Luke Montgomery

American viral commercial director

Luke Montgomery (born ) is an American viral commercial director, entrepreneur, media strategist and political activist. Known for directing controversial comedic viral ads produced in a style Time described as "shock tactic advertising," The Advocate wrote of Montgomery, "He is the symbol of a deeply divided America." for his attention getting and frequent TV, radio and press appearances on gay rights issues. As part of his outspoken media persona, Montgomery legally changed his last name to “Sissyfag” for a period of roughly two years. The Washington Post wrote, "Sissyfag, 20, was born Luke Montgomery, but adopted his unusual surname at age 17 and had it legally made his last year. He said he has been called those names for years and wanted to disarm the words and refashion them into a badge of pride.”

Montgomery briefly ran for mayor of Washington D. C. to draw attention to the city's AIDS crisis, by Advocate magazine, the publication wrote, “The mere mention of his name provokes bitter arguments among people who don’t even know him.” and with appearances on national media platforms such as MTV News and Donahue, Luke Sissyfag was a visible early 90s presence on gay issues. In a 2007 radio broadcast, Rush Limbaugh reflected on the LGBT activist's impact saying, “Who could forget Luke Sissyfag?" and into early 1994, where Montgomery would publicly interrupt and confront President Clinton, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and U. S. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders during televised public speeches, and photo ops demanding further action on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. describing Montgomery's critique as, “only fair.”

After Montgomery interrupted Clinton's 1993 World AIDS Day speech and accused him of not taking enough action against the disease, for featuring frequent use of swear words in the commercials while pointing out that the brand did “advocate for social change.”

In 2014, Montgomery directed the “Potty Mouth Princesses” ad campaign featuring young girls “dropping F bombs for feminism.” The gender equality video was called the “hottest topic on the planet” by Entertainment Tonight, described by Fast Company as “a brash, funny way to make a serious point” and slammed by Inside Edition for “causing a national firestorm.” Advertising industry journal Adweek named the commercial its “Ad of the Day” and Mashable. com branded it the most viewed and shared viral ad on Earth in October 2014. The Los Angeles Times would describe Montgomery as “the director behind the video that took the Internet by storm.” The controversial ad campaign would go on to raise over $30,000 for women's charities and won the 2014 Public Interest Silver Epica Award. Media coverage of the series of ads was sizable and mixed, with Forbes magazine writing, “Every TV news outlet, it seemed, was running the controversial spot.” A Time headline declared, “‘F Bombs for Feminism: Potty Mouthed Princesses Use Bad Word for Good Cause’ is the latest example of feminism gone wrong in America.” The ad campaign was attacked on Fox’s The Five, with Kimberly Guilfoyle saying, “The adults that made it should be ashamed of themselves.” On the same show Greg Gutfeld stated, “The irony is that they are talking about abuse while being used as props for profit.” In 2014, the New York Historical Society specially selected a FCKH8 "Some Dudes Marry Dudes, Get Over It" T shirt designed by Montgomery for inclusion in its 100 year historical time capsule so, "One hundred years from now, people are going to see how New Yorkers dressed and spoke, and what New York as a whole looked like.” Montgomery's viral T shirt commercial featuring Latino children used offensive swear words in response to Trump's words on Mexicans and immigrants. Days before Trump's appearance, the Hollywood Reporter ran the headline, “Saturday Night Live’ on Heckling High Alert for Donald Trump Appearance“

On the night of the SNL broadcast, PBS news reported, "Donald Trump hadn’t gotten far into his opening monologue before trouble occurred. An off screen heckler interrupted with a cry of ‘You’re a racist!’” From the stage, Trump responded to the outburst saying, “Oh, I knew this was going to happen” before the camera cut to the studio audience showing SNL frequent guest Larry David. David then shouted, “Trump’s a racist!”

After the SNL broadcast, Montgomery was quoted by The Wrap as saying, “The fact that ‘Saturday Night Live’ was so afraid that somebody in their audience would interrupt the show forced them to have to call Donald Trump a racist in the script. It was the elephant in the room and they had to address it It actually brought more attention to our message than if a regular protester had done it, as opposed to Larry David.” Time recounted the on air incident, with the magazine writing, “David, one of the world’s richest comedians, told Trump that it was the money he was after. Asked by Trump during the bit why he shouted, David replied, ‘I heard if I yelled that they’d give me $5,000.’” The Wrap reported David’s agent was contacted for the reward but the Seinfeld creator had not responded and claimed it.

In 2010, Montgomery raised funds and volunteered in Haiti with earthquake relief efforts. He was selected as one of The Advocate magazine's "40 Under 40" for his emergency Haiti earthquake relief work bringing food and medical supplies into the disaster zone.

In 1999, Montgomery was behind a ballot initiative to require all fur coats sold in Beverly Hills to carry a label describing how fur manufacturers put animals to death. The Los Angeles Times reported, “The tags, the size of a credit card, would read: ‘Consumer notice: This product is made with fur from animals that may have been killed by electrocution, gassing, neck breaking, poisoning, clubbing, stomping or drowning and may have been trapped in steel jaw, leg hold traps.’”
The effort garnered global media coverage, with the New York Times writing, “The effort to win passage drew vast publicity.” In addition to traditional media reporting, comedy shows also picked up on the novel concept including The Late Show with David Letterman and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The New York Times noted, “The proposal drew the backing of Hollywood stars.” The New York Times quoted Montgomery after the defeat of the ballot measure as saying, “We set out to educate a few consumers here in Beverly Hills about how fur animals are killed by clubbing and electrocution, but we succeeded in educating millions of people around the world. So if our intent was to educate people about these killing methods the fur industry uses, we certainly did our job.''