Monday, November 15, 2010

Okay, beer companies, enough is enough . . .

I must begin by saying that this is one of the most horrific ads I've seen in my entire life, and I spend a great deal of time searching for sexist and otherwise degrading ads to show at my women's rights club Real Beauty Revolution. The purpose of this ad, made clear by the (tiny) bottle in the lower right-hand corner, is to sell Coopers Beer. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that beer will always sell, regardless of whether or not it's heavily advertised, so this ad causes one to wonder how the Coopers Beer company can get away with printing something so blatantly disrespectful towards women. Most notably: overweight women.

If you haven't quite grasped the ad's concept (as it took me a minute to understand the first time I laid eyes on it), the miniscule caption in the lower corner reads: "Only 29% alcohol." In the bulk of the ad we see a woman, but not really; she's more of a hybrid, a ridiculous photo-shopped illusion of a woman. Her head is that of a young blonde (no doubt the representation of "beauty" here) and the rest is the body of a larger woman. Get it? 29% alcohol, 29% "hot chick"? This can also be read as: "when the women in your life aren't attractive enough, just take a swig of Coopers Beer and you'll be seeing [insert Hollywood actress here] in no time!



Another ridiculous ad for
Coopers Beer. The message
here?"Some women are so
unattractive, only balloon-ish
breasts would save them."
*Puke*
This ad is clearly aimed at men, as I don't know what woman could stand looking at it for more than five seconds without puking. Whoever created this ad obviously has no regard for the plight many women go through about their bodies, and is exploiting a barbaric stereotype that bigger women are "ugly" to get a cheap laugh. I hope you don't think biases are clouding my judgment when I say whoever created this ad is immature, malicious, and downright cruel.

Ads that aim to sell a product are usually predictable: their main message (argument) is to sell their product, and everything else is subtle, subliminal, or an afterthought. This ad, however, seems to be flip-flopped in that it's prominent, in-your-face message is "fat women are unattractive." Only after the audience gathers that fact do they realize the ad is for beer (the product is shoved into a lowly corner, after all). This is in incredibly bad taste, and just one of countless reminders that women are stigmatized each and every day for the way they look. It's bad enough that women are subjected to constant criticism from diet pill companies and late-night ads for exercise equipment like the Ab Circle Pro ("Not only will your Ab Circle Pro help you Lose Your Love Handles, it will help you workout and slim down your buns, hips, and thighs, too!"), but when this same sense of body-shaming is carried over to unrelated products like beer - it makes me wonder when people will finally step up and say enough is enough.


 If you'd like to unleash your rage on the Coopers Beer company, you can find their contact information here.

5 comments:

  1. Ugh gosh..
    This make's me wanna puke :/
    You took the words right out of my mouth.
    It's as though women are objects, and don't deserve even an inkling of respect - or maybe they do, but ofc selling beer is way more important than the feelings of a real human being -.-"

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  2. Why can't more beer commercials be like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNzpbNtwK7k

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  3. That is so disgusting.
    It's not effective either. I might be slow or sleep deprived or something, but it took me more than a minute to catch on to what they were getting at.
    I'll def be writing them an angry letter when finals season is over and I have time for justified rage. (:

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  4. When I saw the first one, I thought it was a woman who really liked beer, so she drank a lot, so she got fat.
    And then she wanted to have some more (she's got a glass).
    When I saw the second one, I thought she looked like Sheldon Cooper, uh, friend who happens to be a girl. Or Tavi Gevinson. That's just the glasses.
    Anyway, sawing this, I wouldn't know the ad was for beer and if I did would choose to never buy this brand of beer (except if they made a way better ad some day).
    My two boring cents.

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  5. Wow. As both a beer lover and feminist, I will sure as hell be unleashing my rage at this Coopers company. Thanks for sharing...even though this kind of ruined my day. :-/

    ReplyDelete

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