What did the observer/judger mouth in the boat commercial?

This is seriously the creepiest set of commercials! I have the willies now. Especially that last one. It's like it was filmed in the 50s. Who talks that way???

Seriously? When were these ads made? They almost feel like a parody, but then, they seem so serious.

On Youtube, they're all listed as from 2007, but I don't know if that's accurate.

The one with the cycling made the rounds on all the bike commuting sites. I remember really liking it. I didn't really get the "real men" aspect of it. I just thought, well at least that guy is committed to saving the environment.

I liked the last three--thought they were pretty clever and aesthetically neat, even if I didn't agree with them much.

Now, for the fun part. In these adds, with the exception of the cyclist, none of the men's faces are ever fully shown. What if this was a series of adds with images of women? How would the regular poster and commentators normally react to this kind of framing? What would it mean in that context? Does that analysis apply to this context?

That last commercial had me going, "Wtf, excuse me?!?" and raising my eyebrow. It implies that the "gals'" ideas are "misguided" and "need correcting" and yet, we don't even know what the girls are talking about. That is disgusting.

* replace "implies" with "says" and "girls" with "women"

Sanguinity: He said "pitiful."

But it's hard to say what's really going on in that ad. Maybe whoever was driving the Suburban had just finished drinking a case of Swiller with his unhelpful, judgmental neighbor (backing up a single axle trailer when you're drunk is harder than most people think; best to get one w/ two axles if you drink a lot).

They seem to be laser-targeting the aging manly male market here. The food ones made my stomach turn a bit, so it made me certainly not want to drink some bitter beer.

I find the cycling one most interesting, as biking is traditionally seen an environmentalist behavior, or a mode of transport for people who can't afford a car. There is the "get off foriegn oil" angle, but I'm used to seeing right-wingers who are most passionate about it then suggest corn ethanol or natural gas, which are only a bit more sustainable than gasoline. Ethanol may even be worse. Naming "OPEC" by name was also interesting, implying either that they are a cartel (a notion that seems to be proposed more by liberals than conservatives in my experience), or are a foreign presence that don't deserve American money, or would use that money against America. It has isolationist tones more than environmentalist tones, but if the beer ad gets some older guys out biking, at least they're helping the environment and getting some exercise.

On a side note, I was a bit worried they were going to cite Miller High Life as his alternative fuel of choice, and they don't entirely imply that he hasn't "filled up." He is apparently transporting bottles of it in the bike's basket, so that could be the one way they fit the product in. Cycling under the influence and/or carrying an open container (the bottles were most likely closed) is dangerous and illegal in most places, though, so I'm surprised they didn't follow it with a bullet-proof disclaimer or some fine print regarding that.

I also like the "Nobody will be able to siphon away, [dramatic beat] our High Life." It implies several things to me, including fear that consumption of fossil/foreign fuels will hurt the American quality of life and/or the ability to drink alcohol cheaply and readily. It might also imply that shirking manhood deprives a guy of his lifestyle and (more importantly) his Miller time.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the below post. A manly brand that's selling a product widely considered manly is arguing that cycling is masculine enough to do justice to the brand. During the election, the forward in the post implied that Obama's biking was weak, or girly, while Sarah Palin is siting on a motorcycle, and the most manly, most American brand at that, implying that she's more qualified for the job (that's the intent of the forward, I think it's silly).
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2008/10/03/palin-and-obama-on-bikes/

Couple things:

Don't knock the bacon thing till you've tried it. Best BLT I've ever had was served with thick cut bacon straight from the griddle. Healthy? No. Did it improve my quality of life? Immeasurably. Watching that ad stirs something deep in my memory as I'm sure it does for anyone else lucky enough to have truly enjoyed bacon unadulterated. Real men realize that bacon is bad for you anyway; if you are going to eat it, might as well make the best of it.

"Of course, driving a Suburban pulling a boat seems to contradict the whole patriotic non-use of gas element of manhood, but let’s not get into details."

I think you're suffering from a little bit of cognitive dissonance here because you've essentially restated the message of the ad in an attempt to mock it. Yes the SUV is a waste of gas, yes it's unnecessary, yes it's shameful to the person who is driving it. The ad brilliantly emasculates the SUV. It lionizes the man in scruffy clothes raking his own lawn, while pouring scorn on the person across the road who has all the trappings of purported masculinity but none of the qualities worthy of admiration.

Wow. Those are seriously weird. I thought maybe it's because I don't watch enough tv, but I'm glad to see others feel the same way.

Truly strange, especially the one with the bacon. Why is there so much pressure applied to that white bread bacon sandwich? Is there an implication that anything other than force makes it a sandwich? As for the guy eating it, stripped to the waste? What is that about? Some kind of post-masturbation fantasy?

"Specifically, real men drink beer and don’t worry about stupid things like their diet or health:"

Well, that answers my question from the "larry the cable guy diet ads" post. Apparently, there is a market for this . . . great.

Is it just me or does the narrator of these videos sound like some old, depressed male poet who has had a bit too much to drink and is now rubbing your shoulders and whispering in your air, intoxicating you with his breath?

His voice is just so creepy and threatening. Are they trying to appeal to older pastoral masculinity? I don't see how this appeals to a younger and more sub/urban demographic. I don't know, maybe it's just me.

Wow. These are all playing off the sort of prickly hostility that is fundamental to certain kinds of blue collar male humor and bonding. Like, a really creepy, hip version of some very depressing smoke break conversations I've been in on. (Everyone else is shit, your life is hard, you're a little overweight, nuke 'em from orbit is what I say.) And they are really ... good. They hit that note dead center. Wow.

I don't *like* these ads -- they make me a bit ill -- but they've really made their point. I know these characters, and I even feel a little left out of their grimy hard-luck working man cool. Gimme a Miller, too.

Chuk, I'm sure the analysis applies to this context. It should apply to any context. But the material is different, so different results.

The body parts we're seeing in this case are of people with whom the target audience is supposed to identify (or of the disembodied yakking mouths of their tormentors). Everyone except bacon man gets a face, and as far as I can tell, he is objectified pretty explicitly because his big ol' belly and undershirt say it all for him/target. (I *love* the mashing of the sandwich!) Salaciousness and commodification don't really figure in.

Some ads treat women similarly, but they're prissy and tidy and "nice", as far as I can recall. It's kind of hard for me to imagine a mainstream ad showing slovenly women and telling them hell, yeah, it's OK to be who you are.

Re: The squashing of the bacon sandwich

Pressing down on the sandwich causes the bread to absorb bacon grease. A friend's mother would do so to help get some of the oil off the bacon before serving it. The slices of grease-soaked bread were later toasted to go with soup. I suspect the pressing down of the sandwich is to help the flavour soak into the bread?

Maybe it's just me, but I think these are brilliant ads. They convey a return to a "traditionalism" that appeals to men over a certain age group. They reinforce an idea of a society that has been feminized and neuroticized...and what's the solution? Drinkin' a Miller. I can share in the distaste for the message from a sociological perspective, but I think they're pulled off what they're going for. I wonder how these adds will affect sales.

You may want to consider the filmmaker's perspective in these ads. Truth is a prevailing theme in much of his works and, although the ad copy and narration become the tools of marketing gurus, it is no mistake Errol Morris was chosen to give visual art to the marketing voice. There is a certain truth in the message - for better or worse. Also, remember to consider the time and place these ads occurred - late 1990s, through the spectre of 9/11, and then beyond.

http://www.errolmorris.com/content/lecture/theantipost.html

My favorite part was at the end of the burger one, where the last image is the partially-enjoyed burger with a measuring tape over it, showing it's immense size/prowess/MANliness. SIZE MATTERS! Hegemonic masculinity is frequently tied to notions of 'size' that can me measured in inches. The bigger, the better, right?

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.

I came to these ads from a link on a post on the current Miller Lite ads (May 2010). Now, unless you are stupid, you understand that we now know that animals at factory farms are literally tortured to bring us our meat. That meals at many restaurants are loaded with large portions and unhealthy ingredients. That we have to refuse appetizing food and eat largely vegetables and fruit to stay healthy and not participate in the torture of animals. Yada yada yada, etc etc etc.

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.

"even the most misguided opinion is better left uncorrected..."
truly made me raise my eyebrows.

"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."

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

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