Do Opie and Anthony have a 'SIRIUS' problem with gays?

    The old adage if it walks like a duck might apply in my case, but I leave it to you to decide if I was the target of anti-gay discrimination? Just a few short weeks ago my product, Boy Butter Lubricants, was singled out in a very public way on Sirius/XM Satellite radio's Opie and Anthony Show. After having been a loyal and longtime sponsor for several shows on several channels for the better part of a year, a public shaming of Boy Butter, a product I created years ago for people's private lives, was broadcast throughout North America from Hawaii to the Big Apple and from Key West to the North Pole.  The one minute long Boy Butter ad has been sponsoring segments on Howard Stern, Derek and Romaine, The Dr. Berman Show, Ben and Dave’s Six Pack and until recently, Opie and Anthony.  

This nefarious incident unfolded after a stranger, an Opie and Anthony listener, recognized me (wearing a Boy Butter shirt) and he informed me that he heard a negative conversation that took place on the air during an Opie and Anthony segment sponsored by my product. This person was a stranger and unknown to me and since I did not hear the remarks they slipped my mind and I thought him confused or taking them out of context, as often happens. That didn’t sound like Opie and Anthony, the same infamous hosts who sent couples to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral as a radio contest stunt, so and I easily brushed it off as gossip.  

 

However the following day I was informed by my adverstising representative for Sirius/XM that Boy Butter was no longer welcome to sponsor Opie and Anthony. After a brief conversation with him I easily pulled up the youtube clip of the offensive segment in question (embedded at the top of this post) that I paid for with my advertising. The hosts not only bashed my product but for close to fifteen minutes began to pick me apart, Boy Butter Lubricants, Hedda Lettuce (drag queen icon associated with Boy Butter), and probably many other gays that I am sure felt weird hearing this juvenile conversation take place on the radio.

The conversation was mostly Opie and Anthony complaining that they wanted my product off of their list of sponsors in exchange for a more apt beer commercial. Not only did they want a beer commercial, but they didn’t care if they, “blew up the Boy Butter sponsorship.”  I am an advertiser of a product that is no different than any other advertised on their program, in fact, Adam & Eve (an adult novelty retailer that sells Boy Butter) is still advertising on their program and the only thing that distinguishes the two of us is that Boy Butter is presumably “too gay” for them. They proceeded to spend an entire segment bashing my product, using an effeminate voice to deride and insult the very product which was helping pay for that very segment.  

Opie and Anthony bill their show as being "edgy and uncensored" except they chose to take a product that was helping pay the bills and not only ridicule it, but the person behind the brand and maybe gay people in general with their senseless seventh grade “humor.” They then censored me by banning my sponsorship from that point forward and refused to return my calls and emails to get a simple explanation. It would be awesome to have the opportunity to go on Opie and Anthony to defend myself and present a rebuttal, since they had attacked my product unfairly in a most unprofessional manner. They owe me a public apology and a proper explanation, devoid of stereotypical gay lisps, for why this issue ever came up in the first place. It would be one thing if this was a show of religious conviction or one that did not have a history of sexualized advertising (i.e., Adam & Eve) – I’m keenly aware that advertising needs to be targeted at an audience that is best suited to receive but my ads were no different than Adam Eve, except my product is apparently for people with lisps. This is the perfect example of this endemic trend of bullying gay people cause it is the last acceptable discriminatory practice. 
  
       Listen to the segment and tell me what you think.  Am I overreacting or do Opie and Anthony owe me the courtesy of explaining their objection to my product and to gay people for their quarter-hour rant against Boy Butter and me simply because they can't get a beer commercial?


Please listen live this Sunday May 6th at (6:05 pm Pacific - 9:05 pm Eastern) for a discussion with me on San Diego's best talk radio show, KOGO 600 am Radio: The Steve Yuhas Show.