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Regina Shen

ENGL 1102-037

April 1, 2014 Inquiry Essay Beer Commercial and Women Drinking Behavior When talking about alcohol, it is a common phenomenon that people think men like beer while women like wine. We believe that women dont prefer beer is simply because of the taste, or maybe they just dont like it for no reason. However, there are certainly some history and sociology reasons that made women dont like beer that much. However, beer commercials have been playing an important role in women-beer relation. Whether they intended to or not, some elements in beer commercials have created a stereotype of women dislike beer. In other words, those commercials misled public to believe that beer is for men but not for women and is as well as shaping womens drinking behavior. Although less than 1% of brewery workers in beer industry are women (Lew Bryson 2008), historians believe that women created the birth of beer and it had been always womens job to make beer in the past. It was considered as womens skill and was probably learnt before the first baking of bread and certainly before the appearance of wine (Alan D. Eames). However, it doesnt mean that women were the consumers of beer but the servers. Whats more, in the past, unlike men were encouraged to enjoy themselves and relax, it was not that acceptable for women to sit

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down for a beer. In other words, women were never supposed to be the consumers of beer since drinking as a pleasurable pursuit has traditionally been more socially acceptable for men than for women, even in the last century (Lew Bryson 2008). Nowadays, people dont hold the idea of gender inequality anymore and therefore the gender unfairness/tradition about beer doesnt really exist, beer companies are still gender-oriented by just aiming at men in almost all the mainstream beer advertisements. In womans magazines, people love to talk about food, clothing, health, relationship, and family. If the editors want to talk about alcohol, they choose wine. There hasnt been one serious page about beer in womans magazines history. Mens magazines, on the other hand, have articles recommending and celebrating beer, wine, and the spirits (Lauren Clark). It is obvious that in the mass media, beer is undeniably marketed to men, therefore, beer in general is seen as a mans product. From the marketing point of view, the biggest breweries are afraid to advertise in ways that might appeal to women because they dont want to alienate their core, male customers. Therefore, in order to keep the bond with more and more men and get closer and closer to them, breweries try their best to catch mens attention and meet mens expectation in their beer commercials. The most common element that have been using in beer commercials is women sexualization. Take Budweiser beer as an example of sexualizing the ideal women in beer commercials. One of its advertisements is of American Olympian Brianna Glenn, who ran for track and field. She is wearing a bikini and standing next to a giant bottle of Budweiser beer. Brianna Glenn is a young and culturally beautiful woman because

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her body is toned yet still curvy in the places that are desired in our culture. Some feminists believe that this advertisement is sexualized because she is wearing a bikini and heels, which is completely unnecessary just for a beer. Budweiser purposefully choose to put her in as little clothing as possible to attract male customers to the sexy women in their advertisements. This photo of Brianna Glenn is saying to the male customers that they will be able to attract girls as beautiful as Brianna Glenn if they drink Budweiser. In another beer advertisement, a woman is sitting naked on a pile of Budweiser beer caps. She has some beer caps strategically placed around her breasts and pelvic region to make the advertisement not pornographic (Jessica S 2012). The idea of both Brianna and this girl and all the other sexualization in beer posters is never about the beer, but about convincing men to drink beer. However, what will women act for those commercials? They feel uncomfortable when they look at the posters and subconsciously realize that the particular product is not aiming at them and they are being ignored or even not welcomed for using it. One of my friends, Alice, 23, said that she didnt really want to look at those posters because she realized that shes certainly not as attractive as those posters girls. In other words, to some extent, those beer commercials hurt her self-esteem and make her feel embarrassed of herself. So I was wondering if the hot girls, lets say Brianna Glenn, in Budweisers commercials giving the information to guys that they will be able to attract girls as beautiful as her if they drink Budweiser, then what are the posters trying to say to females, especially females who are not as beautiful and sexy as the cover girls? Dont drink the beer if you are not as hot as me? Or all the guys

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will only be interest in girls like me instead of you if they drink it? It makes perfect sense that those information express by the posters wont make females feel comfortable enough to try their beers. How can a company gain sale from a particular group of potential customers when they dont even want to take a look at its commercial? How can a girl want to try beer if she feels like she doesnt belong to the customer group and what the worse is that shes not even encouraged to be?

Citation: Eames, Alan D. "Beer, Women, and History." Real Beer Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://realbeer.com/library/archives/yankeebrew/93Sum/women.html>. "Beer Brands Use Premium Extensions To Attract A Strong Female Following." Marketing Week (01419285) 35.42 (2012): 7. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014 Bryson, Lew. "Getting Women to Drink More." Massachusetts Beverage Business. N.p., Feb. 2008. Web. http://www.beveragebusiness.com/archives/article.php?cid=1&eid=38&aid=32 5 Corzine, Nathan Michael. "Right At Home: Freedom And Domesticity In The Language And Imagery Of Beer Advertising 1933-1960." Journal Of Social History 43.4 (2010): 8

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S, Jessica G. "The Sexualization of Women in Beer Advertising." N.p., 6 Dec. 2012. Web. <http://womeninbeeradvertising.blogspot.com>. 43. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. Megna, Alexa. "The Beer Commercials Guide to Manhood." Sociology In Focus. N.p., 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. <http://www.sociologyinfocus.com/2012/02/06/the-beer-commercials-guide-t o-manhood/>.