28 August 2010

Because this beer's just so manly!

Because it can, MillerCoors (or whatever it's calling itself these days) has several ad campaigns just for its Miller Lite product.  All the ads are aimed at men, and most of them revolve around the "men suck at relationships" meme.  The exceptions are a set of five spots from ad agency Draftcb, all of which look like this:



If the only problem with this ad were its sexism, it would be pretty ordinary. (It's for mass-produced alcohol product, after all.) What makes it worth posting about is the other ways it and its siblings so miserably fail. Let's count.
  1. It is, in fact, more sexist than usual.  The guy may look funny with his huge shoulder bag, but so what?  Why should the bartender care if no one else in the joint does?
  2. Oh, that bartender.  Yes, she's pretty -- and she's remarkably snooty.  In high school, she must have thought that because she was prettier than everyone else, that also made her better.  When the rest of us graduated, we were pretty happy to be rid of girls like this.  If I ran into someone like her at a bar, I'd find another place to drink.  Hell, I'd run as fast as I could to that other place.
  3. "Do you care how it tastes?"  Why, yes, you bubble-headed moron, I do care.  If I wanted actual beer right now, I'd have ordered something other than Miller Lite for myself.
  4. And then there's that "Man up!" tagline.  If "Man up!" means "Dare to drink this swill!" well, that would smack of accuracy.  Somehow, I doubt that's what the marketing geniuses at Draftcb intended.
Heavens, do these ads ever suck.


3 comments:

Matthew Hubbard said...

People are drinking more beer that doesn't taste like watered down piss now, and the beer companies are taking two tacks. One is to make beer more flavorful and the other is to mock those who drink more flavorful beer.

A few years back, they just did the latter and ignored the former.

Matthew Hubbard said...

And, oh yeah. Great gag in your sub-header.

Abu Scooter said...

Matty: Glad you like the sub-header. That's as much of Brett Favre as I plan to mention all season long. A year from now, I can see his name popping up on your It's News 2 Them™ blog. :)

There's definitely reverse snob appeal going on. A lot of those who still drink the big brands on a regular basis feel offended that their friends have moved on to better beer. The big brewers -- especially MillerCoors -- are happy to encourage those feelings. Hence, ads like these, as well as the Miller High Life spots with the delivery men.

Most of the big brewers' recent attempts to make better involve gimmicks like lime flavoring and "cold brewing." They work, but only for a few months. One happy exception is Budweiser American Ale. It's no Sierra Nevada, but it is good.