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. 

Influences on Masculinity

Beer advertisements typically portray masculinity in a poor light by making men seem obsessed with sex. Vive Cuervo beer had an advertisement that showed a man holding a woman while laughing and wearing bathing suits on a beach. The caption read, “Pursue your daydreams.” The woman model in this advertisement is very thin and in a bikini. Surprisingly she is not sexualized as much as most beer advertisements sexualize their models, but she is still almost naked and in a mans arms. This advertisement is saying that if you drink this beer your afternoon will be filled with a beautiful model on a beach. It is hinting that men can have sex with beautiful women if they drink Vive Cuervo beer. Similarly, Heineken had an advertisement that promoted that their beer would lead to sex for men. In Heineken’s advertisement a naked woman is on top of a naked man who is grabbing the woman’s body. The woman’s butt and part of her breasts are visible in the advertisement, while only the man’s leg is visible. Both people have Heineken logos painted all over their bodies. The Heineken advertisement sexualized the woman model more than the male by positioning her on top and in a more visible position to see more of her naked body. In 1997, Plous and Neptune “found that exposure of women’s bodies occurred approximately four times as often as exposure of men’s bodies” in print advertisements (Stankiewicz and Rosselli). It is a problem that male nudity is shown so much less than female nudity because men are almost never sexualized, unlike women. This advertisement also promotes sex by showing naked people on top of each other like they are about to have sex. Beer advertisements target men because they are shown as “the ultimate guy drink and the badge of masculinity” (Babes in brewland). If beer advertisements started targeting both men and women as potentially equal consumers of beer then there would be much less sexualized advertising featuring women. This would be a step towards greater equality because women would be seen less as men’s sexual objects. The beer industry should promote equality in their advertising so men seem less obsessed with sex and women are sexualized and objectified less.