Those Miller Lite "Man Up" commercials - Page 2

Ah wow, ok. You wouldn't know it around here, Sam Adams is huge in Massachusetts. There are ads on TV all the time

Did you miss the latest ad campaign that explicitly points that out?

I must have. I have not watched TV in over a month. At my dad's house the circuit breaker for the downstairs cable tv blew and I can't bring myself to go down into the basement to fix it. There's an arachnid city down there to rival anything found on Klendathu. I've been subsisting entirely on videogames and DVDs since then, so no new commercials have come before my eyes

There's lots of Sam Adams in Massachusetts holy shit

I dunno about that. You could argue that the ED ads are just as silly with their imagery. It's not like the guy's walking around with a boner at the end of the ad.

Touche.

The lite beers are by no means delicious, but they get you where you need to be. Hard to pass up when your local bar has them on tap for a dollar or less on certain nights, and that's what usually brings the crowds.

For me with the big 3 it's bud lite > coors lite >>>> miller lite. Miller lite just tastes fucking awful to me compared to the others.

Now, I'd much rather drink something else than these beers but if I'm trying to drink on the cheap sometimes you have to make sacrifices. On the beach near where I live they will permit you to drink as long as you don't bring glass which definitely limits what you can bring there. I usually end up with PBR, bud lite lime, or Heineken.

One super annoying thing though, is when you meet a girl and introduce her to some beer other than the big three and she looks at it like it's some kind of alien object, as if she's never heard of any beer outside of what they sell at wal-mart.



I agree with all of this.

Gobblox, learn to love Yuengling. By far the best beer I can find in a can.

Dude, I LOVE Yuengling, but I have never seen it in a can!!!

Oh, something that pisses me off to no end: When a bar tries to pass off Yuengling as an import or "special beer" rather than a domestic. I FUCKING RAGE.

Also, add Yuengling as a beer that I have offered a female who has looked at it like it's an alien object. RAGE AGAIN. You wouldn't believe the amount of people I've run into who seem to have never seen a beer that wasn't Miller Lite, Bud, Coors, or Corona.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're not implying that girls at large don't know anything about beer.

Some of us do. Some of us won't drink Bud/Miller/Coors. Some of us make the special trip and pay the extra few dollars for a good IPA or heffe or whatever.

Whoa, Whoa, pump the brakes, son. You routinely meet women who both frequent Wal-Mart and are unfamiliar with non-mass produced beer? Maybe, you should, I don't know, aim higher?

I don't want to imply that. It's just that of the women I've known who even drink beer (a lot of them don't) I've met a few who do know and like more than this but annoyingly I've met more that turn their nose up at a beer outside of Bud/Miller/Coors/Corona (before even tasting it). Even a yuengling has had that effect.


What, "People of Wal-Mart" isn't a dating site?

Honestly, I'd find a girl who was disgusted at the thought of going into one of these fine establishments kind of annoying.

They engage in grotesquely immoral and unfair business and labor practices and their labor practices are kind of the epitome of the fucked up, Bizarro World version of socialism that corporate welfare in the States has become. Their contribution to the "health insurance reform" debate is kind of a prime example of that. I don't see how having a problem with giving custom to that is annoying.

Yes, but they have good deals on Blu-Rays!

You're right, those are legit arguments for not shopping in one. Never hear anyone articulate those reasons though, just "I like Target" with no other reasons behind it.

Jesus christ, beer snobbery is just as bad as being some PBR swilling hipster douche. This thread is irritating as fuck.

Anyways, these ads are notably bad offenders, the other current worsts probably being Dodge's most recent campaign (particularly the original superbowl ad narrated by Dexter) and that FloTV portable player commercial with the dude out shopping with his gf. They hardly even try to be covert about it, the tone of those commercials is seething, barely suppressed hatred for women.

But what JGButler points out is very true, it's probably harder to find advertising that isn't a little sexist on some level, or at the very least reinforcing gender stereotypes, than it is to single out the stuff that is. Ads geared specifically towards women or for products made for women are often just as bad as the "manly" bullshit like cars and beers, albeit in different ways. The ones that strike me as particularly hilarious/terrible are ads for food arbitrarily geared towards women, like Dove chocolate, pretty much any kind of yogurt, Betty Crocker "warm delights," etc.

OMG I feel dumb

I forgot to mention all this very relevant info

Last Saturday or Sunday night I went to Bennington VT with my dad (you can read about it here in this blog party post) to the MADISON BREWING COMPANY PUB*, which is a pub/micro brewery. I just ordered a cheeseburger and water with lemon, and he ordered a Corona and this awesome salad which ended up looking better than my burger. He said the beer was awful and refused to drink it and gave it to me. I squeezed the lime slice that came with it inside the bottle and it was pretty good. My dad next ordered a michelob light but then the waitress brought back two small glasses of other micro brewed beer (my dad had been very angry over the beer situation, that they only had michelob light and not regular) and he ended up getting one of those.

There were giant pipes and tanks and stuff at the pub BTW

*which you can read more about here

If Cuch would get over his snobbery for all things Midwest, he would know that some of the nation's best beer is located at the Great Lakes Brewing Company, who makes an amazing Holiday beer and a number of ales with clever titles. There is one named Burning River that is delightful. Unfortunately, I can't get it in the city and Magic Hat is way too popular so I usually drink Blue Moon.

I don't think that word means what you think it means

At first glance, I thought that they may be crazy Japanese ads. Too awesome.

And Cuch, do you have to turn every thread into a soapbox?

Seeing those Terry Crews ads one right after another is dangerous for your air supply.

I'm glad someone posted that link to the Terry Crews ads, there were a few in there I had never seen on TV (the one with riding the tiger!). Good stuff.

Those commercials made me think of ron burgundy indignantly saying "I'm a MAN"

agree'd



and lol at you americans and your 'beer'

These ads do nothing more than reinforce this old adage: What's the worst thing to call a woman? Cunt, whore, bitch, slut, etc. What's the worst thing to call a man? A woman.

It's sad that shit like this airs and people don't even flinch at what it implies.

Also see: "faggot". But yeah, I agree.

Do not drink it from a can. It's terrible. You can't compare it to Yuengling on tap or in a bottle. Now if you can't get it on tap or in a bottle then get the can. It's far better then that other crap you can order.

What pisses me off is that I can't get any in Indianapolis, I have to make a trip down to Kentucky to buy it. (the trip is well worth it) Hell as a wedding present from my Father in Law, he bought me 5 cases. Love that man.

And guess who gets called that? Men who exude so-called "feminine" qualities. It all ties back to the misogyny that is so deeply rooted in our society that people don't even notice it.

Yes, agreed. A type I find most loathsome is the shrill sweats-wearing wife-in-charge paired with her incredibly dumb and henpecked husband.

This one particularly pisses me off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRLYqP7ZoM

ding ding ding. winnar.

It cuts both ways, I find. Promiscuity, being unpleasant, and using the c-word to reduce a woman to her literal sex are all pretty big insults, but I'd argue that being called a man is considered an even bigger insult by women than being called a woman is an insult to a man.

At least when you get called "womanly" as a dude, it's often a backhanded compliment, i.e. it's a more passive-aggressive way of being called a "pretty boy." When a woman calls another woman even "mannish" it's pretty much taken that you're assigning the perceived worst traits of the male gender to her. She's ugly, hairy, overmuscled, and into women.

Simply put, I think the culture isn't so much misogynistic as it is geared to preserve the traditional understanding of men, women, and how they relate to each other as viciously as necessary. I think that's the whole reason that people who oppose gay rights are so comfortable with lying and shifting goalposts. At the end of the day, it's not about morality, religion, the infusion of "gay blood" into the culture or anything like that, it's ultimately about control and preserving the status quo.

Haha, somehow I knew what commercial it was before I even clicked the link. I still love Andrea Rosen though

Isn't that what most every conflict is all about really? And all the morality/religion/gayblood/whathaveyou are several of the ways you can customize such conflicts.

Unfortunately, the lengths advertisers have to go to in order to stand out from all competition trying to draw your attention means that we'll continue see these cheap BS tensions and conflicts mined for humor to sell you goods and services.

I've never personally experienced this meaning. It's always been a way to call a man out for being impotent, lazy, stupid, or weak.

I agree with this, with the caveat that the status quo is misogynistic. Thinking of our cultural heritage in regards to women's rights and the fact that equal pay is still an issue in 20-fragging-10 coupled with the consistent and constant objectification of women (on many more levels than just sexuality) convinces me that this is the case.

IMO, it's more than just trying to stand out. Stereotypes help companies predict consumer response. If stereotypes can be reinforced, predicted consumer response can be socially forced.

I'm not trying to tout a conspiracy theory, think emergent behavior.

I certainly agree with your theory. But I see it as more systemic to the way culture and marketing affect each other as opposed to anyone or any entity maliciously trying to do so.

The above sounds optimisticly cynical. Or cynically optimistic...

EDIT: Aaaand I just realized I missed you mentioning emergent behavior. Saw-ree!

Haha, I was trying to figure out a way to point that out without sounding like a total jerk!

BUT, with that being said, I do think a lot of the corporate mentality's rule set is purposefully malicious. For instance, in my business management class, we were given a scenario of a clinically depressed woman whose doctor forced her to continue working. In the scenario, the woman is causing her co workers to complain to you (the manager). The teacher asked us what we would do.

Well, I thought back to some of my experiences in the workplace and thought about what a soulless manager would do. The answer I gave was "document her behavior and complaints," to which the teacher reacted very positively. He was actually really impressed with me. He said we would want to "build a case against her" and "get rid of her." Because what I obviously want to do with a sick woman is take away her health insurance.

Anyway, you get millions of people with that kind of dehumanizing mindset working together and you're going to get business strategies that purposefully objectify and manipulate their consumer base. In my opinion. Which is not expert, obviously.

EDIT: Just realized this was a huge derail. Apologies!

I don't see it as a derail, but as strong indication that these Miller Lite ads simply spark discussion that easily expands into a larger view about the circumstances that give rise to such marketing. I think this thread could be easiliy combined with Prankster's thread about Hollywood Whitewashing, actually.

Great article!

EDIT: These might be good to post in this thread.

Can I just say that it really does my heart good to see this being discussed with such intelligence on this board? It's stuff like this that makes me glad to be a Chewer. I try to start a dialogue about this with some people and they stick their heads in the sand.

The comment about 4 female studio execs leading to no increase in female directors is sobering. Truly insidious.

Totally. The Old Spice people are definitely in on the joke. "I'm on a horse" never fails to crack me up.

The Miller Light commercials are pure misogynistic dreck.

I think the reception to the PRINCESS AND THE FROG can't be blamed on one thing in particular like gender. Could be partly cultural (AKA racial), could be mainstream audience's perception of 2D, could be release date or marketing, etc. I haven't seen it yet (my wife took my daughter), but could it be quality? Was it as good as ALADDIN or LITTLE MERMAID? I'd say the girl market is still very viable, Disney. Dora and Barbie are still going strong.

Despite a unique setting and a pretty awesome villain, the movie itself was just paper thin and generic. Not doubting there's probably a racial factor in there, but the movie simply wasn't anything to write home about to begin with.

Mulan did pretty well though, right? If there is a racial factor, is it because of the black people specifically then? Did feelings changed in the decade or so between the two films?

Quality-wise, I don't think the movie was particularly inferior to ones like Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. If anything, it was simply too similar to those past successes (other than the more contemporary setting and issues of race). There wasn't much to write home about because it was pretty much what we saw in the 90s.

Perhaps Mulan was different because it was more of an action/adventure/war movie as opposed to a fairy tale/princessy affair. Also, it had Chinese people in China doing Chinese things. To some people, it may as well be fantasy. But a black princess in New Orleans!? Noooo sir!

It's all about the four quadrants, really. Mulan had an appeal to everybody. Despite the bullshit excuse in that Salon article, The Princess and the Frog was still very much a stereotypically "girl's" movie.

It just so happened to be a generic stereotypically girlie movie with a black cast, in 2D.