Oh, yes, ladies and gents, it's almost time for that magical night of football that gets in the way of beer ads: yes, the Super Bowl. From the halcyon days of the "Bud Bowl" to the amazing body of Will Ferrell, the Super Bowl has brought us, year in and year out, mildly amusing 30-second spots hawking tasteless fermented corn-water. What will it be this year? I can't wait.
And catch this: not only the worst-written article ever (seriously, your standards have fallen, Chicago Tribune), but the headline sums up the poor content, to match: "Purdue Professor Says Alcohol Ads Are Confusing." A professor (yes, someone who supposedly wrote a dissertation, etc.) says that beer ads are weird, because they always tell you to drink responsibly but they are trying to sell beer, so if you got drunk they would be richer. See the problem? Geez, Chicago Tribune, you don't need to teach at Purdue to know that beer ads are full of contradictions, the least of which is their "drink responsibly" message. How about the "guy who drinks lots of beer all the time gets the hot model to go out with him" motif for a more confusing one?
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ReplyDeleteJust watched the documentary "Beer Wars," and there's a brilliantly sarcastic segment about beer advertising during previous Super Bowls. The director interviews CEOs of Miller, Coors (then two different companies; they hadn't yet merged) and AB, all of whom say that they are trying to offer an "innovative, fresh" product and market themselves "in new exciting ways" to the American public.
Then, the film cuts to beer commercials during an actual SuperBowl, which all promote the same style of beer (watered down lager) in the exact same way (guys getting whacked in the balls, beautiful blondes fighting, animals--frogs, dogs, horses--doing funny things).