This is inaccurate. Several of the commercials have black protagonists. The following two, for example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTcLN83Pl5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ96hP7ZDwk

I see these ads as an ironic comment on the state of the world today. They parody our hazy view of a past almost none of us participated in as adults, the 1950′s. But they were made in the recent past, so they are written from the perspective of people living in the 21st century. The male figures in the commercials, who might be described charitably as “stocky”, are not fantasy role models, rather uncomfortably close to who we really are, or may become in the future. To me, these ads are over the top characterizations of what happens when you drink too much beer, and eat too much good tasting food.

Which makes them all the more funny to me. They are the sort of ultimate ironic comment on having our fantasies manipulated by advertisements. No super models (male or female) here, and you notice that. These ads are not taping into the male libido, they are conspicuously avoiding it, and thus slapping us in the face with the message about how manipulated we really are by advertising (decades after subliminal advertising was found out). The voice over is great (although a famous recognizable actor like Sam Elliott would make it better), and the text is pretty clever. Having ads like these out there should remind us of what every day ads are trying to do to us.

Also, and I’m surprised it hasn’t been noted as much yet, but these commercials are white, white, WHITE. Real men are white. Beer/tradition/manhood is white.

The only thing I sort of ‘like’ about these commercials (besides the bacon – I love bacon) is that when we do see (almost) full male bodies – they’re not the same thin/athletic image we’re often privy too, but, rather, they show some ‘hefty,’ average male body-types. Of course, that is the point – showcasing the average, the forgotten, the TRUE, but seeing a a shirtless man without a six-pack is still a rarity in advertising. Still sad that we would never see the same thing for women.