In what today's (Tuesday) New York Times described as the most elaborate marketing campaign aimed at gay audiences by a mainstream marketer and the most elaborate with gay themes aimed at mainstream audiences, Showtime is spending more than $10 million to promote its upcoming 22-episode series Queer as Folk. Employing most of the plot lines from a British series by the same name, the American show, set in Pittsburgh (but filmed in Toronto), seeks to present a more accurate description of gay life than previous TV productions. In an interview with the Times, Queer as Folk co-exec producer Daniel Lipman commented, "The idea is to keep the integrity for the initial core gay audience while going after a more general audience."

Source: Studio Briefing