The Gayest Ads During Super Bowl LVIII

The first Super Bowl ad to include any queer people debuted ten years ago. Presented by Coke, their Coke’s "It's Beautiful" campaign ad featured a queer family among a diverse mix of ethnicities and family types, highlighting the make up of America's citizens. How far have we come since that first representation?

Well, last year we had four ads, this year we had eight. This year featured queer women, gay marriage, popular gay celebrities, and a drag queen. Still missing? Any transgender representation. Also, the queer folk featured in the ads were noticeably mostly white. Still, a 100% increase in ads in one year is not too shabby, especially considering what the political arena is doing to our community. There was a lot of bisexual representation, from female celebs. This representation wasn't necessarily pointedly representing the bisexual community, it's just that these celebs have come out as bisexual after their stardom solidified.

Here's our take on the eight ads that we saw at this year's Super Bowl. We had nothing else to watch since the halftime show was...not Beyonce.  LOL.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen took this year's Super Bowl as an opportunity to stir up some major US nostalgia by featuring products, ads, and pop culture from the nation's past, even Herbie the Love Bug made an appearance. Most notably, the ad featured a - gasp! - lesbian wedding and actually featured the couple kissing. We smiled. Well done, VW.

e.l.f.

Is Judge Judy a gay icon for those of us who spent hangover days at home watching TV? Well this campaign by makeup empire e.l.f. features Judy in her courtroom with an appearance from Drag Race's Heidi N Closet and even gay influencer Benito Skinner. The ad is not earth-shattering, but it is cute.

Homes.com

This was a really fun one featuring gay actor Dan Levy causing some mischief. He and his show, Schitt's Creek, made a big splash in mainstream programming, and his being outspoken on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community has been great.

Mountain Dew

While not overtly queer, this does feature one of our favorite bisexual celebrities, Aubrey Plaza. The spot features Aubrey in typical fashion not being impressed by anything, except apparently, her Mountain Dew blast. Wait till the end for a special reunion with a prior cast mate from Parks and Recreation.

NYX

Another makeup brand made an appearance. NYX presented a strangely boring ad featuring Cardi B, another bisexual celeb. As bisexual, she's had to defend her love of both sexes many times.

Hellmans

Hellmans featured a fun spot with queer celeb Kate McKinnon. Again, not an overtly LGBTQ+ ad, but not every moment of representation we get needs to be political, right? In our book, Kate can do no wrong as her comedy always kills.

Paramount+

While we aren't a fan of Paramount+'s growing fees, we do love their commercials. This one features another openly bisexual celeb, Drew Barrymore.

Starry

Starry soda featured bisexual rapper Ice Spice. Like the other bisexual representation, the ad has nothing to do with her sexuality.

With GLAAD reporting that over one in five members of Gen Z are LGBTQ+, even eight Super Bowl ads featuring stories or members of our community seem low. Even after all the jokes that we don't watch sports games, there are many of us that do, even if just to check out the ads or halftime show.  Sports, in general, has made major strides in including our community, from Pride nights at sporting events throughout the nation to sports players coming out as queer. Let's continue to support the brands that support us. In the end, we know it's mostly all about money.

What ads were your favorite?

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