Matador Joselito Ortega will be plugging a club-scene energy beverage called Gay Up and have those words embroidered into his cape in large, red cursive letters.

In Spain, matadors are seen by many as the pinnacle of macho, and Ortega’s agreeing to endorse a product geared toward gay men is raising eyebrows. But Ortega sees no incompatibility. “I am a bullfighter. That is not going to change. I am going to go out into the ring as I have done until now, to risk my life, and the seven goring wounds on my body prove that,” he told The AP Wednesday.  “If the gay community welcomes me as an image or a symbol, that is fine.”

Topflight Spanish bullfighters are celebrities, just like football or movie stars, and it is common for them to have commercial endorsement gigs for everything from wine to cars to fancy clothes. But it is almost unprecedented for them to advertise something while in the arena.

 Bullfighting writers said the only case they recall is that of a matador named Luis Reina, who signed a deal in the 1980s with the Japanese electronics giant Akai and had that brand name embroidered on the sleeves and legs of the glittering ‘traje de luces,’ or suits of lights, that he wore while fighting.

No one expects Ortega to start a trend. It would border on scandalous for a top-rated bullfighter to advertise from the ring. Gay Up is a new product in Spain, developed by firm based in the southern city of Malaga that bought the European rights to it from a manufacturer in Colombia. There, it was made from strawberries. But the Spanish firm decided that to make it a hit with gays in Europe it needed to be an energy drink, said Jose Maria Terron, the company’s president.

“The fact that it is oriented toward the gay community stems more than anything from its name,” Terron said. Both he and Ortega said the advertising cape is a good way to shake up bullfighting, which they described as steeped in male bravado.

“It is a matter of changing what is normal, or usual, within this world that seem so untouchable,” Ortega said.

 Ortega is hardly a superstar. He became a full-fledged matador in 2006 but has been hampered by repeated and serious gorings and has not fought often, said Juan Belmonte, a bullfighting critic for TV station Canal Sur in Seville.

Belmonte said those who criticize Ortega’s Gay Up deal will be angry not so much because the product is geared toward homosexuals but because Ortega is advertising in the arena, violating a tradition.

“It is like prostituting the cape,” Belmonte said.

Greg Quinlan, a member of the conservative American Family Associated affiliated group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays, presented a motion asking  stockholders to stop donating money to groups that he said ” aim to discredit the ex-gay community.”

In his speech to shareholders, Quinlan described the Human Rights Campaign and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) as “gay organizations that hate people like me.”

Over the past two years, Pepsi has given $500,000 to the Human Rights Campaign and $500,000 to PFLAG.

“By funding PFLAG, PepsiCo promotes fear and hostility against the ex-gay community and our supporters, and spreads lies about ex-gay organizations. Diversity does not mean funding one organization so that it can attack another,” said Quinlan.

His motion received five percent of the vote.  Quinlan said he will keep pressing the issue at shareholders meetings.  Under company rules, any vote receiving more than three percent remains active.

PepsiCo produces Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola and Gatorade drinks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods.

The company already is under a boycott by the AFA.

The AFA in January issued an Action Alert to its more than two-million members, telling them to avoid Pepsi products.

“Pepsi refuses to give money to any pro-family organization that opposes the homosexual agenda. Plus, every homosexual organization we know of is overwhelmingly pro-abortion,” according to the Action Alert.

Previous AFA boycotts have had little impact on companies, although the group has had some success.

In October, it ended a boycott of McDonald’s after the fast-food giant agreed to end its support for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.  McDonald’s incurred the wrath of the AFA after it made a $20,000 donation to the chamber, and Richard Ellis, who until September was vice president of communications for the chain, was named to the chamber’s board of directors. Ellis resigned from the Chamber of Commerce board, though the company said Ellis resigned after moving to McDonald’s Canadian operation.

The AFA previously boycotted Disney for several years over its support for Gay Days at Disney World, although the company is not an official sponsor of the event. It has also boycotted Proctor & Gamble and Kraft, and has threatened to boycott Wal-Mart.

An AFA boycott of Ford over the automaker’s support for LGBT issues was heralded as a success by the organization, which noted that it had resulted in a drop in sales and share value.  But most financial analysts said that Ford’s problems were really the result of vehicle designs that failed to impress the public. Ford was the only carmaker of the Detroit big three to decline a federal bailout. 

The AFA claimed victory when Ford began pulling its ads from LGBT publications, but industry observers and the company said the ad pullout was part of a downsizing of expenses.

The ad on the sports network’s Web site was intended to promote its NBA programming.  It featured NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and sports commentator Mike Breen. 

In the ad, Breen attempts to fist bump O’Neal, but Breen refers to it as a “fist kiss.” O’Neal recoils in revulsion saying to Breen: “You’re a weirdo man. Stay over there. Fist kiss. Disgusting.”

The ad first appeared on the weekend and drew complaints Monday from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Human Rights Campaign and 365gay brother publication AfterElton. Both AfterElton and 365Gay are owned by Logo, a division of MTV Networks.

ESPN, which in the past has reached out to the LGBT community, has now pulled the ad and issued a public apology.

“Our intent is to send a positive message about the camaraderie of sports and to do so  as  creatively  as we can. However, we understand your perspective on this ad and would like to apologize to the members of the gay community.  In addition, we have decided to remove the ad from the campaign’s online executions,” said Rob Tobias, ESPN’s Vice President for Media Relations in a statement.

“ESPN has a long-standing tradition of supporting diversity in the workplace and beyond. We are fully committed to continuing a dialogue that welcomes and recognizes diverse perspectives,” the statement said.

GLAAD said it was pleased with the speed in which ESPN acted.

“We are pleased that ESPN realized that this ad was problematic and decided to remove it so quickly,” said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano. 

“Ads that exploit these kinds of clichéd stereotypes may elicit cheap laughs, but they also send a message that some people are less deserving than others of dignity and respect. We will continue to work with ESPN to promote media images of the LGBT community that are fair, accurate and inclusive.”

O’Neal, like ESPN, does not have a record of homophobia.

In 2005 he intervened in a gay bashing on a Miami Beach street. The 7-foot-1 star saw a man yelling gay slurs throw a bottle at a gay couple hitting one man. The suspect then got into a car and sped off, but O’Neal followed.

He flagged down a Miami Beach police officer and the suspect was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon.

While ESPN has pulled the offensive ad from its Web site, it remained up Tuesday on YouTube.

GetToKnowUsFirst.org said Monday that it was informed Friday that the ad, featuring a gay family, was rejected by KNBC after the station showed the ad to the NFL Legal Department.

The group said that it was told the NFL considered the ad “advocacy,” a category which the NFL says it excludes.

It is the second time in weeks that the ad, featuring a same-sex African American couple, has been rejected by an LA station.  KABC refused to run the 30-second sport during its coverage of President Obama’s inauguration.

GetToKnowUsFirst.org Project Organizer John Ireland said he was shocked to see the other advocacy ads run during the NFL programming.

“We bought ads before, during and after the Super Bowl in ten markets across California. We planned this buy weeks in advance and heard late Friday that the NFL rejected our ads because they violate the NFL’s ‘no advocacy’ policy. I was truly stunned while watching the programming, to see that they had selectively blocked our ads, while allowing other advocacy ads to air,” said Ireland.

Among the advocacy ads which did air were PSAs for TobaccoFreeCA.org and DontBeAnAsterisk.org, an anti-steroids advocacy campaign.

“We are disappointed that this ad couldn’t reach an audience with images of our families during one of the most watched programming events of the year,” said Neil G. Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Giuliano said that GLAAD has asked for a meeting with KNBC and GetToKnowUsFirst.org to discuss why the commercial was rejected and find ways to remedy the situation.”

The PSAs were produced for GetToKnowUsFirst.org by the non-profit organization POWER UP. Gina Levy, who directed the PSAs, said she was angry that the ad buy was blocked.

“Marriage Equality is a civil rights issue,” she said in a statement. “As a straight woman, I know this affects all of us, not just people who happen to be gay. It is important for us all to get to know these families. It’s a shame that’s not going to happen today.”

GetToKnowUsFirst.org produced five 30-second commercials featuring gay and lesbian families, with the message “Marriage promotes families. Support marriage equality.”

The group is one of several preparing for a possible ballot measure in 2010 to repeal Prop 8 if the California Supreme Court upholds the ban.

Prop 8 limits marriage to opposite-sex couples.  It was passed in November with 52 percent of the vote.  Supporters of same-sex marriage have asked the court to overturn it on constitutional grounds and oral arguments will be heard later this year.

The ads were aired in 42 of the states’ 58 counties – everywhere the initiative passed by 50 percent or more – during and after Tuesday’s coverage of the Presidential Inauguration.

It appeared on local stations that carried Good Morning America, The Today Show, Despierta America (Univision) and Levantate (Telemundo), as well as on a wide range of regional news stations, CNN and FoxNews during evening coverage of the day’s events.

KABC was the only station that refused to sell the ad space, the group said. The rejected ad profiled two African-American men raising five children ages 6 through 25 in Los Angeles.

The media buy was attempted by the organization’s ad agency, New and Improved Media. Its CEO, Keith Fisher, in a statement Wednesday, said he was surprised that the station rejected it.

“We usually only see this with risque content, as in a trailer for a movie.” Fisher said. “If KABC thinks they have to protect the public from this family, something’s obviously very wrong over there.”

Last week, at the urging attorney Gloria Allred – one of the attorney’s challenging Prop 8 – Rev. Rick Warren indicated he would be willing to show the ads to his congregation at Saddleback Church in Orange County. Days before the Presidential Inauguration, he changed his mind, dropping the offer.

KABC has not commented on GetToKnowUsFirst’s allegations.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the ad violated its industry standards by vilifying gays.

The ad had been placed in the daily New Letter, a Belfast publication, and bore the headline: “The Word Of God Against Sodomy.”

The ad was sponsored by the Sandown Free Presbyterian Church and appeared days before Belfast’s Gay Pride parade.

Below the headline, the ad stated: “The act of sodomy is a grave offence to every Bible believer who, in accepting the pure message of God’s precious word, express the mind of God by declaring it to be an abomination.”

In a response to an investigation by the ASA the church said that it could not be held responsible “if readers were offended by the message of the Bible.”

The News Letter told the ASA that it was aware the ad was likely to be controversial but agreed to publish it on the basis of free speech.

In its ruling, the ASA said that the ad went too far and many readers were likely to find it unacceptable. The ASA ruled that the ad should not appear again in its current form.

Sandown Free Presbyterian Church pastor Rev David McIlveen, however, is not repenting.

McIlveen said the ruling was “setting a very dangerous precedent.”

“By determining that portions of the Bible have breached advertising standards on decency the ASA is taking the view that the printing and publishing of certain biblical texts is indecent,” he said in a reply to the ASA.

“This is an offence to every Bible believer.”

McIlveen also rejected an ASA recommendation that it seek regulatory approval before publishing future ads.

“So, when you turn on your car, does it return the favor?” asked Travis Parman, General Motors’ LGBT media relations manager, in a speech accepting the award last week, referring to the current Cadillac ad campaign.

He continued, “Such recognition for our LGBT advertising certainly has us turned on. On behalf of General Motors, the team at Cadillac and our friends at Logo, thank you. This the first time that General Motors has produced LGBT-specific TV commercials and I guess this means we did a pretty good job. We’re very proud that we were able to work with the incredible producers at Logo to tell these powerful stories in less than a couple of minutes.” [Logo is the parent company of 365gay.com]

As part of a first-ever partnership, General Motors launched the campaign late last year on Logo. The ads feature the stories of gay and lesbian individuals and their path to personal and professional success.

The Road to Success spots are the carmaker’s first partnership with a LGBT broadcast media entity and feature individuals whose life experiences and accomplishments are emblematic of Cadillac’s current “Life. Liberty. And the Pursuit” advertising campaign. The four individuals represent a diverse range of professions and experiences:

* Linda Villarosa – Founder of Essence Magazine, who now is a contributor to the New York Times covering HIV/AIDS issues. Watch it HERE

* Anita Lo – Entrepreneur and chef at Annisa, which she opened in 2000. Watch it HERE

* Rubin Singer – A fashion designer whose family emigrated from Russia. Watch it HERE

* Jeffrey Seller – Broadway producer of Rent, Avenue Q, La Boheme and his new play In the Heights. Watch it HERE

Other nominees in the category included: Levi Strauss – Levi’s; American Airlines; Subaru; and Harrah’s – Paris Las Vegas.

Saab was also nominated for Outstanding Interactive Campaign – LGBT Market for its “Because Not All Roads Are Straight” online ad for the 9-3 that is shown in Canada.

Ads were nominated by Commercial Closet Association’s executive director Michael Wilke and finalists were selected by CCA’s Advisory Board. A complete list of nominees is available at www.commercialcoset.org/nominees along with 85 years of positive and negative GLBT images in advertising.

For more on cars, including reviews of the latest vehicles, go to GayWheels.com.

Nike previously defended the ads, but said it would withdraw them as quickly as possible “to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace,” The Oregonian reported.

The ads were created by Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy agency and titled “That Ain’t Right,” “Isn’t That Cute,” and “Punks Jump Up.”

One ad showed a basketball player dunking over another. The crotch of the player dunking was planted firmly in the other player’s face. The ad sported a large tag line: “That Ain’t Right.”

Earlier, Nike had said the ads were “based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball – the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.”

Nike also reiterated its “history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation.” Nike has been praised by gay-rights advocates for supporting a 2007 Oregon law banning discrimination against gays in work, housing and public places.

An after hours call to Nike corporate communications rang unanswered Friday.