May 26, 2009

Pinoy PLU Signal: The Agency

Welcome to Pinoy PLU Signals! This is another series of posts, just like my Discreetionary series, but this time focusing on signals that may indicate whether a Pinoy guy is PLU. There have been many surveys and studies that aimed to measure the incidence of non-straight men in a general population and estimates range from as low as 1% to as high as 10%. Pinoy PLU Signals are signs that, I think, would give you a batting average of more than 10%. Take note that these signals are not scientific and are provided in the spirit of fun. Enjoy!

“Bading na nga, copywriter pa. How redundant.”—Eric Quizon’s gay character in Happy Together

Our first signal is The Agency, that is, guys who are in the advertising industry, whether they are employees of ad agencies, or are in the brand management team of the products being advertised. It has been frequently stereotyped that gay men are more creative than straight men and the glamorous Philippine advertising industry, being the way it is, would prove irresistible to gay creatives. The prime blogger example is, of course, the Fabcaster’s very own Joel McVie. There are a lot of other gay bloggers in the ad industry and I am aware of one such group on LiveJournal.

I actually laughed out loud when I heard the quoted line above while watching Happy Together, a local movie starring Kris Aquino and Eric Quizon as best friends. In the film, Quizon plays a gay man working as a copywriter in an ad agency and I found the line funny because I have a good PLU friend who was a copywriter himself (he’s now an account executive, or AE in industry parlance). The fact that I know quite a bit of PLU guys in the ad industry is for me a strong indicator that The Agency is a Pinoy PLU Signal. Agree or disagree?

7 comments:

joelmcvie wrote on May 27, 2009 at 7:12 AM:

Ay, gawin ba akong prime example? Ahahahaha! But thanks. =)

What we've noticed is that there seem to be more gay guys doing copy than there are doing art. But to be fair, there are a lot of straight guys who are creative, as well as gay guys who have no creativity in their bodies, ahahahahaha! I guess it takes all kinds, huh?

But yeah, there's a reason why stereotypes exist: because it is quite noticeable that there are a lot of gay guys working in the ad industry. That industry is very encouraging for gay guys to be out to their colleagues. I can imagine why, in other industries, gay guys are also present but would rather hide their gayness from their co-workers.

 
Ice wrote on June 5, 2009 at 8:38 AM:

this is true, I'm a Sr. Brand Manager and I'm gay. My colleague another brand manager is also gay. We have had other straight men brand managers but they didn't last long.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on June 6, 2009 at 10:37 PM:

Mcvie, hehehe. Thanks for the confirmation and the further clarification!

Ice, I wonder why they don't last as long. Is it something about the job and the stereotypes about gay guys in the industry is really rooted in fact?

 
Ice wrote on June 7, 2009 at 8:09 PM:

Vince, I think it is more of the pressure for the straight guys to match the creativity of the gay guys. It is inevitable that their work/ideas would be compared to other brand managers (regardless of gender) and usually gay guys come up with more creative ideas, especially since I'm in an industry where fashion sense is as important as doing the math.

Pero I also believe that if you put me in a straight male dominated industry (say... basketball) I don't know if I could think creatively in that industry. I'll have their jerseys in pink which I think the management wouldn't like. =)

 
Kai Santorino wrote on June 8, 2009 at 7:00 AM:

Well, let's face it. WE are more creative because we're not restricted with so many standards (di pwede yan lalaki ako).

 
Anonymous wrote on June 8, 2009 at 8:47 AM:

The only two people I know who work or have worked in the advertising world are both straight men. What the fuck?!

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on June 12, 2009 at 7:47 PM:

Ice, so it implies that gay men are just naturally more creative? While the local ad industry points to this conclusion, I would certainly hesitate to generalize this to the whole society. Hmmm...

Kai, puwede!

Anon, try asking those two people you know. They should be able to tell you if the ad industry is dominated by straight guys or gay men. :-)