'Project Runway is 100% Heterosexual-Safe!' Reinforces New Lifetime Campaign

Project Runway's long, litigious journey from Bravo birthplace to its new home at Lifetime Television for Decidedly Un-Ferosh Women ends on August 20th, when the fashion design contest debuts its sixth season. In order to ease their audience into the proceedings, the cable network created a promotional campaign that tweaks, ever-so-unsubtly, the image of Runway as a show made by and for Bluefly-wall-accessorizing BravoGays™.

Managing to pack more images of heterosexual reinforcement into this 60-second-spot than a Clockwork Orange-style Exodus International recruitment video, you'll see cops, firemen, farmers, and businessmen mixed in among the hundreds of workaday women, all affecting their best Tim Gunn impressions and describing emotionless executioner Heidi Klum as "a darling angel," while trying their best not to burst at the seams with anticipation of the tulle-and-organza miracles to come.

Now obviously, the rational mind dictates that there exist no dairy farmers, or Sheriff's Dept. officers, or firefighters (with their wives and girlfriends!) who actually watch and enjoy Project Runway. There exist only actors -- talented actors, skilled at sounding completely off-the-cuff as they repeat a demographically scrutinized script. In that way, the spot isn't unlike the flip side of that much-parodied National Organization for Marriage ad. Only this time, the point is to merely distract from and not cruelly highlight the unnatural and outlandish ways of the Gays -- as if to say, "A hot tranny storm is gathering. Let's make it work."

· Project Runway [Lifetime]



Comments

  • CiscoMan says:

    They'd do just as well showing clips of Kelly Rowland trying to make high drama out of reading comment cards on The Fashion Show.

  • icallthebigonebitey says:

    You know how in big cities, The Gays always come in and turn blighted neighborhoods into hip, fashionable environs? And then gradually the property values go up, up, up and all of sudden The Straight Couples decide it's safe to live there again and bring in their strollers, pork pie hats and self-satisfaction, even though we dealt with all the muggings, crazy landlords and all the other bullshit?
    Project Runway is a pork pie hat.

  • Who was the crazy landlord? Tyra?

  • icallthebigonebitey says:

    Janice Dickinson, obviously. Oh man, can you imagine having her for a slumlord?

  • el smrtmnky says:

    i call them 'douche hats' but otherwise, you are so on the fucking money.

  • Lowbrow says:

    There should actually be a disclaimer before every Project Runway letting straight viewers know that the show can actually cause them to burst into flames.

  • Colander says:

    As long as Entourage is still gay, this is fine.

  • boricuaintexas says:

    That clip makes me wonder how much the actual show will change, and it's not encouraging.

  • Roger says:

    I suspected this would happen. I will give it a chance because I love the show and Tim Gunn.

  • Michael says:

    I'll make it work for that cop any day of the week.

  • Thomas says:

    You are wonderful. This is my EXACT Sentiment. It happened in San Francisco, it happened in Chicago and we're the unsung heroes. Still, it gets a little depressing when suddenly your neighbors want to stifle you to make it more of a 'family friendly' place. After all, it's not a moral place if the building laws allow construction projects to rise above church steeples.

  • Scott says:

    You mean they are marketing to people who may not currently watch the show, instead of to a group that is almost 100% guaranteed to watch the show? I thought that was the point of advertising - bringing in new people, not recruiting the old.

  • Roger Ramjet says:

    Wow, at first I thought I was going to hate this commercial. But then after watching it, I loved it.
    Especially when the farm wife dead pans that her husband watches it. Priceless.
    If the true path we are on is about availing ourselves to the other side to prove we are not a threat, then inviting them in to one of our greatest treats, Project Runway, is wonderful.
    I am not offended. And I am 100% Homo - even though I'm more of a Project Run-A-Way when it comes to personal fashion

  • Stenar says:

    UHHH... I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure every male shown in this commercial was gay. Some of them nearly burst into flames, including the farmer husband.

  • nadaboi says:

    Tim Gunn saying, "It's a good thing."
    is not

  • gwillee says:

    Maybe Heidi and Tim just wanted to get as far away possible from all of the "real" housewives so they moved to the network watched by millions of really desperate housewives trying to fill the void of otherwise empty social calendars. F*CK people, turn off the tv, stop paying for cable, get off your fat ass dented couch and go make something for your self.

  • Barbara says:

    A response to some of the comments and the editorial by Seth A.
    I am a "Project Runway Fan". I auditioned for the promo and I was cast. There was no "Script". We were simply asked to talk about why we liked the show. There was no prep it was totally improv and up to the speaker(fan) to carry the conversation(ultimately edited to sound bites). The same with the actual shooting. In many cases we watch this show with someone else in our family, our husbands, our kids, our friends. Maybe most guys won't talk about watching the show but in fact many do watch and they like it. (For many reasons including just being able to watch classy and gorgeous Heidi Klum!).
    In addition and in response to GWillee above, many people actually watch this show at different times of day as reruns are available on both TV and on the internet. I personally watched while exercising and achieving my 10,000 steps a day on my treadmill. In addition to being a full time traveling career Mom. So dump the stereotypic couch potatoe line!
    The show is fun and one of many ways to unwind and to gain some inspiration from the power of creativity with some human drama thrown in! It is a great high-quality reality show. Can't say that about hardly any of the numerous reality shows flooding the TV screen. Too much focus on the "gay" issue. In fact the show has amazingly talented designers of all persuasions. Bottom line they create solutions using their ingenuity and limited money and resources.

  • KENNYRAY says:

    Which neighborhood (and city) we are going to fix up next?