ABSTRACT
Contemporary advertising abounds with sexually ambiguous images. Who's to say that the perfume ad that features a near-naked woman is designed to appeal only to men? And whereas a straight audience can see the image of handsome young men playing touch football in a Tommy Hilfiger ad as an symbol of American manhood and, on a quite different level, the joys of consumerism, gay readers might see a lightly veiled homoerotic scene. For years, mainstream advertisers have utilized what Lukenbill (1999) called social, sexual, and image codes to sell products to mainstream markets while making gays and lesbians feel connected. This form of "doublespeak" uses innuendo and images that can be decoded by people "in the know."
