[Good Business] Closeup’s viral ad redux: We love you, but stay hidden

2026-02-12 - 00:06

It’s February again. The month of loud declarations of love. And somewhere, maybe even near you, a queer kid is learning to hide a little more. To bury themselves into whatever silent forms of “acceptable” that society demands. Can you really blame them? Courtesy of Closeup IG When the viral resurgence of a 2024 “Close the Gap” billboard by Closeup, displayed at the C5-Kalayaan interchange and featuring a real-life gay couple, incites a tsunami of hateful commentary from religious groups condemning the entire LGBQTIA+ community, the message is painfully clear: Love is welcome, but only if it knows its place. @unileverpersonalcareph Check out these new billboards along C5! At first glance, it seems incomplete until you #DareToCloseTheGap to make the image complete 🌈 This pride month, take the chance to close the gap with closeup and #DareToGetCloser and be #FreeToLove anyone your heart desires 💖 #closeupPH ♬ original sound – Peter Parker Lorenz We’ve made great strides towards equality for the Filipino LGBTQIA+ community in recent years. However, moments like this expose how fragile that progress is. It takes only a billboard ad showing two men standing close to each other to unravel years of supposed tolerance. The comments came by the hundreds. “It’s bastos.” “It’s sinful.” “It’s just not the way life should be in the Philippines.” And then the most insidious line of all “We love you, but this is too much.” Ultimately, what queer kids hear is “We love you, but stay hidden.” Suddenly, everyone online becomes an expert on gender and sexuality. Pronouns are weaponized and he, she, they, and even it are thrown around to ridicule the “transformers” who dare to exist outside the rigid norms of society. Apparently, this is what passes for moral discourse now. Must Read LGBTQ+ glossary: Understanding the concepts, terms used by the community What exhausts me most is how LGBTQIA+ Filipinos are consistently framed as entitled brats demanding special treatment and asking for “too much.” They are not. They are asking for what straight people already have — the freedom to exist openly, to love visibly, and to be treated with dignity. Regardless of one’s SOGIESC (sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics), we are all human beings. And yes, even straight people have SOGIESC. It just rarely becomes a problem when yours aligns with the majority. This discomfort around queer visibility is nothing new in Philippine advertising. Scholars have long noted how brands tread carefully around gay-themed content, particularly when intimacy is involved, to avoid backlash from heterosexual audiences (Cabosky, 2017). The Bench case A clear example is Bench’s 2015 Valentine campaign, “Love All Kinds of Love.” As Balangue et al (2023) note, the lesbian couple featured in the EDSA Guadalupe billboard was presented too cautiously from restrained wardrobe, minimal intimacy, and no explicit acknowledgment of their relationship, so much so that they could have easily been mistaken for sisters or close friends. Meanwhile, another billboard for the same campaign featuring a gay couple holding hands was defaced with black paint. One of the billboard images for Bench’s “Love All Kinds of Love” 2015 campaign. Courtesy of Bench The pattern is familiar. Queer love is acceptable only when it is quiet, muted, and easily ignored. But that incident happened over a decade ago. And yet here we are in 2026, watching how a remarkably tame Closeup billboard with no grand gestures ignites moral panic all over again. So what exactly is the problem? How much smaller must queer love become before it is deemed acceptable? How many times must it be softened, blurred, or erased to keep straight audiences comfortable? This is why Closeup’s decision to stand its ground matters. This isn’t “wokeness.” It’s a brand refusing to retreat when confronted with bigotry. It’s an acknowledgment that visibility is not provocation, rather it’s affirmation. Importantly, Closeup’s response extends beyond symbolism. As scholars like Parsons and Perreault (2022) argue, genuine allyship requires tangible action, not just brand aesthetics. To its credit, Closeup announced the inclusion of free HIV self-testing kits in its toothpaste boxes addressing stigma and contributing to urgent public health conversations around rising HIV cases in the country. That kind of move doesn’t magically fix discrimination. But it does signal something rare. A willingness to take responsibility, even when inclusivity costs consumers and invites backlash. So yes, hats off to Closeup for choosing to stay visible when it would have been easier to back down. In a society that keeps telling queer people, “We love you, but stay hidden,” choosing to be seen, whether as a brand or as a person, is already an act of courage. And for that queer kid quietly watching all of this unfold, that visibility could mean the difference between shrinking inwards or surviving loudly. – Rappler.com Noel Sajid I. Murad is an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and Advertising at De La Salle University (DLSU) and serves as the director for research of the Philippine Association for Communication and Media Research, Inc. (PACMRI). The perspectives shared in this piece are solely the author’s and do not necessarily represent the official views of De La Salle University, its faculty, or its administration. Must Read Why is it taking so long to pass the SOGIESC Bill?