Fridae

A current print advertising campaign for a mobile phone company has become the first mainstream business in Hong Kong to actively target gay consumers.

The advertisement for Sunday shows three men with the copy line: "You can`t miss this opportunity." The Chinese character for "opportunity" is pronounced and means "gay" in Cantonese. The advert also tells consumers to be "happy together", also the title of a gay film directed by Wong Kar Wai, reported rainbownetwork.com.

The company did not say if their advertisement is an attempt to target the gay community, and spokesperson Mark Chan said, "We haven`t said they are or they aren`t, so we let the audience think about it. Our objective is to think of an interesting story with eye-catching characters" when asked if the models are gay.

Chairman of the Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies of Hong Kong, Jeffrey Yu Pui Man, said: "This is a very good way of testing how tolerant the public is of this kind of message, and recognising that there is a gay community here."