You know how sometimes you keep meaning to blog about something, but you only remember it when you’re nowhere near a computer? Well, I’ve finally remembered something I’ve meant to blog about for a while, and I’m actually at a computer.
I really hate those Bud Light “Be Yourself” ads by Joe Phillips that appear in gay magazines. Apparently it’s okay to “be yourself” as long as you are ridiculously buff, wear tight-fitting clothes, and have perfect teeth and well-coiffed hair. In other words, you can “be yourself” as long as you look like a Chelsea clone. How utterly ridiculous.
Hey, no big deal. Gay men don’t have self-image problems, right?
They’re just ads, but they’ve pissed me off for a long time.
Now back to your regularly-scheduled whatever-you-were-doing-before-you-came-here.
Point taken.
However, ads pay for content (to a degree). And you’ve got to give Anheuser credit for trying to depict SOME gay men, which is more than most companies are willing to do.
Can you show me a beer ad in a straight magazine that doesn’t use young, buff models?
True. But my point is, I find the juxtaposition between the slogan and the drawings to be painfully ironic.
You’re right, but so’s Joe. It’s sad, but it’s real life.
You can be yourself as long as you’re a cartoon. Real people need not apply.
I’ll skip the Chelsea clones. Now if they had “Just be Tinman!” ads I’d be tempted to drink more Bud Light.
One example of “straight” beer ads featuring real-life-lookin’ men: Pilsner Urquell’s “I never tasted a real beer until…” (or whatever) campaign.
Didn’t make me wanna drink it anymore than I already do, but it’s out there. It’d be nice if one of them had some overt gay content, with an average-looking guy. I’d volunteer, but my agent says I’m busy shooting Calvin Klein’s new jeans campaign that week.
Actually, it sounds like the advert worked spectacularly well. Not only did you notice it, but it also prompted you to “share” the advertisement with fellow targeted consumers. Specific types of controversy are actively avoided in marketing campaigns, for sure, but the general notion is certainly a goal. You even provided a handy link. Mission accomplished.
rob@egoz.org
Hey, BTW, your improperly parsing the text for quotes so you can replace them before submitting in t-sql (or WordPress is?). IM me if you want some serverside code to properly do this.
I completely agree. Its not that the ads portray models who are buff, or toothy or even “Chelsea”. They’re just completely exclusionary of any other sort of person that doesn’t fit that imaginary mold. Its a world of 23 year olds with 4% body fat, and no out-of-place hair, least of all on their faces and chests. Yawn.
Did you see the Orbitz commercial with the gay couple pawing each other? Its kind of frightening but I thought, well, its a step anyhow.
People keep citing blatant stereotypes in the media as “well, at least it’s…there.”
I wonder if, 70 years ago, black people were listening to Amos n Andy and saying the same thing.