And nowhere is the lack of gay characters more apparent than in television advertising.

Last year’s Super Bowl ads, arguably the most watched and most famous commercial campaigns for the year, caused some controversial debate in the gay community. While there were no blatant homophobic messages this season, the representation of gay people still seems to be somewhat skewed in a negative light when it comes to advertising.

The now infamous Snickergate was sparked last year after Mars Inc. aired a Snickers ad featuring two mechanics who accidentally kissed while eating a candy bar. They pull away from each other and one guy says to the other, "Quick... Do something manly!" With several alternate endings, from drinking motor oil to hitting each other with tools, the message seemed clear: Mars Inc. was trying to be funny at the expense of gay people.

The FCC even got a firm response from concerned citizens were appalled at the site of two men kissing. The Smoking Gun posted an email where one such fan wrote that she felt "violated" by the ad. "God knows, I didn't turn on the SuperBowl expecting to be tricked into watching gay sex!"

GLAAD and the Mathew Shepard Foundation both filed complaints because they felt the ad provoked violence against gays, and it was eventually removed by the company.

While GLAAD’s concerns may seem to have been a little extreme, it does raise an interesting point about advertising for a gay audience.

This year, the Super Bowl ads seemed to take on a different message for gay consumers, sometimes making gay traits or characters the punch line for jokes.

Bridgestone Tires aired a commercial that featured Alice Cooper and Richard Simmons.

On a rainy night, a driver swerves to miss a deer, then he swerves to miss Cooper picking up a snake from the road. Then, when the driver sees Simmons performing calisthenics, he revs his engine and speeds up to almost hit the flamboyant fitness guru.

A Pepsi ad featuring Justin Timberlake also had a somewhat gay punch line. As Timberlake is being dragged to a hot girl sucking down the tasty soda, he encounters a whole slew of fans and various humorous predicaments. The final shot is of a man in a blonde wig with pictures of the sexy singer all around his mirror.

The fact that it is a man is supposed to be the punch line for the commercial, leading many to believe that the advertiser has missed a huge target market by undercutting and creating negative and stereotypical images of gay culture.

While these ads may seem subtle, Michael Wilke, Executive Director of Commercial Closet Association, an educational non-profit that advocates for inclusive representations of the LGBT community, thinks that it is time that gay people are better represented in the advertisement world.

"Advertising is usually several years behind what TV and film are doing," Wilkie explained in an interview with AfterElton.com. "But while there are similarities in how they function, since they both seek to entertain, advertising differs in that it also wants to make friends with the viewer to sell a product or service."

Many people in the gay community have commented that there is too much credence given to these sort of so called negative gay images and feel organizations like GLAAD are too quick to react in a defensive matter.

Wilke disagrees.

"I think the gay community is too lax most of the time to take offense," he said. "Today's world is perhaps too comfortable for many gay people, and they discount the power of advertising to influence how the rest of society views our community."

Clothing retailers like Abercrombie and Fitch, and 2(x)ist, and Andrew Christian have been capitalizing on the gay market by creating provocative, homoerotic print campaigns for years, but only a handful of companies are taking advantage the power of the gay consumer.

While mainstream channels and big events seem to be stuck in a predictable rut when it comes to gay representation, there are changes in other markets for gay advertisements.

Just as many retailers and businesses create alternate ad spots featuring African-American and Hispanic characters for channels like Telemundo and BET, certain advertisers are using gay images to promote their products to a more prevalent gay market.

A Levis spot featuring an attractive man pulling on a pair of jeans only to have a phone booth pop through his floor carrying a sexy blonde airs on most channels. But on LOGO and Bravo, the male model ends up with a guy in the end.

"We like the idea that it could essentially go both ways," says the openly gay VP of marketing at Levi, Robert Cameron, in an Interview with Wilke. "You can read it in many ways, including whether it's a 'coming out' metaphor - we actually think it's richer and more textured in the gay version."

Johnny Walker Red went one step further appealing to a gay market by creating a sort of PSA about equality during their ad spot.

The commercial features a woman getting ready for her wedding day, and when she walks down the isle there is another woman standing there as her bride. The ad conveys a positive message about gay marriage while promoting their product, which is ultimately the goal of an advertising campaign.

The spot, however, only aired in Australia and New Zealand, which raises further questions about how advertisers view gay consumers here in the United States.

This year the Super bowl produced another now famous ad featuring men kissing, but this time with a more positive message. An ad for Dolce & Gabbana, which featured the kiss, however, received some complaints from other more conservative right wing groups and the Advertising Standards Authority conducted an investigation into whether the ad violated any regulations.

In their findings they noted, "We did not consider that a kiss between two men automatically made an ad unacceptable for broadcast or that the kiss was in itself grounds for imposing a stricter timing restriction."

A sign television advertising might finally be moving into the 21st century.

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