Does not drinking the right type of beer make you an effeminate man? In a fairly new Miller Lite commercial, this is exactly the case. The commercial shows a man talking to a female bartender and he asks for a lite beer. When he says he doesn’t care about the taste of the beer, the bartender mocks him for a skirt that he’s wearing and tells him she’ll get a “real” lite beer for him as soon as he loses the skirt. The commercial then states, “Man up,” and then promotes that if the viewer drinks Miller Lite, they will “taste greatness.”
This commercial plays off of generalized male and female stereotypes. It implies that if you are a man and you are not drinking Miller Lite, then you are not masculine and that women will mock you for it. This commercial is aimed at men, especially at those who are insecure, for this very reason. By showing a man who doesn’t drink Miller Light in a skirt, the ad plays off the commonplaces that not only do men not wear skirts, but that this man would be seen as a girl for wearing such attire. Because of this implication, the ad makes it seem as though only “real” men drink “real” beer like Miller Lite.
If a man likes another type of beer, this commercial may make them feel as if they are not masculine enough. Other men who are insecure may think to themselves, “If I drink Miller Lite, then other people may see me as a confident and great man.” Also, the commercial uses women to enforce the idea that this beer will make a man more masculine and desirable to women. The attractive bartender mocks the man who doesn’t care about the beer and tells him to come back when he gets rid of the skirt for a “real” beer. Also, the other attractive women in the bar give him strange looks as he passes them. This plays on the emotions of men by implying that women will respect them if they are masculine, which can be achieved by drinking Miller Lite.
This commercial is very effective because not only does it draw on the emotions of many men by questioning their masculinity, but it also does so in a humorous way.
(click here for the video!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02p-9SsmRME
Great idea to discuss a beer commercial for our rhetoric and civic life blog! I agree that this specific commerical is appealing to men because drinking the specific type of beer will automatically make them more masculine, or so it appears. Congratulations, marketing and advertising teams at Miller Lite. However, it always bothers me that the commercials during football games and other "manly" programs only cater to beer-drinkers and automobile fanatics. Only car and beer commercials... I wonder what would happen if Playtex aired a tampon ad in the middle of the superbowl?
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