Effects of Beer Advertising on Culture

Print advertisements are prevalent in the modern world, whether in the form of magazines, billboards, or online. In the United States, most individuals are exposed to three thousand advertisements a day (“Killing Us Softly 3”). Advertisements are a huge part of our culture. Stankiewicz and Rosselli said, “Advertisements provide a gauge for what is desirable and what is normal. For these reasons, the social impact of advertising cannot be overstated.” Thus, advertisements affect cultural ideas and what people desire. People shouldn’t overlook advertisements because they influence individuals more than by persuading them to buy a product. It is impossible to notice and process every advertisement’s message or product, but some advertisements do have lasting impressions on individuals. Analyzing beer advertisements demonstrates that the beer industry has been using increasingly sexualized advertisements over the years. Some people believe sexual advertisements messages don’t affect them, but the beer industry’s advertisements have created a dominant male beer culture that revolves around partially naked women, having sex, and getting intoxicated. There are many reasons the beer industry should adopt advertising strategies that are gender neutral and sexualize women less. Advertisements from beer companies show that “men and women inhabit different worlds” (Kilbourne). Girls are judged by their appearances very young in life, while males don’t experience that until later in life or if at all. No one should be judged for physical appearance. Furthermore, women’s self esteem can lower because they feel guilty for not looking like sexualized models in beer advertisements since that is what men are shown to desire in our culture. The beer industry furthers the idea that sex is only culturally acceptable for the young and beautiful. By changing the beer industry’s advertising to be more accepting of both genders as a target audience it could help women be less judged for their appearance and bodies. In conclusion, sexualizing women in beer advertisements has become less prevalent in our culture. Fewer companies continually sexualize women in all of their advertisements. Sadly, the few companies who still produce sexualized beer advertisements are making more degrading advertisements than the other companies were before. The solution is beer advertising that doesn’t sexualize women or promote self-consciousness in either sex.