A Stitch in Haste

The con artists at Witeck-Combs Communications are at it again.

For the uninitiated, Witeck-Combs is a private, for-profit market research firm that likes to conduct online (i.e., statistically meaningless) surveys, fish for an apparent difference between gays and straights, then run a flashy press release with a sensational headline, usually with an offer to purchase their “detailed study” of the data for a modest fee of typically around $3,500.

Pathetic.

Their latest gobbledygook:

Although higher percentages of gay men and lesbians report that advertising “rarely” shows people like themselves, they also have a higher propensity than non-gays to report that advertisements, particularly TV and magazine advertisements, can motivate them to consider buying an advertised product.
…
Gays and lesbians are less likely than heterosexual consumers to declare advertising “boring”, and gay and lesbian consumers tend to find advertising equally or more “entertaining” than non-gay respondents.

In other words, gays are easily captivated and manipulated by commercials.

Heck, why not? After all, gays are apparently easily captivated and manipulated by Witeck-Combs.

And how extensive was this survey (which, remember, is an online survey and therefore hopelessly narrow and statistically worthless)?

These are a few highlights of a nationwide online survey of 2,121 adults aged 18 or over of whom 1,715 are non-gay/lesbian adults and 351 are gay/lesbian adults.

So the entire gay population (or, as marketing shamans like the frauds at Witeck-Combs would say, the “gay market”) — male, female, young, old, rich, poor, closeted, out, partnered, single, HIV+, HIV-, red state, blue state — can be definitively reduced to 351 computer users with nothing better to do than participate in an online survey.

Hogwash.

The saying that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” may apply to hucksters like Witeck-Combs, but not to the gay community that is so desperately trying to debunk stereotypes. Don’t let a press release fool you — Witeck-Combs is out to make a buck, and a dishonest buck at that. Don’t help them spread their inaccurate, illegitimately derived portrayals of the gay community by blogging about their so-called “research” (except to debunk it).

More thoughts at Fake Gay News.

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