Before I write anything, watch the following new commercial from Budweiser:

Now, did you get a “gay vibe” from that? That’s the controversy brewing over the ad after the gay website AfterElton.com suggested, in those words, that it’s possible. Here’s how blogger Michael Jensen explains it:

So the first person our soldier calls is this other guy. Let’s call him PB for Potential Boyfriend. Clearly the solider isn’t married or in a serious relationship with the girl we later see him hugging. Otherwise he surely would’ve called her first. So the possibilities are that either that PB is a best friend or … a boyfriend. Hmm, would a soldier coming home really call his best friend before his parents?

If PB is his brother, the brother clearly doesn’t live at home as we see the solider also call his parents, while PB is driving away from his house to start getting the party ready. And PB sure seems to be much of the focus of the commercial as he prepares for the party. And then who is the first person to greet and hug our soldier? It’s PB of course. And it’s a fairly intense hug.

Another gay blog, Towleroad.com, calls the ad “ambiguously gay” and includes the pun, “Budweiser’s latest is asking, but not telling.”

And that seems to be the consensus in the blogosphere.

Still, Jensen concedes that it’s possible the coziness of the two men is inadvertent. But considering that a large company such as Budweiser has a large marketing arm, he says, that’s unlikely.

A homosexual-themed ad from Budweiser wouldn’t be out of the ordinary considering the beer company has done it in the past. In 1999 Bud Light ran an ad in a gay magazine featuring two men holding hands and the line, “Be yourself and make it a Bud Light.”

At the time, Rev. Jerry Falwell spearheaded a campaign to flood the company with complaints.

What do you think?

(H/T: Gawker)