There was no report on how the audience reacted to this "insightful" embrace of the obvious. After all, these distributors are already sensitive to women's issues, having abandoned wet t-shirt event sponsorships and the like long ago without need of MillerCoors' hectoring.
Just to confirm our suspicions that the beer industry has evolved, we spoke to several beer folks and asked them to cite current examples of sexism in beer ads. We got blank stares. Nobody could name a single recent BigBeer ad that treated women in a token, objectifying, or sexist way. Not from Budweiser, Bud Light, Corona, Coors Light, Miller Lite, Michelob Ultra or anybody else. When pressed, the best most could do was to cite examples from a decade or more in the past, like these two from, of all places, Miller and Coors...
| |
We are certainly no fans of Bud Light's current or prior campaigns. Our gripe is that neither the "Bud Light party" nor the "Perfect beer for whatever happens" efforts are effective advertising for the reasons we've stated. But the ads are not in any way sexist. They may promote the same brand that 25 years back featured Spuds MacKenzie flanked by busty party girls, but Bud Light's ads have long since abandoned sexism. Doing so, in fact, well before Coors Light's twins bounced into view.
Imagine the uproar if BigBeer ran a sexist ad like this: A raging bitch with a tramp stamp is looking for a nooner. But instead of a thong remover, the crazy bitch with her double-ds ends up getting a bitch slap.
Woah. Social media would come alive with the harshest of criticism. Boycotts would be quickly organized. It'd get ugly fast.
But this sexist marketing gambit is anything but hypothetical. Every underlined word in that make-believe ad is actually a brand name in a real-world brewery... in each case, a craft brewery. The labels on the bottles--which represent the primary communications medium for these brands--embrace and promote sexism with a boldness and disregard for propriety no BigBeer brand would dare employ.
Want to end sexism in beer marketing? Keep calling out the many craft brewers who continue to profit from using blatant sexism to sell their beer. Shame on them.
Of course, that would take courage, not grandstanding.