Beer Ads and Masculinity

For companies that sell alcoholic beverages, the advertising of the product has for a long time been a difficult line to walk. The Alcohol TV advertising guide indicates strict policies on not condoning irresponsible alcohol intake. So to avoid exhibiting the explicit attraction of inebriation, realistically the true reason most consumers might buy alcohol, companies will often focus more on the taste, refreshment or even the societal enhancements implied to come as a result of drinking said product. For drinks targeted more at the working class, most famously beer, these societal or personal enhancements may rely on a very traditionally masculine image. Beer ads like these, especially ones from the 80s and 90s, very rarely display women, and when they do they are either overly sexuallised or wives represent the shackles of sobriety. They feature men doing activities that uphold the stereotype beer drinkers are often labeled with. A perfect example of this is a VB advertisement from 1988 it shows men, dripping with sweat, chopping down trees, fixing cars or working on a construction site. The imagery used in this ad appealed to a certain type of Australian working class man. VB took advantage of the hard working battler mentality Australia was known for, that in the mid to late 80s was at an all time high. Exemplified by the music of Jimmy Barnes and the election of Prime minister, Bob Hawke, famous for sculling beers on live Television. It is this brand of masculinity specific to Australia that has assisted the Advertisers of Toyota Hilux or Gillette Shaving Cream when targeting the Australian audience.

Come the 2010s the world of beer advertising had not progressed at the same rate as the rest of the world, especially in marketing. While many other brands were proudly representing same sex couples and people of colour to sell their products, most beer advertisements firmly stuck to the same cast of white, straight-passing men in butten up flannells with the sleeves rolled up that had been the salesmen of Australian beer the last 30+ years. A VB ad from 2016 is indistinguishable from the one from 1988. Most likely keeping this same formula is in the name of tradition or perhaps it is a testament to the unchanging attitudes of their audience. Either way now, beer ads essentially are a parody of themselves.

A recent Canadian Club ad takes the idea of beer supremacy and flips it on it’s head. The premise is a group of people admitting they no longer like beer. This ad uses the fact that Tv watchers have been seeing the same beer commercials over and over again for years and the frustration and tediousness of repetition as fuel to attack beer companies as a whole. Even going as far as to say the ads brainwashed them into thinking they like beer. Whilst this ad is groundbreaking with its negative outlook on Australia’s drinking culture, it also has a noticeable lack of diversity. Potentially as a way to tell the audience that these are the same people from the beer commercials. Showing that even these caricatures of Australian men are tired of beer and see Canadian Club as a good alternative. Sadly though it is most likely a reflection of the audience and the perceived or possibly founded sense of toxic masculinity surrounding alcohol. These beer companies believe that if a consumer saw an ad featuring a woman or a gay person drinking their favourite beer, the consumer may become reluctant to buy the beer for fear of seeming feminine. This may seem like a ridiculous claim in a market where diversity is often used as a tool. However the masculinity of the target demographic of these beer ads are so fragile they may start diversifying their ads when it benefits more than it harms them.

Leon's notes:

This was my friend's homework from high school, but I wrote it and I'm kinda proud of it. All hail Canadian Club.