Purpose – Marketing efforts toward stigmatized subculture groups are intriguing, as there is a risk of losing consumers from the majority group. Implicit advertisement is a discreet communication strategy that enables a marketer to communicate with certain subculture groups using symbols to avoid negative responses from other consumer groups. This study aims to determine the effect of implicit advertisement on brand attitudes among gay consumers in an unfriendly and friendly market. Design/methodology/approach – This study employed a between-subjects experimental design, with two experiments conducted. The first study recruited gay men in Indonesia, an unfriendly market, whereas the second study recruited gay men in the Netherlands, a friendly market. Findings – The result reveals that implicit advertisements significantly influence brand attitude. As expected, in an unfriendly market, a higher level of implicitness results in a more positive brand attitude. Surprisingly, the friendly market also prefers a high level of ad implicitness. Originality/value – This is the first manuscript to examine how to advertise to gay men in friendly and unfriendly markets. Particularly, this study investigates the impact of three implicit gay advertisements (low implicit, moderately implicit and highly implicit ads) on gay consumers’ brand attitudes. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited