product: alcohol

Thanks to Alicia T. for sending us the link!

UPDATE: According to Tim at Ad Freak, the model in this photograph, ex-Miss Universe contestant Erin McNaught, was not pleased with the copy added to her image. Tim wrote:

[She said:] “I wasn’t thrilled with what that line was implying,” she says. The vineyard has stopped short of apologizing, saying it e-mailed all of the campaign’s lines to McNaught—and never heard back. McNaught says she was traveling and didn’t see the e-mails until it was too late. “You know, she is a bit of a cheeky thing,” says a Cockatoo rep. “But we certainly did not want to harm her image or ours.”

See the news story here.


I found these two Miller Lite ads in QVegas, a magazine aimed at the GLBT community.

It would be interesting to pair with these ads for Skyy vodka to illustrate how companies make different ads to target different audiences. If you find an ad offensive or dumb, it’s not necessarily an ineffective ad, it’s that you probably aren’t the target consumer and it’s not supposed to appeal to you.

NEW! Philip D. sent in a link to a post by Sister Toldja at Me, Myself An Eye about slightly different versions of ads for Crown Royal. This one is presumably aimed at a general audience:

cr

Text: “Have you ever seen a grown man cry?”

Sister Toldja suspects that this one is targeted more specifically at African Americans:

crb

Text: “Oh, hell no.”

Now, just to be clear, I’m not arguing these are racist ads. I just think they would provide a good example to start students thinking about the fact that a) advertisers actively market to various groups by trying to appeal to them in specific ways that may differ from an ad made for a “mainstream” or “general” audience (i.e., one that would presumably appeal to just about everybody) and b) they do this by playing on stereotypes or cultural assumptions about what different groups like (or are like). What separates these two ads into “mainstream” and “Black” ones? Simply the presence of a phrase that many people associate with African Americans (although I have to admit I mostly associate it with one of my male cousins more than anyone else). You might start with this example, which is fairly innocuous, I think, and then start asking students to think about other ways advertisers might indicate who an ad is supposed to appeal to (men or women, gay or straight, or more broadly to “everyone”). When do these efforts become problematic?


I found this in Rolling Stone.

These images are of a beer marketed specifically to women in 1953, Storzette by Storz.



From the website:

“In 1953 Storz tried to market a new product for women, ‘Storzette.’ Designed to be a beer for the ladies it was supposedly not too bitter and was calorie controlled. it also came in a smaller can, 8 ounces, which Storz called “Queen sized” and it came in four can packs called “Princess Packs.” The brewery noted that market studies showed that many women felt that the standard 12 oz can provided too large a serving. The beer inside was also different, made to be less bitter than standard beers. The can even had a pink orchid pictured on it to help it appeal to women. It’s initial test market results in San Diego seemed positive, but in the end the effort was not successful and Storzette did not last long on the market. As a result, the little can with the orchid is very scarce. Storz also used a slogan on its regular cans for awhile in the 1950s, “the Orchid of Beer” which has to be one of the more unusual beer advertising slogans.”

 

Text:

YOUR DAD WAS NOT A METROSEXUAL. H didn’t do pilates. Moisturize. Or drink pink cocktails. Your Dad drank whisky cocktails. Made with Canadian Club. Served in a rocks glass. They tasted good. They were effortless. DAMN RIGHT YOUR DAD DRANK IT.

Toph sent in another Canadian Club ad that makes it clear that it’s awesome if your dad was a player:

your-mom-wasnt400.jpg

Text:

Your Mom wasn’t your Dad’s first.  He went out.  He got two numbers in the same night.  He drank cocktails.  but they were whisky cocktails.  Made with Canadian Club.  Served in a rocks glass.  They tasted good.  They were effortless.

I’m going to use this to talk about the sexual double standard–try to imagine the same ad, but saying “Your dad wasn’t your mom’s first” with pictures of her with several different men. I don’t think the impression would be the same.

Thanks, Toph!

NEW: Outdoor version of “Your Dad had a van for a reason.”

In this ad for St.Pauli’s Girl beer, a woman’s body has been turned into the alcohol itself, conflating liquor and women as products for consumption:

NEW! (Mar. ’10): Tom M. sent in two more examples. This is a brand of Russian beer manufactured to look like a woman in fishnets and a garter (found at copyranter):

And Skinny Blonde is an Australian brand (found at Change Marketing):

Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.

Women of color are stereotyped as more sexual than white women. 

This billboard draws on the stereotype that Latinas are always hot and spicy:

ColdBeer_Tecate

NEW: These three ads, sent in by Elizabeth A., are for Rio Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (images found here).  The “card” representing passion just-so-happens to include a woman of color in a red dress with fire.

Click here for a slideshow off all the alcoholic drinks a man “shouldn’t” order and an explanation for why.

Illustrates quite nicely how severely men are restricted by the privileging of masculinity over femininity (men eschew femininity at all costs, women can do masculinity without much opprobrium, as long as they do a little femm too).