Beer Advertisements: Is the glass half full for everyone?

Beer advertisements are one of the main offenders when it comes to using sexist stereotypes. Women are constantly portrayed as either sexual objects or nagging housewives in an attempt to attract the male audience. The phrase “sex sells” comes into play here. Women are regularly sexualised to entice male customers into buying a specific brand of beer. They will most often have high amounts of skin showing in places such as the breasts, buttocks, arms and legs. If that does not work advertisers then try to entice husbands or boyfriends by playing on the irritating wife or girlfriend stereotype. It is often repeat offenders when it comes to this type of advertising. Brands such as Skol, Heineken and Budweiser are the main beer producers that have consistently sexist advertisements. This type of advertisement appeals to the target audience by degrading women with cliché stereotypes. Most of the beer advertisements today have very little to do with the product that is being advertised because they very heavily feature half-naked women. In an article on everydayfeminism.com an article about advertising affecting rape culture it is stated that “The sexualisation of women sends a clear message – it is a man’s role to gaze at women and it is a woman’s role to be a sexual object.”

Example 1

The first example of the degrading of women in beer advertisements is shown in these two Budweiser posters. In both examples, the women are shown to be a part of the beer bottle therefore objectifying them in a distasteful way. The reason that advertisers choose to portray women as objects is because they have sex appeal which makes the product look more desirable. Many other beer companies such as Heineken, Michelob and Beers of Mozambique have used this advertising technique in their commercials as well. These types of advertisements allow men to believe that buying beer will make them appealing to women such as the ones in the commercials which is, of course, not the case.

Example 2

Translations:

Fountain- If the guy who invented the drinking fountain drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

Breasts- If the guy who invented the censor strip drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

Bra- If the guy who invented the bra drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.
Shower Curtain- If the guy who invented the shower curtain drank Skol; it would not be like this but like this. Everything’s round with Skol.

 

In these Skol advertisements women are clearly objectified to be desirable for men by using their bodies as the focal point to these posters. Each poster shows an invention that could have been improved to convenience men better if only the man who invented them had been drinking Skol. This could be accurate if the person who invented the bra had been a man. It was, however, a lady named Mary Phelps Jacob. The slogan “Everything’s round with Skol” refers to a woman’s body parts such as her breasts and buttocks. Again, the advertisers have played on men’s attraction to the female body by using it to sell their brand of beer. Most of the advertisements above only show the parts of women that the target audience will be attracted to. This is an example of a beer advertisement that has little relevance to the product being sold. The beer only features in the bottom right corner of every ad while the rest of the space is filled with women’s bodies.

Example 3

In these advertisements by Guinness and Schneider the product is shaped to resemble parts of a woman’s body.  This is a similar advertising technique as the first example where woman were dressed as the beer. These images attract the audience’s eyes by causing the beer to bear a resemblance to taboo body parts in Western culture. If there was actually a naked women on either of these posters they would be banned from the public’s viewing, however because of their somewhat clever disguise the posters are viable. The man grabbing for the “breast” in the first Schneider poster is a crude example of how women are objects for the satisfaction of men. The encouragement of such vulgar behaviour can have an impression on the rape culture of society. Images such as the examples on this blog can make it seem okay for a man to grab a woman like this without her consent. Especially as in these advertisements the women are dehumanised by only showing parts of their bodies, reinforcing the idea that they do not have feelings and men can take advantage of that for their own pleasure.

Example 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMCtpOwBdlY&noredirect=1

In this commercial for Bavaria Brasil beer one of the two men sitting on the beach picks up a beer bottle out of the chilly bin. As he does this a typically beautiful Brazilian women in a bikini rises up out the water. It does not take the man long to figure out that the beer bottle controls what the women does. He begins to take advantage of the women by causing her to make movements such as spin and lie down in the sand. His friend soon realises what is going on and attempts to snatch the bottle from his friend so as to have control over the mysterious women. They then begin to unpeel the label off of the bottle and the woman begins to undo her bikini bottoms. This commercial is not only encouraging men to objectify women and control them but for women to allow themselves to be objectified and controlled. The woman in this advertisement does not look at all unimpressed that these men are forcing her to do what they want her to, in fact she smiles for the entire time. A common recurrence throughout these advertisements is the difference in beauty between the genders. Much like in this commercial, the women are always very beautiful and the men are generally quite ordinary looking in comparison. This is most likely because the key demographic for beer sales is heterosexual men. The companies want their consumers to believe that if they drink their brand of beer then they can get beautiful women such as the ones featured in the ads no matter what they look like. Although most men would be smart enough to see through this over-exaggeration seeing this can still trigger a subconscious thought process within them. They will not believe that this will actually be true but they will remember the commercial because of the attraction to the female actresses or models. The female in beer advertisements is used to fulfil the male fantasy by overly sexualising everything that she does and being exposed much more than any woman in reality would.

Example 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsUAqC3nWo

In this commercial for Tui beer three men are attempting to break into the Tui beer factory which is entirely run by females. Of course being a beer ad targeted at men these females must be dressed in less clothing than would be suitable for work in real life. For example, a security guard would normally wear long pants and a button-up t-shirt; however in this advertisement the security guards are wearing short skirts and tops that expose a great deal of cleavage and midriff. The women in this commercial are portrayed as rather naïve and stupid as the men easily sneak past them with ease by distracting the security guards with high heels and obvious camouflage against a brick wall. The males are fully clothed in this commercial and the women are skimpily dressed which is another recurring similarity with beer advertisements. This is another ploy used by companies to entice male consumers into buying their products. The demographic for beer advertisements is white, heterosexual males. Since the demographic is heterosexual males they would be more attracted to half-naked women rather than half-naked men. This is why the men in beer advertisements are almost always fully-clothed. The females in this Tui commercial are also portrayed as being spoilsports. They are the reason that the men have to sneak into the factory and are the antagonists of the advertisement. This is a common stereotype used in commercials though women who are portrayed like this are usually not good-looking or are the partner of the male. In this advertisement the spoilsports are also good-looking making them a combination of the two stereotypes.

Example 6

In these advertisements for Cooper’s 2.9% alcohol beer the concept of “beer goggles” is played on by showing women “realistically.” The scenario behind these ads is most likely that the man is hoping to have sexual relations with the woman in each advertisement, however because he is not as intoxicated he can still see how she really looks. It shows the parts of the women that are disguised by the beer and would make a man attracted to her such as larges breasts, long legs and a pretty face. The selling point is that because there is less alcohol, the “bad” aspects such as old age, extra weight and general look of the women will still be visible. This potentially saves the man from having sexual relations with her and regretting it later. This gives the idea that a woman can be judged by her looks, not her personality. It also implies that a woman is not worth pursuing because she is deemed “ugly” by the creators of this advertisement. The message that women would receive from these advertisements is that you should not look like any of these women if they ever want to find a husband. Of course this is not the case but with advertisers constantly reinforcing this, the self-esteem of women would decrease greatly.

Relevant Source 1

http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/01/five-ways-rape-culture-exists-unnoticed/

This article written by Sarah Ogden explains how the media in society today plays a large part in the encouragement of rape culture. Rape culture is an environment where sexual violence and acts towards women are considered normal. The article talks about how the exposure of women in advertisements in order to entice male customers can cause the objectification of women in real life. The women’s consent for becoming a sexual object becomes insignificant because in the advertisements she never consents to being leered at or controlled by the men. It also explains how the objectification of women can make men believe that women are theirs to be had and controlled. This further encourages the idea that a women’s consent is not needed and men are able to sexually objectify women at their will. Sarah Ogden writes, “It’s easy to see why so many people objectify women’s bodies when it’s so normalised in our media.” In an article on link.springer.com called ‘Women and ‘Body-isms’ in Television Beer Commercials” the author discusses the impacts of these beer commercials and mentions the sexual harassment allegations made by female workers at Stroh Brewery. After further research an article on the Chicago Tribune website gave more detail. Four women, who were all workers at the Brewery, filed a lawsuit against Stroh Brewery on the grounds of sexual harassment in the workplace. The women believe that the cause of the harassment from male workers was a series of Old Milwaukee advertisements featuring the Swedish Bikini Team. The Stroh Company said that there was no connection between the advertisements and the alleged harassment and that they have a very strong policy against sexual harassment. However, Lori Peterson, the attorney of the four women believes that the Stroh Company cannot really care about ending sexism when they use it in all of their commercials. She says “You can’t tell me a company is interested in ending sexism in its plants when it spends millions of dollars a year promoting it.” Although her opinion could be obscured by her involvement with the case, Lori Peterson still has valid reasoning. These beer advertisements are obviously having an effect, not just on women in society but also on the workers who are making and bottling it.

Relevant Source 2

http://jkthompson.myweb.usf.edu/articles/The%20Media's%20Influence%20on%20Body%20Image%20Disturbance.pdf Page 165

This article written by J. Kevin Thompson and Leslie J. Heinberg discusses the influence of advertising on eating disorders. In a study, performed by the two professors, a 10 minute video of commercials, such as women in bikinis selling beer, were shown to a group of college women. All of the commercials presented featured women displaying and highlighting society’s idea of beauty, such as a thin figure or overall attractiveness. After the viewing the women had higher levels of depression, anger and weight and appearance discontentment than the group of women who viewed neutral commercials. This shows that beer advertising is having a negative impact on the women of society. According the Eating Disorder Association of New Zealand website approximately 68,000 New Zealanders will develop an eating disorder. The website also states that the portrayal of women in advertising as young, thin and vulnerable explains why 90% of people who suffer from eating disorders are female. 

Relevant Source 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX145Tu4MHY

On this commercial for ‘Thirsty for Beer’ many people have left their comments about what they thought of the advertisement. This commercial features a man on the beach drinking beer and as he drinks more a women in a skimpy bikini rises up out of the water, similar to the women in example 4. She walks over to the man, drinks the beer and then proceeds to push his nose in between her breasts, ending the commercial. Many people wrote about how it was a typical beer advertisement with no originality. YouTube user pj2010wm commented “I thought it was going to be original or funny but at the end it’s just another beer with boobs commercial.” Henrik Ivarsson said “Uh? I was expecting a point or a funny twist to the commercial. Nothing, whoever approved this flat boring ad?” TheDynamicsolo said “Wow, what a sh**ty commercial” and rat man wrote “f***ing unoriginal” Assuming that these users are all men, their views show that these sexist and objectifying commercials are not working as well as they used to. Although most of the comments are about how ‘hot’ the female in the advertisement is, obviously some people were put off by the unoriginality and degrading manner of the commercial. If even a few people are tired of beer advertisements that are similar to this then that is a few people not buying their beer which is losing them valuable customers.

 

 

Relevant Source 4

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10787021

This article from the NZ Herald website discusses the issues surrounding a Tui advertisement similar to the one mentioned in example 5. DB Breweries who released the commercial had to defend themselves against an Auckland Feminist Group. The group wanted the company to retract the advertisement because they believed it was degrading to women, to which the company refused. Spokeswoman for the Auckland Feminist Group believes that the advertisement allows society to discriminate against one another. She says, “The other problem with this ad is it is saying sexism is OK as long as it is funny. We’re saying sexist humour, racist humour, homophobic humour – none of it is OK and all of it is harmful.” These sorts of advertisements are having an effect on society by saying that degrading women is fine as long as it is in jest. They put men in a higher position when compared with women and give them more authority and rights.

Task C

The objectification of women in beer advertisements exists because beer companies are trying to sell to a specific demographic. This demographic is heterosexual, mainly white males so to sell to this group companies have discovered that exposed women work. Heterosexual men are obviously more attracted to a half-naked, good-looking woman than a covered up, average-looking woman; it’s human nature. However, the Advertising Code for New Zealand shows that many beer advertisements are breaking this code. Number 5 under the ‘Basic Principles’ title states “Advertisements should not employ sexual appeal in a manner which is exploitative and degrading of any individual or group of people in society to promote the sale of products or services. In particular people should not be portrayed in a manner which uses sexual appeal simply to draw attention to an unrelated product.” Number 2 on the same list states “Advertisements should not portray people in a manner which is reasonably likely to cause serious or widespread hostility, contempt, abuse or ridicule.” Although the other advertisements used for examples are from other countries, the Tui commercials are from New Zealand and certainly do not comply with this code. The only reason that beer companies use this technique for advertising is because it makes their product look desirable to their key demographic which earns them more money from sales. If they did not use this technique for their commercials they would not make nearly as much money as they do now.

Task D

There are always positive and negative views surrounding a topic such as the objectification of women; some are very strongly against it, some very strongly for it and some who are in the middle. One person who disapproves of the objectification of women is opinions columnist Joanna Rothenberg. She believes that women are objectified in advertisements every day. She says, “We see women being objectified daily…Women blending in an advertisement as the beer bottle. Not drinking one like “a man” but portrayed as the actual beer bottle – something that can be taken a hold of, taken advantage of.” Joanna Rothenberg could have this view because she is a woman so her views are biased by her gender. Another person who thinks like Joanna is Sarah Martin McConnell who is a columnist for the Tennessean newspaper. She believes that women are being portrayed in the media as inadequate when compared with men. Like Joanna her views can be influenced by her gender as they are the ones being discriminated against. She says, “Media’s ubiquitous objectification and degradation of girls and women delivers a clear and sinister message: that we are second-rate citizens who should look sexy, earn less and be subordinate to the men in charge.” On the other side of the argument is actress Cameron Diaz. She believes that women want to be objectified and it’s empowering. She says, “I think every woman does want to be objectified. There’s a little part of you at all times that hopes to be somewhat objectified, and I think it’s healthy.” Under the article user ameliaray said, “Oh, and who amongst you [other commenters] don’t enjoy the occasional Calvin Klein men’s underwear ad? Or is it only bad when it’s objectifying women?” A user who commented on a blog post called “What is ‘objectification’ and what’s wrong with it?” expressed their opinion about objectification in general. They believe that fighting objectification shows a deeper underlying problem. They say, “Is fighting against objectification a moral stance? No. It’s an expression of insecurity and is related to sexual jealousy, not a concern about right and wrong.”

Task E

One conclusion that can be drawn from the issue is that society as a whole is becoming more used to seeing exposed women in advertisements. According to a study performed by Amanda Zimmerman and John Dahlberg “young women today are more forgiving of companies that portray females offensively in their advertisements than young women were a decade ago.” The participants also agreed that although the advertisements were sexualised, they were not offensive or unethical. This shows that the constant exposure to objectified women in beer advertisements and the like is normalising sexist images. As mentioned in task c, the Advertising Code for New Zealand specifically states that sexual or discriminating images may not be used in adverts. This breach of regulation can cause an increase in other media forms adopted the same practices, which is another conclusion that can be drawn. It was in 1949 that woman first started being used for the sale of beer through the invention of Mabel, the blonde bartender. This has, in turn, influenced other types of media such as music videos, television shows and movies. The increase in sexual images being received by the public has continued to influence the increase of objectification and sexuality in the media. Sexualisation and objectification of women needs to stop being an expected feature of advertising, particularly beer advertising. This issue is teaching people that discrimination is alright and how to do it effectively.

References

Background image of blog retrieved from http://snowbrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/dc6a6677-0ea6-4b1f-976b-702c7a3e7a89.jpeg

Inventor of the bra information retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/brassiere.htm

Rape culture information retrieved from http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/01/five-ways-rape-culture-exists-unnoticed/

Definition of rape culture retrieved from http://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/sexual-assault/rape-culture/

Eating disorder statistics retrieved from http://www.ed.org.nz/index.asp?pageID=2145862939

Eating disorder information retrieved from http://www.ed.org.nz/index.asp?pageID=2145862940

Article about Women and “Body-isms” in Television Beer Commercials retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01544592#page-1

Follow-up article about the Stroh lawsuit retrieved from http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-03-09/business/9201220508_1_sexual-harassment-stroh-cos-allegations

Opinions from Auckland Feminist Group retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10787021

Opinion from Joanna Rothenberg retrieved from http://www.dailyillini.com/opinion/columns/article_ca4bd7b6-ad56-11e2-a9c4-001a4bcf6878.html#user-comment-area

Opinion from Sarah Martin McConnell retrieved from http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130924/OPINION02/309240006?nclick_check=1

Opinions from Cameron Diaz and site user retrieved from http://au.eonline.com/news/364751/cameron-diaz-says-women-want-to-be-objectified

Opinion of objectification retrieved from http://measureofdoubt.com/2011/10/20/what-is-objectification-and-whats-wrong-with-it/

Study by Amanda Zimmerman and John Dahlberg retrieved from http://pure.au.dk/portal/files/10594/8_-_sexual_objectification_of_women.pdf

Information about Mabel retrieved from http://heymabelblacklabel.com/id39.htm