did you think?