Summary: Budweiser’s new advertising campaign will certainly win awards from the social justice warriors that dominate the marketing industry. Rightly so, as it (inadvertently) points to one of the biggest of the many momentous changes in American society.
“Budweiser modernizes its old sexist ads for Women’s Day Campaign”
by E. J. Schultz at AdAge.
When it comes to objectifying women, the beer industry historically has been among the worst offenders. Ads often used barely clothed women to pitch light beer or portrayed women as nothing more than servants to their beer-swilling husbands. Things have gotten a lot better in recent years, with most big brands realizing that the tactics are not only offensive, but no longer work, as most modern women and men expect brands to be a lot more progressive. With a new campaign, Budweiser nods to that inglorious past to make a point about its future. The campaign, released today in conjunction with International Women’s Day, features full-page color ads in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times that juxtapose sexist Bud print ads from the 1950s and 60s with updated versions portraying women in empowered roles.
Of course the ads run the risk of reminding viewers that Bud, if you go back far enough, fed into negative stereotypes about women. But “for us, it’s all about using our past to really serve as a launch pad showing women in a more balanced fashion,” Budweiser VP for marketing Monica Rustgi says. As part of the effort, Anheuser-Busch InBev-owned Budweiser is publicizing the fact that women now comprise more than 80% of the brand’s marketing team. …
The agency and Anheuser-Busch InBev hired three female artists to handle the modernized print ads …. As part of the campaign, Budweiser announced it is joining the Association of National Advertisers’ “#SeeHer” effort, which aims for a more accurate portrayal of women in media and advertising. Rustgi confirmed that the brand will begin running its ads through the ANA-backed Gender Equality Measure testing …{to} score ads on how prominently they depict women.
—————————-
Most of the new ads run with the “you can have it all theme”, because good propaganda never goes out of style. But one strikes a realistic note, pointing to the post-marriage era now beginning.
The left advert shows grandmother’s life in the 1962 under the patriarchy. At 35, the middle class wife shown probably had a husband, children, and a house. The right advert shows her descendent’s life in the feminist 2020s. She will have a career as an assistant accountant or AVP at mega-corp (there are only a few spots at the top), live in a rental, have a double-digits number of “partners” (with the spiritual scars from the breakups) – and face the “wall” at which even pickups become difficult.
This is a tragedy in slow motion. So far intensive propaganda has concealed it, but I doubt that this can’t work for much longer.
I feel sorry for these women. The young men I know, living on the streets of this new world, feel no mercy for them.
“Marriage may well shrink significantly – I think it will – but it will not disappear.”
–– This counts as optimism today (it “won’t disappear”). By sociologist Mark Regnerus in Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy, based on a vast body of surveys and interviews.
Another perspective
What fraction of Budweiser’s customers are women? Will these ads gain enough new sales from women to offset sales from men? This is the same question raised by the thematic shifts by Marvel Comics, Marvel Films, and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars.
Perhaps that does not matter. The megacorps that dominate our economy act in concert, providing echoes – not choices. So they can focus on other issues, such as joining the great crusade to reshape American society. For example, Disney has an almost 30% market share in US films; the top three have a 55% share. Within limits, they need not care what we think.
For More Information
Hat tip on this to Dalrock. See his analysis of it here.
Ideas! For shopping ideas, see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Reforming America: steps to new politics, about marriage, and especially these …
- Marriage today – and its dystopian future.
- A look at America’s future after marriage becomes rare.
- Misadventures of a young woman in modern America.
- The disastrous results of trying to “have it all”.
- The coming crash as men and women go their own way.
- The coming crash of marriage: why, and what’s next.
- Millennial girls had a golden age. Gen Z’s inherit wreckage.
- Tucker Carlson says unmentionable things about marriage.
Two major books about modern marriage
The classic: Men and Marriage
Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream – and Why It Matters
