For some time, publishers have been running beautifully photographed adverts for the shopping and information website, queercompany. One shows two girls hand in hand over the caption “No white wedding Sorry mum”. In another a smart middle-aged woman confronts us with the message, “If you think telling your parents that you are queer is hard, try telling your daughter”. Much excitement is being generated by a large billboard in London’s West End showing two attractive women clad in their underwear, kissing, accompanied by the caption “Thank god for women”.

For some time, publishers have been running beautifully photographed adverts for the shopping and information website, queercompany. One shows two girls hand in hand over the caption “No white wedding Sorry mum”. In another a smart middle-aged woman confronts us with the message, “If you think telling your parents that you are queer is hard, try telling your daughter”.
Queercompany has been funded with £3.5m from a Norwegian oil company and is the latest in a series of websites trying to attract advertisers by targeting specific groups. Although Henrietta Morrison and Dominic Richards, its founders, claim they want “to offer a sense of belonging” to gay people, let us not confuse ethics and social purpose with hard-headed business goals.

They have also said: “We aim to become a one-stop shop for the discerning queer consumer.”To some, these posters of lesbians herald the breaking of the last big taboo in advertising. But isn’t the whole premise of queercompany distinctly shaky? The £1m marketing venture seeks to attract 450,000 users to the queercompany site in its first year, and the advertisers need them to be affluent. Although calling yourself queer may sound provocative and appealing to banks who seek to cash in on the pink pound, is it going to pull in the punters?Other targeted websites have had mixed success. Blackserve folded, while Darkerthanblue , an entertainment site which appeals regardless of the colour of your skin, thrives. Totallyjewish is a hit, based on events and a common belief.All the gay people I’ve asked find the concept of queercompany patronising and faintly insulting.