German gays have become stars in their own right by participating in advertising campaigns and marketing anything from frozen foods to cars.

The change came just before homosexual marriages were legalised as well as the first same-sex weddings in Germany that took place on Wednesday with the recent ‘coming out’ of the capital’s new mayor, Social Democrat Klaus Wowereit.

The advertising campaigns featured frozen foods, Seat cars and Jacobs coffee. The former, for Langnese-Iglo, shows Holger warming up a "four-star" frozen meal with Max looking on, strumming a guitar.

Petra Stachowiak, spokesperson for McCann-Erickson, said: “We are trying to sell a new generation of products, upmarket food, aimed at the housewife. We thought the image of gourmet homosexuals living in an elegant interior fitted the mood of the times.”

Holger and Max have been together for seven years and recently became stars after their spot was launched last January. Five spots have been made and others are planned. Kirsten Bollinger, consultant for the Eurogay website, said that homosexuals think the image the advert conveys is false and stereotyped but maintains that the project has a positive outlook. Joerg Helsbach, of the Gay Manager Association, said it was heartening that the Iglo ad showed "an ordinary bit of every-day life, not a crazy transvestite with a pink boa around his neck".

The advert for carmaker Seat evoked mixed reactions. It shows a transvestite getting into a car and gradually removing wig and women's clothes as he plays with the controls before becoming completely masculine as he drives away. Spokesperson for the German Gay and Lesbian Federation (LSVD) said: “The message is confused. Some of us were very upset”. However, he felt the light-hearted adverts had resulted in a greater acceptance of homosexuality in German homes and were a “step towards normalcy”.

West cigarettes and Jacobs coffee have used the theme only in the written media so far, with West showing a gay marriage to promote its light cigarettes. Jacobs, for its part, used a handsome male to illustrate its slogan "Kaffeetante" — a shortened version of the German expression "Kaffee-Klatsch-Tante", denoting gossiping housewives.

A committed gay, Volker Beck said the all the ads are aimed at heterosexuals and take the homosexual cause no further. Possibly the most successful slogan of the year was that coined by Wowereit — "I'm gay and it's fine like that". He used it when campaigning for the Berlin mayoralty in June, which he won. The slogan was so well received that it appeared on many a T-shirt on the gay and lesbian parade in Germany the following month.

Beck, however, said that companies are over-cautious about promoting the gay market. He took the example of Absolut Vodka and Bud Light which have allegedly become ‘homo’ products in the United States.

An estimated 5% of Germany's 82 million inhabitants are homosexual, with high purchasing power, according to the Emnid institute, which polled 15 000 people at the beginning of this year.