The "Queer Eye" empire continues to expand, as personalities from the hit makeover show sign endorsement deals with high-profile retailers.

Fashion guru Carson Kressley — one-fifth of the "Fab Five" from Bravo’s "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" — takes his quick and catty tongue to Chicago, starring in Marshall Field’s commercials touting the department store’s niche "13-hour" sales.

"We were interested in Carson because we love his fashion style and know-how, and we thought he would be a great fit for our brand," said Heidi Weaver, senior manager of public relations at Marshall Field’s. "We pride ourselves on being very cutting edge."

In the commercial, Kressley prances through the company’s hallmark store, located in downtown Chicago, dispensing fashion advice to shoppers, according to Weaver.

"The spots are very lighthearted," she said. "We’ve gotten a ton of responses from our guests, and people are responding to the upbeat nature and the witty tongue he brings."

Marhall Field’s — through its parent company, the Target Corporation — has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, offers domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples and has a gay employee group, Weaver said.

ANOTHER MEMBER OF the Fab Five, interior design expert Thom Filicia, may have penned a deal to replace actress and comedian Kirstie Alley as advertising spokesperson for retailer Pier 1 Imports, according to a report in Advertising Age, an ad industry magazine.

But officials at Pier 1 declined to confirm whether Filicia is the new public face for the company.

"The article announcing we had changed spokespeople was actually incomplete and speculative," said Mary Ann Roth, a Pier 1 spokesperson.
" Kirstie Alley is our spokesperson through the end of the year. However, we will have an announcement coming out about our 2004 marketing plan very soon."

USING OPENLY GAY celebrities to hawk mainstream products is not unprecedented. But the recent partnering of gay celebrities and highly recognizable companies is encouraging, said Mike Wilke, executive director of Commercial Closet, a gay advertising watchdog.

"They’re definitely going for a mainstream audience with these ads," Wilke said. "It’s really a perfect fit for them to be pitching home furnishing and fashion."

Some pundits predict an anti-gay backlash following recent positive coverage of gays in the media, but Wilke says gays in entertainment may be immune.

"Some people are marveling in the amount of attention [‘Queer Eye’] has gotten in the entertainment media," Wilke said. "But I think it will go completely unnoticed because it is a perfectly natural place for them to appear as endorsers."

In September, the conservative Montana Family Coalition announced it would introduce a media campaign against "Queer Eye," calling the program "outrageous" and a "joke," according to the Independent Record, in Helena, Mont.

"To me, that’s not a reality show about gay people," Executive Director Julie Millam told the paper. "A really good reality show for gay people would be five gay men dying of AIDS."

Contacted this week, Millam said she was unaware of Kressley and Filicia’s new spokesperson gigs, but she let out a hearty laugh when she heard the news.

After learning she was talking with a gay newspaper, Millam ended the interview without providing comment.

ACTION! INFO
Marshall Field’s
700 On The Mall
Minneapolis, Minn., 55402
612-375-2200
www.marshallfields.com

Pier 1 Imports
301 Commerce St., Suite 600
Fort Worth, Texas, 76102
817-878-8000
www.pier1.com

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