Ellen. Nathan. Rosie. Now, even TV commercials are coming out of the closet.
''We take a look at what the stereotypes are about -- and explore how the ads utilize them,'' said Michael Wilke, executive director of the Commercial Closet Association, a nonprofit group that archives and analyzes gay-oriented ads from the past three decades.
''I focus on mainstream advertising,'' said Wilke, a New York journalist who will give a series of 90-minute video presentations to gay and lesbian groups next week in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. ``It's a very entertaining show that's also informative.''
Among the well-known commercials in Wilke's gallery:
• A 2001 Miller Lite ad featuring two women drinkers who flirt with a good-looking man across the bar -- until they realize he's on a date with another man. ''Well, at least he's not married,'' one disappointed woman says to the other.
• A 2000 John Hancock Financial Services spot featuring two women and an adopted baby. ''You're going to make a great mom,'' one woman says. ''So will you,'' the other responds.
Not all the ads are what Wilke calls ``gay positive.''
A 1987 commercial for Kellogg's Nut & Honey Crunch breakfast cereal features several characters asking the same question, and each getting the same suggestive reply. The final vignette in the Nut & Honey Crunch spot features five cowboys at a chuck wagon, asking the cook -- an old man -- ``What's for breakfast?''
The five cowboys all point guns at the cook after he tells them, 'Nutn' Honey'' -- with a pause before ``honey.''
The oldest commercial in Wilke's collection -- from 1974 -- is among the most famous: football star Joe Namath wearing pantyhose in a Hanes ad.
''Cross-dressing is a very popular theme in advertising, as it is in popular culture,'' Wilke said. ``People find it very funny.''
Wilke, 33, began archiving his collection while he wrote for Ad Age magazine.
''I was on a panel in 1996 at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center in New York about gay images in the media,'' Wilke said. ``I represented the advertising side.''
Wilke gathered gay-oriented commercials for the panel and continued to collect them afterward. Within six months, ''I had more materials than I had time and space to show,'' he said.
In 1998, Wilke left Ad Age. About 18 months ago, he formed the nonprofit corporation, for which he now works full time.
The group began with $50,000 donated by the general manager of a Connecticut radio station. Wilke raises money and seeks to operate with a $200,000 annual budget.
The main reason Wilke turned the group into a nonprofit: ''It allowed me to do important legal research to make sure I'm protected by fair-use laws,'' he said. ``It allows me to access materials that are otherwise copyrighted for purposes of education in a nonprofit use.''
Wilke said he doesn't get advertisers' permission to show their old commercials. Not that has mattered.
''No companies have sought to remove their ads,'' he said.
Many of Wilke's 750 commercials can be viewed online at his group's website, www.commercialcloset.org
Wilke has given presentations to employees at firms including Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and JP Morgan Chase. ''They want to bring me in to educate on the idea of diversity,'' he said. ``These companies are looking to become more [gay]-aware internally.
``We're so desensitized by the media, we forget what its power is. It affects not just brand preferences, but how we think about each other. Advertising can affect how the public looks at the [gay] community.''
Advertising consultant Chuck Porter of Miami agrees:
''The way advertising portrays people in commercials affects the culture,'' said Porter, chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky. ``Commercials that portray gay people in a positive way go a long way to change people's concepts.''
COMMERCIAL CLOSET SCHEDULE Michael Wilke of the Commercial Closet Association will give two South Florida presentations next week: * 7 p.m. Monday, Embassy Suites Hotel, 17th Street Causeway in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets $25, including buffet dinner. Call 954-938-5226 or e-mail tickets@gaylauderdale.com * 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce dinner. Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa, 4525 Collins Ave., Miami Beach. Tickets $100, including dinner. Call 305-534-3336.