(via Why the Coors Light "bra ad" is groundbreaking)
...Historically, women have been the objects, not subjects, of beer marketing. From the happy mid-century housewives who know just which beer brand to serve their husbands to the iconic 1990s’ Bud Girls, women are a part of beer insofar as they convince men to drink it. Whether they might want to purchase and consume beer themselves was irrelevant. And still not much has changed, even as the 21st century is well underway. With fits and starts, the world’s largest beer companies have alternately ignored women or brewed ill-advised, feminine beers for them.
When women are depicted drinking beer in commercials, it’s in social settings. I always read their beer drinking as a means to an end: to appear easy-going, to join in, to look cute to the men who are observing the fun. Women are hardly ever depicted enjoying beer together, without men, on their own terms, as an end in itself. In fact, I can’t recall a single instance of this in advertising—until the Coors Light bra ad...
an interesting perspective
