J. Crew Goes Gay Crew

When you’re right, you’re right. Last month, the Culture and Media Institute reported that internet marketing material from preppy clothing maker J. Crew featured a photo of the company’s president painting the toenails of her young son hot pink.

"Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink," said the caption. "Toenail painting is way more fun in neon."

CMI pointed out that the gender-bending ad was a nod to the gay agenda. Fox News picked up the story and a media storm ensued. Liberals scoffed at social conservatives’ concerns that J. Crew was exploiting and normalizing the feminization of the boy with “blatant propaganda.”

But according to ABC News, CMI was onto something. A May 2, 2011 on-line story places “J Crew at Center of Gay Economics With Openly Gay Model.” The company’s May 2011 catalog “features employees as models, including a gay designer with his boyfriend, who are described as ‘Happy Together.’”

Although J. Crew didn’t comment, ABC’s report noted that “gay advocates applaud what they say is a strong message.”

According to ABC,

More American companies recognize the consumer buying power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual community. According to a report in the online magazine Treasury and Risk, their spending will exceed $769 billion this year.

Now, J. Crew seems to have jumped on the bandwagon, according to advertising experts.

So J. Crew is consciously angling for the “LGBT” market, but there’s no agenda behind marketing materials featuring a little boy with hot pink toenails?